Coat
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G1903 names an outer garment or coat. Its one governed New Testament occurrence is John 21:7, where Simon Peter wraps the garment around himself before jumping into the sea after hearing that the person on shore is the Lord.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐπενδύτης (G1903) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1903 names an outer garment or coat. Its one governed New Testament occurrence is John 21:7, where Simon Peter wraps the garment around himself before jumping into the sea after hearing that the person on shore is the Lord.
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include outer garment (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 21:7. Its strongest book concentrations include John (1).
G1903 names an outer garment or coat. Its one governed New Testament occurrence is John 21:7, where Simon Peter wraps the garment around himself before jumping into the sea after hearing that the person on shore is the Lord. John explains that Peter had been without that outer garment while working. The noun identifies the item of clothing; it does not state why Peter put it on, whether the action expressed respect, modesty, haste, or another motive.
The wider chapter narrates recognition, arrival, breakfast, and Peter's later conversation with Jesus, but those events must not be loaded into the garment word itself.
John 21:7 contains the sole local G1903 occurrence. The beloved disciple recognizes Jesus, Peter hears the announcement, puts on or wraps around himself the outer garment he had removed for work, and enters the water. The detail contributes to the vivid sequence of recognition and response. It does not create a clothing rule or provide direct access to Peter's inner motive.
As soon as Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had removed it, and he jumped into the sea
This is the sole direct lexical occurrence. The sentence names the garment, Peter's action, and the narrative sequence, but it does not explicitly interpret his motive.
The other disciples came to shore in the boat
The next verse contrasts Peter's entry into the water with the others' arrival by boat. It is immediate narrative context, not another G1903 use.
Jesus told them, Come, have breakfast
The meal scene confirms the recognized Lord's welcome and provision. It belongs to the wider episode rather than the lexical meaning of the garment.
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. Outer garment worn over the inner tunic, a functional layer of clothing in first-century dress.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a coat, outer wrap
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 1 case and number pattern. 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.
ἐπενδύτης is built from this root:
The safest teaching value of G1903 is narrative attentiveness. John gives a specific garment detail at the instant Peter responds to the beloved disciple's recognition of Jesus. That detail makes the scene concrete, but it does not tell readers what Peter thought. A preacher may describe the sequence: recognition is announced, Peter takes up the outer garment he had removed for work, and he enters the water while the other disciples bring the boat ashore.
The wider chapter then moves to Jesus' provision and Peter's restoration. Those themes arise from the episode as a whole, not from an etymology or symbolic meaning hidden in the coat. Keeping that distinction allows the small detail to do its real work. It witnesses to a remembered scene and a particular response without becoming a dress code, a rule for approaching God, or a psychological diagnosis of Peter.
John.21.7
G1903 is a masculine accusative singular noun in John 21:7, serving as the object of Peter's action. It denotes an outer garment or coat. The grammar identifies the clothing item and its role in the sentence but does not encode respect, modesty, impulsiveness, or restoration.
Biblical narratives often preserve clothing details that locate people within work, travel, worship, or public life. Such parallels can help readers notice embodied settings, but they do not create additional G1903 evidence or authorize symbolic interpretation. This companion remains governed by John 21:7.
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Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain