That dress code plays a role in promoting specific motives and behaviour, is evident from events such as the Academy Awards known as the Oscars. The first Oscars were hosted on the 16th May 1929. Besides the honour that befall the winners, the evening glitters with the attire of the actors and actresses. They are envied and admired for their magnificent evening wear. This however, is not unique to modern society. In Genesis 37:3, we read that Jacob made a coat of many colours for his son Joseph. The Hebrew words read: ketonet passim. The word ketonet appears twenty- nine times in the Old Testament. References are found in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Job, Nehemiah, 2 Samuel, Ezra, Songs of Solomon, and Isaiah. The Hebrew word ketonet means coat and passim, many colours.
When these two words are mentioned, the incident of Jacob giving his son, Joseph, a coat of many colours, immediately comes to mind. Joseph was the oldest son of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob, counting backward from when he left Egypt to return to his country, must have been ninety-one years old when Joseph was born. It is for this reason that Jacob gave Joseph the coat of many colours, because he was the son of “his old age.” Joseph was seventeen years old when his father gave him the coat.
How many colours there were in the “coat of many colours,” is purely speculative. The only other place that these two words appear together, is in the narrative of Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:18. Amnon was David ‘s first born son by his wife Ahinoam and first in line for the throne of Israel. Tamar was Absolom’s sister. Amnon deceitfully got David to send Tamar to bring him food under the auspices that he was ill. He raped her and then despised her. Afterwards, Amnon called his servant to accompany her out of the room. The narrative then explicitly makes mention of her ketonet passim, a robe of many colours, which was the traditional attire, according to the text, worn by the virgin daughters of the king.
The description here does not include any mention of colours, and it still leaves the reader unable to make any conclusion about Joseph’s coat of many colours. However, in both incidents, the coat distinguished the person who wore it. Joseph’s coat distinguished him from his brothers, as the son that Jacob loved. Tamar’s robe distinguished her as a virgin.
Further insight into the robe or tunic can be ascertained from the clothes that God made for Adam and Eve after they sinned and realised that they were naked. It is germane to the understanding of this coat, to look at the Hebrew words.
Genesis 3:21 states that God made for them katenot כְּתֹנֶת ohr ע֖וֹר. Katenot is the plural form of the word ketonet, robe. The Hebrew word ohr, here, is translated as skin. God made them a tunic or coat of skin. The word ohr ע֖וֹר, in this text, is an alliteration and wordplay of the word ohr א֑וֹר, which is the word used in Genesis 1:3 when God said, “Let there be light, ohr.” The word in Genesis 1:3 is spelt א֑וֹר. The two words are distinguished by the first letters of the words. The one word is spelt with an aleph א֑, and the other with an ayin ע֖. Further insight is obtained by looking at the Hebrew pictographs. Each Hebrew letter has a pictograph. The aleph is a picture of the strong leader, the vav a picture of a nail, which speaks of joining one object to another, the resh is a picture of a man’s head and the ayin is a picture of an eye. The word ohr therefore “joins man either to God or to his own insight.”
Contrasting these two words, ohr, with the aleph and ohr, with the ayin, it explains that ohr spelt with the letter ayin, indicates that man is no longer joined to the strong leader, the aleph, but rather does what seems good in his own eyes, the ayin. This is exactly what Adam and Eve said, they saw that the tree was good to eat from, ate and disobeyed the Word of God. This was not the will of God.
The letter of John states that “ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world, 1 John 2:16.” When the eye of man is on his own desires, instead of God, as was the case in the garden of Eden, man sins. The katenot ohr that Adam and Eve were clothed with, reflected their behaviour, their disobedience.
However, God created man for the praise of His glory. This required a changed of garment and atonement for sin. As part of the consecration of the priests, Moses had to put a coat, ketonet הַכֻּתֹּ֖נֶת, on Aaron and tie a sash around his waist and put the ephod , a breastplate, on him wherein the Urim and Thummim were placed, Leviticus 8:7-9. The word Urim is the same word used in Genesis 1:3 and is therefore the light. The Thummim is derived from the Hebrew word taman, which means complete and blameless and by inference, the truth. The priest wore these garments when they made atonement for sin.
Adam and Eve, when they sinned became naked. This did not so much refer to their physical nakedness, but spiritual blindness. Jesus in Revelation 3:18 said: “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”
The white garment was paid for on the cross of calvary. Jesus is the blameless Lamb of God Who was given as a sacrifice for sin, the second Adam Who is the light of the world and the Way, the Life and the Truth.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the book of Hebrews, to keep the eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. He wrote to the Colossians to put on hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And to the Ephesians, to fasten the belt of truth, and to put on the breastplate of righteousness, the garment embroidered with the Light and the Truth, Jesus.
Send your truth and your light, let them lead me, Psalm 43:3.
