But all their works they do for to be seen of
men
All their prayers, alms deeds, and fastings, were all done in a
public manner, that men might behold them, and they might have
applause and glory from them: they sought neither the glory of
God, nor the good of their fellow creatures, nor any spiritual
advantage and pleasure to themselves, in their performances; they
neither attended to moral duties, nor ceremonious rites, nor the
traditions of their fathers, any further than they could be seen
by men in them, and keep up their credit and esteem among them.
Hence,
they make broad their phylacteries:
these were four sections of the law, wrote on parchments, folded
up in the skin of a clean beast, and tied to the head and hand.
The four sections were these following, viz. the "first", was (
Exodus
13:2-11 ) the "second", was ( Exodus
13:11-17 ) the "third", was ( Deuteronomy
6:4-10 ) the "fourth", was ( Deuteronomy
11:13-22 ) . Those that were for the head, were written and
rolled up separately, and put in four distinct places, in one
skin, which was fastened with strings to the crown of the head,
towards the face, about the place where the hair ends, and where
an infant's brain is tender; and they took care to place them in
the middle, that so they might be between the eyes. Those that
were for the hand, were written in four columns, on one
parchment, which being rolled up, was fastened to the inside of
the left arm, where it is fleshy, between the shoulder and the
elbow, that so it might be over against the heart F21.
These, they imagined, were commanded them by God, in ( Exodus 13:16
) ( Deuteronomy 6:8 )
whereas the sense of these passages only is, that the goodness of
God in delivering them out of Egypt, and the words of the law,
should be continually before them, in their minds and memories,
as if they had tokens on their hands, and frontlets between their
eyes; but they understood them literally, and observed them in
the above manner. These the Jews call "Tephillin", because they
use them in time of prayer, and look upon them as useful, to put
them in mind of that duty: they are here called "phylacteries",
because they thought they kept them in the fear of God, preserved
in them the memory of the law, and them from sin; yea, from evil
spirits, and diseases of the body. They imagined there was a
great deal of holiness in, and valued themselves much upon the
use of them {w}; and the Pharisees, because they would be thought
to be more holy and religious, and more observant of the law than
others, wore these things broader than the rest of the people;
and enlarge the borders of their garments.
These were the fringes which they put upon the borders of their
garments, and on them a ribbon of blue, to put them in mind of
the commandments, to obey them, ( Numbers
15:38 ) ( Deuteronomy
22:12 ) . The observance of this law is of so much
consequence with the Jews, that they make all the commandments to
depend on it F24; and say, that it is equal to them
all, and that he that is guilty of the breach of it, is worthy of
death F25: they ascribe the like virtue to
these fringes, as to their phylacteries, and think themselves
much the better for the wearing them; and the Pharisees, because
they would appear with a greater air of sanctity and devotion
than others, made their's larger. We F26 read of one Ben
Tzitzith Hacceseth, a man of this complexion, who was so called,
because his Tzitzith, or fringes, were drawn upon, a pillow; and
there are some that say, that the pillow was bore between the
great men of Rome: it was drawn after him, not upon the ground,
but upon a cloth or tapestry, and the train supported by
noblemen, as is pretended. This was one of those, that enlarged
the Tzitzith, or fringes, beyond the ordinary size; hence Mark
calls it, "long clothing."