My LORD’s BibleWhat Were Phylacteries and Tzitzit?
Two visible marks of Jewish law-observance in Jesus's day, both commanded directly by the Torah rather than invented by later tradition — and both appear in the Gospels, one worn by the Pharisees Jesus criticizes, the other on his own garment.
Phylacteries: scripture worn on the body
Phylacteries — tefillin, in Hebrew — are small leather boxes containing handwritten scripture passages, bound by leather straps to the forehead and the arm during prayer. The practice takes its command literally from the Shema passage itself (see the companion article on the Shema), which instructs binding God's words "for a sign upon thine hand" and "as frontlets between thine eyes."
The command phylacteries fulfill literally:
Deuteronomy 6:8
Read in full chapter →8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
See also: The Letter of Aristeas 6:48, Proverbs 7:3
Jesus does not condemn the practice itself, but the way some practiced it — turning a private discipline into a public display of piety.
His criticism, paired in the same breath with the fringes below:
Matthew 23:5
Read in full chapter →5But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
See also: Matthew 6:1, John 12:43
Tzitzit: fringes commanded to remember the commandments
Tzitzit are knotted fringes attached to the four corners of a garment, commanded in Numbers specifically as a visual aid — a physical reminder, every time the eye catches it, to keep God's commandments rather than follow one's own inclinations.
The command and its stated purpose:
Numbers 15:38–39
Read in full chapter →38Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
See also: Matthew 23:5, Deuteronomy 22:12
39And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:
See also: Psalms 119:37, Exodus 13:9
"The borders of their garments" that Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for enlarging in Matthew 23:5 refers to exactly these fringes — not the display of piety in general, but this specific practice made ostentatious.
The hem Jesus himself wore
The same word rendered "hem" in the Gospels is the border carrying the fringe commanded in Numbers — meaning Jesus, observant of the law, wore tzitzit himself. It is specifically that hem a suffering woman reaches for in the crowd, believing it alone would be enough.
Her reasoning, and the act itself:
Matthew 9:20–21
Read in full chapter →20And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
See also: Luke 8:43-56, Mark 5:25
21For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
See also: Mark 5:26-33, Luke 8:45-47
The same detail recurs later, generalized to a crowd:
Matthew 14:36
Read in full chapter →36And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.
See also: Matthew 9:20, Luke 6:19
The detail sharpens the point of Matthew 23: Jesus wore the same fringe the Pharisees wore, commanded by the same verse in Numbers — the criticism was never of the practice, only of wearing it to be seen.
Common questions
- What are phylacteries?
- Small leather boxes (tefillin) containing handwritten scripture passages, bound to the forehead and arm during prayer — a literal fulfillment of Deuteronomy 6:8's command to bind God's words as a sign on the hand and frontlets between the eyes.
- What are tzitzit?
- Knotted fringes attached to the corners of a garment, commanded in Numbers 15:38-39 as a visual reminder to keep God's commandments, with a blue thread woven into each fringe.
- Did Jesus criticize phylacteries and tzitzit themselves?
- No — he criticized wearing them ostentatiously, "to be seen of men" (Matthew 23:5), not the practices themselves, which he appears to have observed as his own garment's hem shows.
- Did Jesus wear tzitzit?
- The Gospels' word for the "hem" a woman with an issue of blood touches, and that a crowd later reaches for, refers to the same fringed garment border commanded in Numbers 15 — suggesting Jesus wore it himself.