A woman touched the FRINGE of Jesus' GARMENT. At his feet?

NIV, Deuteronomy 22:

12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

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Was this a full-body-length cloak?

of the cloak
כְּסוּתְךָ֖ (kə·sū·ṯə·ḵā)
Noun - feminine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 3682: A cover, a veiling
Strong's Hebrew: 3682. כְּסוּת (kesuth) — 8 Occurrences

H3682 was not that common. It was probably an upper-body-length cloak.

Brown-Driver-Briggs:

1. covering, clothing
2. covering for concealment

you wear.
תְּכַסֶּה־ (tə·ḵas·seh-)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 3680: To plump, fill up hollows, to cover
Strong's Hebrew: 3680. כָּסָה (kasah) — 152 Occurrences

English Standard Version:

You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

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Literal Standard Version:

You make fringes for yourself on the four skirts of your covering with which you cover [yourself].

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Something like this. Between two corners was the fringe.


NIV, Matthew 9:

20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak [G2440].

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English Standard Version:

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment [G2440].

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Strong's Greek: 2440. ἱμάτιον (himation) — 61 Occurrences

Was G2440 a full-body-length garment?

G2440-cloak was not specific, but Thayer's Greek Lexicon did not think so:

1. a garment (of any sort)
2. the upper garment, the cloak or mantle (which was thrown over the tunic, ὁ χιτών) (Rutherford, New Phryn., p. 22): Matthew 9:20; (xxiv. 18 L T Tr WH);

Pulpit Commentary:

every Israelite, by reason of the prescription (Numbers 15:37, sqq.; Deuteronomy 22:12), had to wear at the four corners of his upper garment.

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The woman came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his garment on his back, not at his feet.

Parallel account in (NIV) Mark 5:

24b A large crowd followed and pressed around him.

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It was unlikely that the woman bent down and touched his garment at his feet.

27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak [G2440], 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes [G2440], I will be healed.”

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Later, a group of sick people did similarly in Matt 14:

34 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick 36 and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

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