Robe
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
G4749 names a robe, often a long or distinctive garment whose visibility can communicate status, celebration, or heavenly gift. Mark 12:38 records Jesus warning about scribes who enjoy walking in long robes and receiving public greetings.
Reader summary
Full entry for στολή (G4749) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4749 names a robe, often a long or distinctive garment whose visibility can communicate status, celebration, or heavenly gift. Mark 12:38 records Jesus warning about scribes who enjoy walking in long robes and receiving public greetings.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include robes (4), robe (3), long robes (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 12:38. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (5), Luke (2), Mark (2).
G4749 names a robe, often a long or distinctive garment whose visibility can communicate status, celebration, or heavenly gift. Mark 12:38 records Jesus warning about scribes who enjoy walking in long robes and receiving public greetings. Luke 15:22 places the best robe on the returning son as part of the father's public welcome and celebration. Revelation 6:11 gives white robes to slain witnesses who are told to rest while justice remains incomplete.
Revelation 7:9 sees a multinational multitude before the Lamb wearing white robes. The robe itself is not morally fixed. It can serve status performance, restored honor, visionary identity, or other ordinary and ceremonial functions. G4749 helps teachers examine what visible clothing communicates and who supplies its meaning. Jesus criticizes leaders whose robes support recognition-seeking alongside exploitation, not every formal garment.
The father in Luke acts generously, but the parable should not be pressed into an unqualified rule for every unsafe family reunion. Revelation's robes are given within symbolic visions centered on the Lamb; their color does not validate racialized purity language or human prestige.
G4749 ranges across status-seeking robes, a father's celebratory restoration, an angelic figure, and the white robes of Revelation's witnesses and worshiping multitude. The garment's significance comes from wearer, giver, setting, and narrative action.
In His teaching Jesus also said, “Watch out for the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, to receive greetings in the marketplaces,
Jesus warns against scribes who desire long robes and marketplace greetings, placing visible religious status inside a larger indictment that includes devouring widows' houses.
But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
The father orders the best robe placed on the returned son as part of an immediate public welcome with ring, sandals, feast, and restored household recognition.
Then each of them was given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers, were killed, just as they had been killed.
Slain witnesses receive white robes and are told to rest while they await the completion of God's just purposes, joining honor to patient unresolved longing.
After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
The innumerable multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue stands before the Lamb in white robes, making shared worship compatible with enduring human diversity.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. A flowing garment signifying dignity, honor, or festive occasion; often marks status or ceremonial importance
A flowing garment signifying dignity, honor, or festive occasion; often marks status or ceremonial importance
(στέλλω), [in LXX chiefly for בֶּגֶד, also for לְבוּשׁ, etc. ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a long robe
Read versea long robe
Read versea long robe
Read versea long robe
Read versea long robe
Read versea long robe
Read versea long robe
Read versea long robe
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
στολή is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G4749 makes visible honor available for moral examination. In Mark 12, long robes belong to a pattern of desired recognition. Jesus' warning does not isolate clothing from conduct; it joins visible status, privileged seating, lengthy public prayer, and the devouring of widows' houses. The problem is leadership performance that conceals exploitation. Luke 15 gives a robe the opposite narrative role.
The father does not leave the returning son in visible disgrace but orders the best robe, ring, sandals, and feast. The gift dramatizes welcome, yet responsible application must remember that a parable of divine joy is not a command to restore unsafe people to every household role without truth or repair. Revelation's white robes come from God within visions shaped by suffering and the Lamb.
The slain witnesses receive honor while still waiting, and the great multitude stands together across nations and languages. White here belongs to visionary cleansing and victory; it must never be racialized or converted into human hierarchy. Across these texts, a robe can expose vanity, enact welcome, or signify granted identity. Churches should examine ceremonial dress and titles by the justice surrounding them, offer restoration without bypassing accountability, and honor suffering people without turning their pain into pageantry.
Visible symbols are truthful only when the life and giver named by the passage interpret them.
Mark.12.38
G4749 is a Greek noun for a robe or apparel, often a flowing or distinctive garment. The noun can mark social visibility or ceremonial dress, but color, moral value, and symbolic meaning come from modifiers and narrative context.
Old Testament robes can identify office, status, celebration, mourning, or prophetic symbolism. The New Testament occurrences of G4749 retain that social visibility while placing it under Jesus' critique of exploitative honor, the father's welcome, and Revelation's Lamb-centered hope.