CLOTHED UPON

klothd, (ependuo, "to put on over" another garment): Used only in 2 Corinthians 5:2,4. In 5:4 in contrast with unclothed, compare 1 Corinthians 15:53 f, in which the idea of putting on, as a garment, is expressed of incorruption and immortality. The meaning here is very subtle and difficult of interpretation. In all probability Paul thinks of a certain envelopment of his physical mortal body even in this life ("in this we groan," i.e. in this present body), hence, the force of the prefixed preposition. The body itself was regarded by the philosophers of his day as a covering of the soul, and hence, it was to be clothed upon and at the same time transformed by the superimposed heavenly body. Ependutes, an outer garment, is used several times in Septuagint for me`il, an upper garment or robe (compare John 21:7).

Walter G. Clippinger

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.