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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

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PHYLACTERY*

Small prayer case containing Scripture passages worn at times of prayer by pious Jews. Orthodox Jewish males wear two small, black leather cubes or boxes, with Scripture inside, at the time of prayer.

In its original form the phylactery was probably not a box containing Scripture but a strip of parchment on which four passages from the OT were written in Hebrew. The passages were Exodus 13:1-10 and 11-16, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, and 11:13-21. The Deuteronomy 6:4-9 passage contains the “Shema”—the confession of God being one Lord. All four passages contain the idea that God commands his people to bind his ordinances and commandments upon their hands and have them as “frontlets” between their eyes. Some Jews took this figuratively or spiritually and did not actually wear them. Other Jews took the command literally and began wearing portions of their Scriptures on their foreheads and on their hands. Exactly when they began to do this is not agreed upon by scholars. There is an explicit mention of the practice as early as 100 BC in a Jewish nonbiblical document. It is thought by some to have begun as early as the fourth century BC, if not earlier.

In Matthew 23:5 Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for, among other things, making “broad their phylacteries.” The context of the passage is Jesus’ condemnation of ostentation in religion. Apparently, the broad phylactery would impress others with how religious the wearer was. It was evidence of pride, pretense, and hypocrisy in religion.

See also Amulet; Frontlet.