ἐπενδύτης

From the study of John 21:7

Range of meaning

A garment worn over something else, or over the body as the outer layer. The word is built on epi ("upon") and enduō ("to dress"). It does not specify cut or material.

Against the English

BSB has "outer garment," close to the word's build. KJV has "fisher's coat," which adds "fisher's," a word not in the Greek. WEB has "coat," and NLT has "tunic," although a tunic was normally the layer underneath.

How it drifted

"Coat" now suggests a jacket with sleeves worn for warmth, and that makes the scene seem strange. The Greek gives no such picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used only here in the New Testament. In the Greek Old Testament it is the robe Jonathan strips off and gives to David (1 Samuel 18:4) and the garment worn by the king's virgin daughters (2 Samuel 13:18), neither of them a work garment. The medieval Greek commentator Theophylact is reported as describing a linen wrap worn by Phoenician and Syrian fishermen, which may lie behind the idea of a fisherman's garment, but that is a late witness.