TEPHILIM,1 or Tepilim, otherwise Totaphot,2 Frontals or Phylacteries, which the Jews used at their Morningprayer, and some Devotees put them on also at Evening-prayer: But, except the Chanter, there were but few that put them on then. See the Description that Leo of Modena gives of them,3 which we have inserted under the Article Phylacteries. The Jews took the Commandment of God in a literal Sense, when he bid them wear the words of his law as a sign upon their forehead; and so should always wear them. But, that they might not expose themselves to the Raillery of the People, and to preserve the Respect due to so sacred a thing, they only wear them at the Leo of Modena, ch. 5.times of Prayer.
The Jews heretofore wore square Cloaks or Mantles, at the four Corners of which hung a Tuft, which they called Zizith. They intended to distinguish themselves from other Nations by this Habit. Instead of this, they now wear a square Piece of Stuff under their Cloaths, with four Strings and four little Tossels at the four Corners. This is what they call Arbah Casoth. When they are at the Synagogue at Prayers, they take a square Veil, with four Tufts at the Corners, which Veil they call Taled. Some put it about their Necks, and others cover their Heads with it. See Taled.
Then they put on their Telephim, or Frontlets. They held these Telephim or Phylacteries so sacred, that some of them persuade themselves even God himself wears them at his Head and Arms as well as the Jews. And this is not one of those Allegories, under which their Doctors conceal a figurative Sense;4 for they maintain, that when God permitted Moses to see him behind, he only had a mind to shew him the Knot of the String that tied the Telephim to his Head; and that the Face which he refused to discover to this Legislator, was properly, truly, and substantially the Face of God. This is only with a Design to extol the Original and Excellence of their Telephim.
And they are not in the wrong to refer the Original of them to God himself, if we are to take those Expressions of Moses in a literal Sense: And thou shalt bind them for a Deut. vi. 8, 9.Sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as Frontlets between thine Eyes; and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and on thy gates. As these last Words are taken literally, which relate to the Words of the Law, which were to be wrote upon the Posts of the Houses; so the Command of wearing them upon their Fore-heads must not be understood as a mere Allegory. ‘Tis observed, that as the Pagans wore their Phylacteries, or Amulets, upon several parts of their Bodies, so God commanded his People to wear Telephim upon their Fore-heads and their Arms, to put them in mind of the Law of God, and to divert his People from the superstitious abuse of the Talismans and Phylacteries of the Pagans.
But St. Jerome maintains, in which he is followed also by several learned Commentators, that the Words of Moses are to be understood in a figurative Sense, and that the ancient Jews did not otherwise understand them: And it is only since the time of the Pharisees that they were taken in a literal Sense. Jesus Christ did not absolutely condemn the use of the Telephim, but he blamed the Affectation of the Pharisees, who must needs wear them much larger and broader than other Men; I mean, than other Men that wore them, for it is not probable that all Men wore them in general. See the Commentators upon Matth. xxiii. 5.
Read this article in its place on the printed pages