Tefillin Mythology – Layer Cake

 

 

Nehemiah Gordon has shown that the rabbinic concept of Tefillin is a false one, which is not implied by the Torah: http://www.nehemiaswall.com/tefillin-phylacteries

I would like to add a further argument.  The rabbis claim that the verse, eg in Deut 11

18:  “and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes”  refers to the 2 parts of the tefillin , arm and head segments.

If that were the case, there would actually be 4 segments altogether. This is because the first part of this verse states that there should be 2 other segments, for the heart and for the soul:

יח  וְשַׂמְתֶּם אֶת-דְּבָרַי אֵלֶּה, עַל-לְבַבְכֶם וְעַל-נַפְשְׁכֶם; וּקְשַׁרְתֶּם אֹתָם לְאוֹת עַל-יֶדְכֶם, וְהָיוּ לְטוֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֵיכֶם.

18 Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

 

This would mean there are 4 tefillin segments overall!  Of course there has never been such a physical version of the 4 segments. It would be especially difficult to have a soul tefillin.  They could be pendants for example, or body type parchments.

However, the absence of these 3^rd and 4^th tefillin actually demonstrate the origin of tefillin itself to be of a human and rabbinic nature.  Presumably it was too difficult for the imagination to create these extra segments.  Thus the tefillin was something that evolved, and archaeological evidence only goes as far back as the early Phariseeic period.