StrongerBible

peribolaion

περιβόλαιον

GreekG4018“covering, cloak, ...”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Co 11:15Heb 1:12
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradepeh-ree-BOH-lie-onnoun

What peribolaion means

a covering: an outer garment thrown around the body, such as a wrap, cloak, or mantle

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This word names something thrown around the body: an outer garment, a wrap, a cloak, or a mantle. Across many centuries of Greek writing its meaning barely shifts. It always points to some kind of covering, and it stretches easily from a poor man's only cloak to a king's purple robe, a bed cover, or a curtain. In the Greek Old Testament it regularly translates the ordinary Hebrew word for a covering (כְּסוּת).

The New Testament uses it only twice, and both times it reaches beyond everyday clothing. In Hebrews it pictures the created heavens as a worn-out cloak that God will roll up and exchange, set right beside the common word for a garment (ἱμάτιον). In First Corinthians, Paul says a woman's long hair is given to her as a covering, a natural counterpart to the cloth head covering he has been discussing.

A related but narrower word is the veil worn over the face or head (κάλυμμα); this word is broader, naming a covering of any kind rather than a veil in particular.

1Co 11:15Heb 1:12
1Co 11:15

Whether περιβόλαιον at 1 Corinthians 11:15 carries its ordinary meaning, a covering or wrap, or the anatomical sense "testicle" proposed by a minority.

  • majorityThe word keeps its standard sense, a covering or wrap. A woman's long hair is a natural covering that either parallels or stands in for the cloth covering Paul discusses; the exegetical questions are the force of ἀντί and the social conventions of Roman Corinth, not the meaning of the noun. This is the reading of every standard lexicon and the great majority of commentators.; Mark Goodacre, "Does περιβόλαιον Mean 'Testicle' in 1 Corinthians 11:15?," JBL 130.2 (2011): 391-96; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, First Corinthians (AYB 32; Yale University Press, 2008), 421; Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, Keys to First Corinthians: Revisiting the Major Issues (Oxford University Press, 2009), 180
  • minorityThe word means "testicle": Paul argues from an ancient reproductive physiology in which head hair and testicles are functional counterparts, so a woman's hair is treated as genital tissue that must be covered in worship. On this reading Paul's appeal to nature becomes coherent, and the modern requirement of head coverings may lapse once the physiology is seen to be obsolete.; Troy W. Martin, "Paul's Argument from Nature for the Veil in 1 Corinthians 11:13-15: A Testicle Instead of a Head Covering," JBL 123.1 (2004): 75-84; Troy W. Martin, "Περιβόλαιον as 'Testicle' in 1 Corinthians 11:15: A Response to Mark Goodacre," JBL 132.2 (2013): 453-65

What scholars say about peribolaion

Every major lexicon (LSJ p. 1369; BDAG p. 800; Louw-Nida section 6.162) assigns περιβόλαιον a single core sense, that which is thrown around, a covering, wrap, cloak, or mantle, documented across classical, Hellenistic, medical, and papyrological Greek and matched by roughly a dozen Septuagint occurrences rendering כְּסוּת, לְבוּשׁ, מַעֲטֶה, and related nouns. At Hebrews 1:12 the author cites Psalm 101(102):27 LXX with the preferred reading ἑλίξεις ("roll up"), judged the harder reading by Metzger, to picture the heavens as an outer garment God rolls up and exchanges; so Attridge and Ellingworth. At 1 Corinthians 11:15 mainstream commentary (Fee, Thiselton, Garland, Keener) keeps the sense "covering" and debates only the force of ἀντί ("instead of") and the social setting of Roman Corinth, dividing on whether the hair is an analogue to the artificial covering or a substitute for it. Troy Martin (JBL 2004, with a 2013 response) proposed the sense "testicle," resting on Euripides Herc. fur. 1269 and Achilles Tatius 1.15.2 together with an ancient reproductive physiology. Mark Goodacre (JBL 2011) rebutted the lexical basis, noting that both texts are plural and read by every published translator as clothing metaphors and that the ordinary word for testicle was ὄρχις; Fitzmyer, Murphy-O'Connor, Massey, and Westfall concur, amounting to a near-consensus against the proposal.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford, 1940), p. 1369, s.v. περιβόλαιονlexicon
  • BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (Chicago, 2000), p. 800lexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), section 6.162lexicon
  • Mark Goodacre, "Does περιβόλαιον Mean 'Testicle' in 1 Corinthians 11:15?," JBL 130.2 (2011): 391-96article
  • Troy W. Martin, "Paul's Argument from Nature for the Veil in 1 Corinthians 11:13-15: A Testicle Instead of a Head Covering," JBL 123.1 (2004): 75-84article
  • Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1989), 61-62commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1993), 128-29commentary
  • Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, 1994), ad loc. Hebrews 1:12reference
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, First Corinthians (AYB 32; Yale University Press, 2008), 421commentary
  • Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, Keys to First Corinthians: Revisiting the Major Issues (Oxford University Press, 2009), 173, 180monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of περιβόλαιον

accusative n s

περιβόλαιον

Heb 1:12

genitive n s

περιβολαίου

1Co 11:15