σάκκος

From the study of Revelation 11:3

Range of meaning

Rough cloth, usually of dark goat hair (compare Revelation 6:12, the sun 'black as sackcloth'), or a garment or sack made of it. Worn in mourning for the dead, in national lament under disaster, in repentance and fasting, and sometimes as the rough clothing of prophets.

Against the English

Most versions keep 'sackcloth.' The NLT's 'burlap' gives a modern material but loses the fixed symbolism, since nobody now knows burlap as the clothing of grief and repentance. 'Sackcloth' is accurate, but its meaning has to be explained to modern readers.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jacob mourning Joseph (Genesis 37:34). Nineveh's repentance at Jonah's preaching (Jonah 3:5–8). Isaiah wearing sackcloth before going stripped as a sign (Isaiah 20:2). Daniel praying 'in fasting, sackcloth and ashes' (Daniel 9:3). Jesus: Tyre and Sidon 'would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes' (Matthew 11:21). Elijah is 'a hairy man with a leather belt' (2 Kings 1:8, often read as a hair garment), and Zechariah 13:4 mentions the prophet's 'hairy cloak.' John the Baptist wore camel hair (Mark 1:6).

From the study of Revelation 6:12

Range of meaning

Sakkos comes from the Semitic word saq (Hebrew שַׂק), which is also the source of English 'sack'. It means coarse cloth used for grain sacks, and the rough garment worn by mourners, penitents and prophets. Trichinos means 'made of hair'. In the Levant this cloth was usually woven from the hair of black goats, the same material as the dark tents of Kedar in Song of Songs 1:5.

Against the English

Modern readers picture 'sackcloth' as tan burlap or jute, so 'black as sackcloth' can seem odd. The ancient cloth was dark and rough, so it worked naturally as a picture of blackness. The BSB and NIV add 'goat', which correctly supplies the background. The NLT's 'black cloth' keeps the color but loses the sense of mourning.

How it drifted

English 'sackcloth' came to suggest whatever sacks are made of today (hessian, jute), and those are light-colored plant fibers rather than black animal hair.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jacob tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth for Joseph (Genesis 37:34). Nineveh repents in sackcloth (Jonah 3:5–8). Isaiah 50:3 is the closest parallel to this verse: 'I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering' (LXX: 'I will set as sackcloth its covering'). Revelation 11:3 dresses the two prophetic witnesses in sackcloth. The Latin Vulgate renders the phrase saccus cilicinus, 'Cilician hair-cloth', after the goat-hair cloth for which Cilicia in Asia Minor was famous.

From the study of Matthew 11:21

Range of meaning

A Semitic loanword (Hebrew śaq, the root of English 'sack'). It is coarse, dark cloth woven from goat or camel hair, used for sacks and also worn as a garment of mourning, fasting and repentance. It was often wrapped round the waist next to the skin, uncomfortable on purpose. It is usually paired with ashes or dust (spodos).

Against the English

'Sackcloth' is accurate. As far as can be confirmed, the NLT has 'burlap', which gets the texture right but suggests modern jute rather than dark goat-hair. In modern English 'sackcloth and ashes' has become a half-ironic idiom for showy contrition, while in the text it is a sincere and costly act.

How it drifted

The idiom survives in English, but its seriousness has faded.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jacob mourning Joseph (Genesis 37:34). Nineveh's whole population and its king, who 'sat in ashes' (Jonah 3:5–8). Mordecai and the Jews facing extermination (Esther 4:1–3). Daniel's confession for Israel 'with fasting, sackcloth and ashes' (Daniel 9:3). Nehemiah 9:1. Isaiah 58:5. In Second Temple literature, Aseneth repents in sackcloth and ashes before turning to Israel's God (Joseph and Aseneth 10). Revelation's two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth (Revelation 11:3).