χιτών (chitṓn) names a tunic, a basic garment worn close to the body beneath or instead of an outer cloak. Luke 3:11 makes a spare tunic a concrete measure of abundance that can be shared with someone who has none.
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Full entry for χιτών (G5509) · Open the biblical lexicon
χιτών (chitṓn) names a tunic, a basic garment worn close to the body beneath or instead of an outer cloak. Luke 3:11 makes a spare tunic a concrete measure of abundance that can be shared with someone who has none.
The BSB source-word alignment has 11 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tunic (5), [It] (1), [the] tunics (1), clothes (1), clothing (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:40. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), John (2), Mark (2), Matthew (2).
G5509 names a tunic, a basic garment worn close to the body beneath or instead of an outer cloak. Luke 3:11 makes a spare tunic a concrete measure of abundance that can be shared with someone who has none. Matthew 5:40 names the tunic in Jesus' teaching about a lawsuit and the surprising relinquishment of an outer cloak as well. John 19:23 records soldiers dividing Jesus' garments and handling His seamless tunic at the crucifixion.
Acts 9:39 shows widows displaying tunics and other clothing Dorcas made while they grieve her death. The noun is materially specific, but the passages place it within generosity, vulnerability, dispossession, violence, labor, memory, and care. G5509 does not make poverty romantic or command people to remain exposed to abuse. Jesus' nonretaliatory teaching must be interpreted with His wider concern for justice and without giving aggressors unrestricted access.
The crucifixion text centers the soldiers' action against Jesus, not speculative symbolism in the tunic's construction. Acts honors Dorcas's skilled service and the widows' testimony without reducing her life to unpaid production.
G5509 appears in instructions about travel and sharing, sayings about legal seizure and nonretaliation, the high priest's torn tunic, Jesus' crucifixion, and Dorcas's remembered work. A basic garment becomes a concrete measure of need, loss, and embodied care.
John replied, “Whoever has two tunics should share with him who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.”
John names a second tunic as shareable abundance and pairs clothing with food, making repentance visible in material care for a person who lacks necessities.
If someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well;
Jesus imagines a lawsuit seeking a tunic and calls for a startling response involving the cloak as well, exposing grasping conflict without authorizing continued abuse or abolishing every legal protection.
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided His garments into four parts, one for each soldier, with the tunic remaining. It was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
At the crucifixion the soldiers divide Jesus' clothing and preserve the seamless tunic from being torn, showing material dispossession within His public humiliation and death.
So Peter got up and went with them. On his arrival, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood around him, weeping and showing him the tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
The widows show Peter tunics and other clothing Dorcas made, allowing tangible work and communal grief to testify to relationships formed through her service.
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. Inner garment worn next to skin, distinguished from ἱμάτιον (outer cloak).
Inner garment worn next to skin, distinguished from ἱμάτιον (outer cloak).
the garment worn next the skin (though two tunics were sometimes worn, see Swete, Mk., 117), a tunic: Mat.10:10, Mrk.6:9 14:63, Luk.3:11 9:3, Ju 23; dieting. from ἱμάτιον (which see), Mat.5:40, Luk.6:29, Jhn.19:23, Act.9:39 (see DCG, i, 338, 340, 499)
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
Read versea tunic, garment, undergarment
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 3 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 4 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
χιτών is of foreign origin - no further derivation.
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G5509 keeps discipleship close to the body. John the Baptist does not define repentance only as inward remorse; a person with two tunics can see the neighbor who has none and share. The example is modest and searching because the extra garment is countable. Matthew 5 places the tunic in a legal conflict where Jesus describes a response that refuses the opponent's controlling logic.
This text can confront possessiveness and retaliation, but it must not be turned into a standing order for victims to surrender safety or permit exploitation. John 19 shows Jesus deprived even of clothing as soldiers divide His garments during crucifixion. The seamless tunic is real narrative detail, but the Gospel does not explicitly make its construction a doctrine of ecclesial unity or magical holiness.
Acts 9 gives clothing another weight. The widows' tunics bear witness to Dorcas's labor and to relationships marked by practical care. Their grief should not be used merely to praise productivity; it reveals a beloved member whose work touched lives. Together these passages ask what clothing means when someone has none, when law can seize it, when violence strips it away, and when skill provides it.
Faithful application shares necessities, pays and honors labor, protects dignity, and refuses to demand self-exposure as proof of spiritual surrender.
Luke.3.11
G5509 is a Greek noun for a tunic or shirt-like garment, often distinguished from an outer cloak. That distinction matters in legal, travel, and crucifixion settings, but ancient clothing arrangements should not be forced into an exact modern wardrobe equivalent.
Old Testament law protects necessary garments and repeatedly treats clothing as provision, pledge, office, mourning, or symbol. G5509 continues the concrete concern for bodily covering while locating tunics in repentance, Jesus' teaching, His crucifixion, and the church's practical care for widows.