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Bible Encyclopedias
Phylactery
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (φυλακτήριον , a receptacle for safekeeping), a small square box, made either of parchment or black calf-skin, in which are enclosed slips of parchment or vellum with Exodus 13:2-20; Exodus 13:11-17; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 6:13-22, written on them, and which are worn on the head and left arm by every strict Jew on week-day mornings during the time of prayer.
1. Name and its Signification. — The Greek term (φυλακτήριον =phylactery, is a later expression used in the N.T. for the O.T. word טוֹטֶפֶת, plur. טוֹטָפֹת, "frontlets," which is rendered תְּפַילַּין., prayer- fillets, by the Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos and Jonathan b.-Uzziel, as well as by the unanimous voice of Jewish tradition. It is now generally agreed by lexicographers that, according to the analogy of בָּבֶל, which stands for בִּלְבֵּל, and כּוֹכָב : which stands for כָּבְכָּב , and which are formed by the reduplication of the chief two radical letters, טוֹטֶפֶת stands for טָפְטֶפֶת, from טו, to bind round (Ewald, Lehrbuch der Iebarischen Sprache, § 158, c), ant that it denotes a tie, a band, a frontlet. The Sept. in all the three instances in which עני ִלטוטפת בין occurs (Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8; Deuteronomy 11:18), renders it by ἀσάλευτον πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν σου, a fixture before thine eyes. with which Symmachus and Theodotion agree. The rendering of Aquila, εἰς ἀτίνακτα , obr ain inwmovable (comp. Montfaucon, Hexapla, nota ad vers.), is to the same effect.
Philo (2:358), however, translates it σειόμενα πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν , and afterwards adds that it is to be a constant- pendulum (σάλον ἐχέτω ταῦτα κινούμενον) to summon the sight by its motion to a very clear inspection. Herzfeld (Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 2:224) infers from this that Philo must either have read σάλευτον in the Sept., or taken the a before it as intensitive, and assigns to טו the sense of to move backwards and forwards, vindicating for טוטפות the meaning of pendulum, pendent ornament. Herzfeld, moreover, maintains that this rendering is more in harmony with the little houses, or square boxes, constituting the phylacteries, and that it escapes the following objections to the current rendering of it by binding round: (1) In the phylacteries the box in the front is the principal part, and not the strap round the head which holds it; and (2) the טוטפת is to be "between the eyes," which does not tally with forehead tie (Stirnbinde). The name תפילין, prayer-fillets, by:which the Chaldee paraphrases and the Syriac version render טוטפות, and which is the common appellation for the phylacteries among the Jews to the present day, owes its origin to the fact that the phylacteries are worn during prayertime. Hence the plural תפילין has the masculine termination to distinguish it from the feminine תפילות, which denotes prayers, just as the plural masculine תהלים denotes psalms, in contradistinction to the fem inine plural תהלות, praise.
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