a belt or sash worn around the body: the band that gathered a long robe in at the waist, and the place a traveler kept his coins
Ancient clothing hung loose and long, and a belt was what made it workable. It pulled the robe in so a person could walk fast, run, or bend to a job. The verb for putting one on (περιζώννυμι) is behind the old English phrase "gird up your loins," which means nothing more mysterious than tucking the robe into the belt so you are ready to move.
What the belt was made of said something about the wearer. John the Baptist wore a leather one over camel hair, in Matthew 3:4 and Mark 1:6, and readers who knew their scriptures would have caught the echo: Elijah is described the same way in 2 Kings 1:8, with a leather belt (אֵזוֹר) around his waist. The clothing is part of the claim that a prophet in the old mold had come back.
Because it was worn tight against the body, the belt was also the safest place to keep money. That is why Jesus can tell his messengers to take no copper "in your belts" in Matthew 10:9 and Mark 6:8: the belt there is doing the work of a wallet, and the instruction is about traveling with nothing to fall back on, not about what to wear. Greek had ordinary words for a purse (βαλλάντιον) and a traveler's bag (πήρα); this word points instead to the money carried on the body.
Two uses stretch the word further. In Revelation the belt is gold and is worn high across the chest rather than at the waist, on the figure like a son of man in 1:13 and on the seven angels in 15:6. A band worn there cannot be for hard work, so it functions as a mark of standing, the way a chain of office does. And in Acts 21:11 the prophet Agabus takes Paul's own belt and ties his own hands and feet with it, turning an everyday piece of clothing into a picture of the arrest waiting in Jerusalem.
Nuances
What the golden sash worn high across the chest in Revelation 1:13 signifies: the sash of the Israelite priest, or the dress of a ruler.
- contestedThe high golden band recalls the priestly sash of Exodus 28 and, together with the Daniel 10:5 background, presents the figure as both priest and king.; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999)
- contestedA golden band worn at chest height belonged to the dress of Hellenistic rulers and high officials, so it marks royal dignity rather than priestly office.; D. E. Aune, Revelation 1-5, Word Biblical Commentary 52A (Dallas: Word, 1997)