* Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, pt. 11, No. 890 bis; see also ch. xv. on ‘The Jews in Phrygia.’
t Textes Relatifs au Judaisme, p. 240. He thinks they must represent several years’ contribution; but as the two cities stand for all Asian Phrygia and great part of Lydia, it seems not at all impossible that they are the contribution of one year.
Adramyttium and Pergamum are the only other two places where Flaccus is said to have seized Jewish money.
puite free from any Judaizing character in the est, became strongly tinged with it in Phrygia. The Phrygians pari the 14th day of Nisan as the ae religious day, and seem to have called the festival Azyma, the Unleavened. There is every appearance that the reconciliation between Christians and Jews, which was one great aim of St. Paul’s work, was attained far more thoroughly in Phrygia than elsewhere.
Early Phrygian Judaic Christianity thus pre- sents a very remarkable character, which stands in the closest relation with the Pauline Epistles. Its development was arrested by the terrible per- secution of Diocletian, which seems to have raged with petal fury in that most thoroughly Chris- tianized of countries. As Eumenea was the most thoroughly Christian city, so Apamea was the most strongly Jewish; and they (so far as we can judge) were the greatest sufferers (certainly very severe sufferers) under Diocletian.
W. M. Ramsay.
PHYGELUS (Φύγελλος, WH Pires). Mentioned in 2 Ti 1 along with HERMOGENES (wh. see) as
among those in Asia who turned away from St. Paul ore his last imprisonment in Rome. The phrase ‘all they which are in Asia,’ proconsular
Asia that is, must be qualified in some way, known doubtless to Timothy, and may perhaps be best taken to mean, ‘ whose help I asked’ (ef. 2 Ti 4). We cannot tell what Phygelus refused to do, nor can we affirm with certainty that apostasy or declension from the faith is implied. Possibly he was asked to go to Rome to use some influence he had on the apostle’s behalf, and re- fused to admit that St. Paul had any such claims on him. The forcible language used makes it probable, however, that Phygelus was guilty of something worse than merely neglecting to visit the apostle in his imprisonment. W. Muir.
PHYLACTERIES, FRONTLETS.—Phylactery— so first in the Genevan Bible, 1557, in earlier versions Jilateris (Wyclif) and philateries (Tindale, ete.)— comes to us through the Vulgate from the Greek φυλακτήριον. In the Greek of the Ist cent. A.D. this word signified an amulet or charm, which possessed the property of protecting (φυλάσσειν) * the wearer against evil spirits and similar malign influences. Among favourite charms were slips of parchment, written over with a magical spell and placed ina case which was hung round the neck, hence also called περίαπτον, περίαμμα, synonyms of φυλακτήριον.
In His great anti-Pharisaic discourse (Mt 23'), our Lord charges the scribes and Pharisees with ostentation in the discharge of their religious and social duties, ‘for they make broad their phylac- teries (πλατύνουσι yap τὰ φυλακτήρια αὐτῶν), and en- large the borders of their garments (for which see FRINGES in vol. ii. 68 ff.), and love the chief places at feasts,’ etc. (Mt 23% RV). Now there has never been any doubt that the author of the first Gospel here uses φυλακτήρια, Which is not found elsewhere in the NT, as the equivalent of the contemporary Hebrew word j'psn, téphillin (plur. of spn ‘a prayer’), the name then, and by the Jews still, given to two small-cases of leather, to be described in the sequel, which were worn by the more ardent legalists of the time, one upon the forehead and the other upon the left arm. This practice, very considerably curtailed, however, is still regarded as one of the most sacred of religious duties by orthodox Jews of the present day (cf. opening paragraph of art. FRINGES).
In this article it is proposed to investigate the origin, history, and significance of the phylacteries,
* The perverted derivation still met with in some quarters
from φυλάσσων (τὸν vésecr), 08 if φυλακτήρια = observatoria, is now entirely abandoned by scholars.
870 PHYLACTERIES, FRONTLETS
and for this purpose, on the principle of proceed- ing from the more familiar to the less, we shall examine— 1. The practice of modern orthodox Judaism ; ii. The alleged Scripture warrant for this practice ; fil. The date of the introduction of the phylacteries ; iv. The manner and extent of the practice in NT times.
i. THE PRACTICE OF MODERN ORTHODOX JUDA- isM.—Every male Israelite above the age of thirteen years is required to ‘la’ (an, Mishna, Shebu. iii. 8, 11, ete.) the téphillin’—to use the technical expression—at daily morning prayer. To this extent the use of the phylacteries has been curtailed since NT times (see § iv. below). The téphillin or phylacteries are two in number, known since the earliest times as the head- phylactery (#8 $y bop) and the hand-phylactery (πὶ $y "R), and consist of two cubical leather boxes or cases, varying in size from 4 to 14 in. in the side. The material is the prepared skin of a clean animal which has been thoroughly soaked in pure water. A cube-shaped wooden block (pip [τύπος] Mishna, Kel. vi. 7) is employed to give the desired shape and size. To form the head-phylactery, three deep incisions (niy’yp) are made in the block, and the moist parchment spread over it and in- serted into the incisions. When the material has dried and hardened the block is removed, and a leather case of four compartments, technically ‘houses’ (0.53), is the result. Before this, how- ever, two shins (w) have been impressed on the soft leather, one with the ordinary three prongs on the outer wall of the ddyith, which, when the phylactery is complete, will be to the right of the wearer, and another with four prongs on the outer wall to the left. This fourfold case is now fitted with a leather brim, and into each ‘house’ is inserted a slip of epenelly, prepared parchment (nbp Shabb. viii. 3), having written on it, in a special caligraphy, one of the Scripture passages to be cited presently, and each bound round with a few white hairs of a calf or cow. A firm base is supplied by a square piece of thick leather, con- nected by a flap with the brim, and sewed to the latter by means of twelve stitches (representing the twelve tribes) of clean gut. The four passages of Scripture above mentioned are those which the Jews have always regarded as constituting their warrant for the use of the phylacteries (see ii. below), viz. Ex 131° 1346, Dt 6*® 1113-21. They are inserted in the four compartments in the order represented by the diagram—