Phylacteries

Phylacteries (Hebrew tefillin) were small leather boxes containing portions of Scripture, bound to the forehead and the arm. They arose from the command to keep God’s words ever before the people: “thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.”

The intent was beautiful — to keep God’s law literally close to mind and action, an aid to constant remembrance and obedience. Worn rightly, they were a humble token that one’s thoughts and deeds belonged to the LORD.

But Jesus rebuked those who had turned the aid into advertising: “they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,” doing their works “to be seen of men.” The phylactery becomes a warning that outward devotion can curdle into vanity — that the danger is not in the reminder itself, but in wearing religion for the eyes of others rather than the heart of God.