Nazaroo
New member
Early European skeptical attacks on the bible used the reference to "phylacteries" (tefillin)
in Matthew as evidence of later date of composition, reflecting trends of Diaspora Jews
in the 2nd and 3rd centuries (after the Jewish/Roman Wars, c. 70-150 A.D., and
after the 'Reformation' of Judaism and the finalization of the Mishnah and Talmudic traditions i.e., 300 A.D.).
However, the Dead Sea Scrolls shed much light on early Jewish practices,
including the use and style of tefillin.
Tefillin are small leather 'boxes' with straps, tied to the wrist and worn on the forehead,
and which contain small copies of key O.T. scriptures.
Modern tefillin look like this:
The tefillin found among the Dead Sea Caves (circa 250 B.C. to 60 A.D.)
look like this:
The ancient Tefillin appear to be smaller, and may indicate a trend among some Jews to
'enlarge' their adornments as a mark of elite inclusion in the Temple cult.
It is likely that Jesus' tefillin which he must have donned when teaching in the Temple courts
was similar to these ancient versions.
in Matthew as evidence of later date of composition, reflecting trends of Diaspora Jews
in the 2nd and 3rd centuries (after the Jewish/Roman Wars, c. 70-150 A.D., and
after the 'Reformation' of Judaism and the finalization of the Mishnah and Talmudic traditions i.e., 300 A.D.).
However, the Dead Sea Scrolls shed much light on early Jewish practices,
including the use and style of tefillin.
Tefillin are small leather 'boxes' with straps, tied to the wrist and worn on the forehead,
and which contain small copies of key O.T. scriptures.
Modern tefillin look like this:
The tefillin found among the Dead Sea Caves (circa 250 B.C. to 60 A.D.)
look like this:
Spoiler
The ancient Tefillin appear to be smaller, and may indicate a trend among some Jews to
'enlarge' their adornments as a mark of elite inclusion in the Temple cult.
It is likely that Jesus' tefillin which he must have donned when teaching in the Temple courts
was similar to these ancient versions.
Qumran Phylacteries Reveal Nine New Dead Sea Scrolls Bible and archaeology news Noah Wiener • 03/19/2014 ... After discovering a new Dead Sea Scroll text by conducting a CT scan on a phylactery from Qumran, Ariel University scholar Yonatan Adler began to look for additional tefillin texts. According to a recent Times of Israel article, Adler’s quest took him to the Dead Sea Scroll lab at the Israel Museum, where he discovered additional rolled up tefillin texts inside fragments of phylactery cases. 
Plate 212 in the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls digital library shows a Hellenistic/Roman-era tefillin fragment from Qumran cave 4. Photographer:Shai Halevi The extensive Dead Sea Scroll collection is undergoing a thorough imaging project, and once the new Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the Qumran phylacteries have been unrolled, they will be translated and digitized before being preserved in climate-controlled environments. The process of unrolling a delicate Dead Sea Scroll can be complex, and similarly delicate techniques have been used to unroll other ancient rolled texts, including a gold leaf containing the ‘Shema Yisrael and the silver scrolls from Ketef Hinnom. The Dead Sea Scrolls date from around 250 B.C. to 68 A.D. and were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek; they contain Biblical and apocryphal works, prayers and legal texts and sectarian documents. While these new Qumran fragments are not likely to reshape our understanding of the Biblical text, the existence of phylacteries containing Biblical verses underscores two millennia of continuity in tefillin tradition. |
