Camel’s Hair
Camels Hair
( ), a material of clothing. John the Baptist was habited in raiment of camels’ hair (Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6), and Chardin states that such garments are worn by the modern dervishes. There is a coarse cloth made of camels’ hair in the East, which is used for manufacturing the coats of shepherds and camel-drivers, and also for the covering of tents (Harmar, Obs. 2:487; comp. Elian, Nat. Hist. 17:34). It was doubtless this coarse kind which was adopted by John. By this he was distinguished fromthose residents in royal palaces who wore soft raiment. Elijah is said in theEnglish Bible to have been a hairy man (2Ki 1:8); but it maymean a man dressed in hair that is, camels’ hair. In Zec 13:4, a rough garment that is, a garment of a hairy manufacture is characteristic of a prophet. (See Manufactures of the Ancients, N. Y.1848, p. 312 sq.; Hackett’s Illustra. of Script. p. 96.)
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Camel’s Hair
CAMELS HAIR.See Camel, Dress, 1.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Camel’s Hair
( , trches kamelou): In Mat 3:4 and Mar 1:6 the description of John’s raiment is explicit to the extent of telling the kind of hair of which his raiment was made. It is probable that his garment was made of a tawed camel skin, for the more expensive woven camel’s hair garment would not be in keeping with the rest of the description. It is still common among the poor in some parts of Syria, when a camel or other animal dies, to remove its skin and, after treating the inner surface to stop decomposition, to make it up into various domestic articles. The writer once saw a peasant dragging a skin along the road which proved to be that of a donkey which had just died on the route. His intention was probably to make it up into a cloak. Some believe that Elijah’s mantle was of camel’s hair (2Ki 1:8; compare Zec 13:4). Of that we cannot be sure, for in the East today the hairy garment is usually goat’s hair or wool either woven or still clinging to the skin. It was much more likely to have been one of these latter. See SHEEP TENDING. Camel’s hair, when woven into fabrics, as in rugs, makes an article of even softer and more glossy texture than wool. See WEAVING.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Camel’s Hair
mentioned Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6. John the Baptist, we are told, was habited in a raiment of camel’s hair; and Chardin assures us, that the modern dervises wear such garments; as they do also great, leathern girdles. Camel’s hair is also made into those beautiful stuffs, called shawls; but certainly the coarser manufacture of this material was adopted by John, and we may receive a good idea of its texture, from what Braithwaite says of the Arabian tents: They are made of camel’s hair, somewhat like our coarse hair cloths to lay over goods. By this coarse vesture the Baptist was not merely distinguished, but contrasted with those in royal palaces, who wore soft raiment, such as shawls or other superfine manufactures, whether of the same material or not.