Can Christians Wear Fabric Woven Of Two Different Types?
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, November 20, 2025 (Donate)
All passages NKJV or NAS
Introduction
This question comes up from time to time—usually from the secular side as a way of putting Christians on their “back feet”. There is an Old Testament law that says:
‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not … wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.’ (a portion of Leviticus 19:19, NAS)
Some mistakenly think this applies to the mixing of all threaded materials used for garments. Secularists, sometimes even mockingly, call Christians out for being “sinners” for wearing the common cotton-polyester mixture that permeates our society. I had an unbeliever tell me that on the phone once.
However, another passage later clarifies what is meant. Moses, who authored both passages by the power of the Holy Spirit, stated in Deuteronomy:
"You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.” (Deuteronomy 22:11, NAS)
In the book of Ezekiel, this is confirmed even for Priestly garments.
“And
it shall be, whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall
put on linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister within
the gates of the inner court or within the house. “They shall have linen
turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not
clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. (Ezekiel 44:17-18,
NKJV)
If there was any confusion, there shouldn’t be any longer. This is specifically about not mixing wool and linen. Linen comes from the flax plant (its fibers). Wool comes from sheep.
Theological Understanding
Dr. John Gill, in the 1700s, points out that ancient Jewish traditional understanding was strictly wool and flax:
“the Jewish tradition is, nothing is forbidden on account of divers kinds (i.e. in garments) but wool and flax;”[1]
Gill goes on to discuss the spiritual aspect of this law too. He says,
“the design of this, as of the other, seems to be in general to caution against unnatural lusts and impure mixtures, and all communion of good and bad men, and particularly against joining the righteousness of Christ with the works of men, in the business of justification: Christ’s righteousness is often compared to a garment, and sometimes to line linen, clean and white; and men’s righteousness to filthy rags, Re 19:8 Isa 64:6; which are by no means to be put together in the said affair; such who believe in Christ are justified by the obedience of one and not of more, and by faith in that obedience and righteousness, without the works of the law, Ro 5:19 Ro 3:28 4:6; to join them together is needless, disagreeable, and dangerous.”[2]
Even into the 1600s, John Trapp pointed out that Jews still didn’t wear wool and linen together.[3] Interestingly, the science of wool and linen being a bad mixture is confirmed today. Their physical structure makes weaving them together difficult as well: wool fibers are short and crimped, while linen fibers are long and smooth, leading to uneven weaving tension, slippage, and a coarse, unstable fabric.
These factors also reduce the garment’s overall performance because wool is designed to insulate by trapping air, while linen cools by transferring heat away. A combined cloth fails to do either well, undermining both warmth and ability to breath. Popular commentators Jaimeson, Fausset, and Brown pointed out in the later 1800s,
“and the observations and researches of modern science have proved that "wool, when combined with linen, increases its power of passing off the electricity from the body. In hot climates, it brings on malignant fevers and exhausts the strength; and when passing off from the body, it meets with the heated air, inflames and excoriates like a blister" [WHITLAW]. (See Eze 44:17,18).”[4]
The Science Of Wool And Linen
Wool and linen fibers
behave very differently on a scientific level, which creates major problems
when they are mixed in the same garment. For example, one is very coarse with
certain properties and the other is very fine with different properties and
they two have problems staying woven due to useful wear, fiber physics,
durability, and behavior under stress.
It’s not at all like a cotton-polyester mixture which actually work well (polyester is a synthetic manmade polymer material). Wool is highly elastic and changes size a lot with moisture and temperature; it can stretch quite a bit when wet and returns to its original shape as it dries.
Linen, by contrast, has precious little elasticity and hardly stretches at all. When woven together, the expanding and contracting wool pulls against the rigid linen, causing the fabric to warp, twist, break, and wear out quickly. This mismatch also leads to uneven stress on the fibers, making seams tear and can cause the garment to be misshapen over time.
Their thread shrinkage rates also differ quite a bit. Wool easily shrinks when exposed to heat or in water, while linen barely shrinks once woven (even in thread form). In blended fabric, the wool wants to contract while the linen resists, and this causes puckering, wrinkling, and even structural damage.
Also, linen is extremely strong—especially when wet—while wool becomes weaker in moisture and water. When mixed, the stronger linen threads take the stress load, causing the wool fibers to break down more rapidly and the entire garment can fail quickly.
The fibers also differ in electrical and thermal behavior (as mentioned by Jaimeson, Fausset, and Brown). Wool accumulates static electricity easily, while linen does not. This imbalance causes separation within the fabric, static cling, and fiber breakdown in dry conditions. Okay, enough about the science (you can probably tell I’m an engineer!)
A Clothing Dilemma
Back to the point—God was right all along about not mixing these two specific fabrics. And there may be spiritual aspects like what John Gill pointed out. But using one passage to clarify and understand the other passage solves the alleged behavioral inconsistency that secularists commonly suggested Christians have regarding the two fabrics.
If I may, the secularists hurling these claims have a bigger problem. Their inconsistency is revealed when they walk around in public and wear clothes. Wearing clothes is a Christian doctrine from a literal Genesis chapter 3. When secularists wear clothes, they are being inconsistent with their professed religion of secular humanism (think evolutionism, naturalism, materialism, etc.).
When they argue that man is just an animal and yet, defy the fact that critters don’t wear clothes on their own, it shows in their heart of hearts that they know that doctrine of clothing is a true belief. They just can’t justify it within their own religion and must borrow it from God’s Word—whether they realize it or not.
Unbelievers don’t wear clothes "just to keep warm" either—there are plenty of months where it is warm enough not to wear clothes. Yet, they wear clothes and thus, undermine their professed secular view.
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Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist
since 1998 helping out in various churches and running an apologetics website.
He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and
researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers News. He was also head
of the Oversight Council.
Bodie launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a
personal website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has
spoken on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
