PHYLACTERIES

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 2, 1872

Professor Hitchcock, of the Union Theological Seminary, is a member of the American Branch of the Palestine Exploration Society, and has brought back from the Holy Land, among other curiosities, some well-preserved phylacteries, which are thus described by the Evening Post:

Phylacteries—the common Greek word for amulets—were worn very generally by the Jews at the commencement of the Christian era. They consist of a narrow strip of parchment, about eighteen inches long, on which are carefully written in unrolled Hebrew, four passages from the Old Testament—(Exod. 13: 2–10, 11–17; Deut. 6: 4–9, and 13–22). The strip is rolled up, and placed in a little leathern box, one inch and a half square, which is then bound to the left elbow by cow-hide straps, half an inch wide, and long enough to be wound spirally about the arm down to the base of the middle finger. There is a smaller phylactery for the forehead, the box for which is scarcely an inch square. It has also a leathern fillet, which is tied at the back of the head, and then brought around to the breast.

When Christ reproved the Pharisees for making broad their phylacteries (Matt. 23: 5), he doubtless alluded to their custom of increasing this smaller box, so as to make its diameter three or four inches, and conspicuously wearing it over the eyes to attract the attention of the multitude. The original use of these phylacteries was, probably, to serve as reminders of the law. Except by the Pharisees, who paraded them on all occasions, they were worn only at times of prayer.