SPINNING, the art of drawing out and twisting natural fibers into a continuous thread is mentioned in both OT and NT. Its origins are lost in deep antiquity. The remains of the Paleolithic age show signs of sewing and stitching, and it is quite possible that spinning was known from the remote ages. The later bone needles are light and fine with finely drawn eyes, so that they may have been used for spun fibers rather than for sinews or raw hide thongs. In the archeological sites vegetable fibers are the earliest, particularly cotton and flax. It may well be that spinning was originated in the ancient river valley cultures where these fiber plants were domesticated and grown. The earliest pre-mechanical devices were the hooked stick used as a spindle and the receiving stick or distaff. Such were usually made of wood and few have survived from antiquity except as illustrated on tombs. The other type of spinning device, the spindle whorl, a small torus of stone, not much larger than a spool is often found in Palestinian sites. It may be that the rare term Heb. כִּישׁﯴר, H3969, actually refers to the spindle whorl (Prov 31:19). The verb meaning “to spin” appears only in Exodus 35:25, 26, in the context of the Israelite offerings of material and labor for the Tabernacle. In Israel it was the custom for women to do the spinning. The rabbinic tradition records the amazement of the Jews to find Babylonian men spinning. The legal lit. of Judaism also records the types of threads spun, and their uses in the Tabernacle and Temple construction and coverings. In the NT the term νηθω, “to spin,” is used only in the illustration of the lilies of the field (Matt 6:28; Luke 12:27). It is used in the LXX to tr. the Exodus passages and is a secondary form of the classical Gr. term for “to spin,” νεω. The NT LXX word is not Attic in origin and may be a common Hel. term. It is at least a very late form and is known from some papyri. The Gr. art of spinning is depicted in a number of vase paintings, and is referred to both in prose and poetry by a large number of classic authors including Euripides and Aristophanes. As in the Jewish culture, it was a woman’s responsibility. Its use in the NT sermon of Christ, where it is connected with the notion of “toil” was apt in any level of Near Eastern society where spinning was a necessary and constant task.