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Old 08-26-2013, 10:38 AM   #1
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Default Scriptures written on doorposts and gates

The Law of Moses commanded the Jews to write verses from the law onto the doorposts of their houses and on the gates to their yards.

Do archeologists find this in the archeological record, assuming the doorposts were made of rock or stone?
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Old 08-26-2013, 11:03 AM   #2
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Josephus apparently says that the Jews had already been putting mezuzahs on their doorposts in his day:

http://www.chabad.org/library/articl...nd-Customs.htm

Edited to add: my apologies. The Josephus reference given on this and several other websites does not show that Jews were using mezuzahs in the first cent. CE, as the website claims, but refers to Moses' giving the commandment about it.
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Old 08-26-2013, 12:20 PM   #3
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Mezuzahs were in use before tefillin, which was discussed here a few months ago.

The evidence for mezuzot preceding tefillin is that the Samaritans use mezuzahs but not tefillin.

The most famous Samaritan mezuzah is the Los_Lunas_Decalogue_Stone

As the Samaritan style has them as engravings in the wall, we can probably assume that teflillin didn't come into use until someone figured out that the words could be written onto little scrolls and these put into boxes.

We get archaeological remains of Tefillin around the time of the dead sea scrolls and before the first century CE. The Samaritan examples of mezuzot are much earlier.
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Old 08-26-2013, 12:26 PM   #4
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Among all Jewish people I know, mezuzahs are put on the doorpost of someone's dwelling. Tefillin are attached by leather straps; men put them on themselves to pray.
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Old 08-26-2013, 12:36 PM   #5
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The Samaritans don't use phylacteries. They don't understand that anyone was supposed to write and tie things to people and objects. Neither did the Jews of the Bar Kochba revolt. This was a new innovation of the proselytes who became Jews in the late second century. In other words, it derives from a misunderstanding.
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Old 08-26-2013, 12:59 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ficino View Post
Among all Jewish people I know, mezuzahs are put on the doorpost of someone's dwelling. Tefillin are attached by leather straps; men put them on themselves to pray.
I sat next to a Jew on a plane who took out a small block with symbols, tied it to his forehead with straps, and then covered his head with a black cloth.
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Old 08-26-2013, 01:17 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ficino View Post
Among all Jewish people I know, mezuzahs are put on the doorpost of someone's dwelling. Tefillin are attached by leather straps; men put them on themselves to pray.
I don't know if your comment was directed at mine but,

the similarity between the two is that they both have biblical verses put into the inside of their respective compartments.

As I mentioned, the Samaritan practice of physically writing the inscription above the door seems to pre-date the concept of writing the verses on little pieces of parchment and putting them into something. Since the technology for doing this is important, we can probably say with confidence that the use of mezuzot became traditional before tefillin.

The commandment to use tefillin is much less clear than the commandment for mezuzot.

One possible criticism of my comment is that I'm not sure any BCE mezuzot have been found, but I'm hoping nobody will notice that.

Stephan makes a comment which surprised me but I'm assuming is correct about Bar Kochba and tefillin. Tefillin have been found in DSS type sites which are pre-CE but it is not clear to me how widespread the custom was.
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Old 08-26-2013, 02:07 PM   #8
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Does anyone here besides myself actually put on tefillin every morning??
The Karaites evidently inherited a tradition of the Saduccees and/or Samaritans that takes the references to "totafot"symbolically rather than as explicit objects transmitted throughout the generations.
I think I have someone's thesis somewhere that analyzes the tefillin of Qumran, with parchment verses that basically resemble the one's I use, while others are completely different.
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Old 08-26-2013, 06:35 PM   #9
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Philo took the passage in the Samaritan manner - allegorically:

Quote:
The law says it is proper to lay up justice in one’s heart, and to fasten it as a sign upon one’s head, and as frontlets before one’s eyes, figuratively intimating by the former expression that one ought to commit the precepts of justice, not to one’s ears, which are not trustworthy, for there is no credit due to the ears, but that most important and dominant part, stamping and impressing them on the most excellent of all offerings, a well approved seal; (138) and by the second expression, that is is necessary not only to form proper conceptions of what is right, but also to do what one has decided upon without delay. For the hand is the symbol of actions, to which Moses here commands the people to attach and fasten justice, saying that it shall be a sign, of what indeed he has not expressly stated, because it is not a sign as I conceive of one particular thing, but of many, and I may also say, of everything with which the life of man is concerned. (139)And by the third expression, he implies that justice is discerned everywhere as being close to the eyes.

Moreover he says that these things must have a certain motion; not one that shall be light and unsteady, but such as by its agitation may rouse the sight of the spectacle manifest before it; for motion is calculated to attract the sight, inasmuch as it excites and rouses it; of, I might rather say inasmuch as it renders the eyes awake and sleepless.
Philo clearly talks about a tangible ‘mezuzah’, not unlike the ones used by Samaritans to this day. Interestingly one line is taken literally the other allegorically.
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Old 08-28-2013, 05:42 AM   #10
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My impression is that both commandments were not taken literally until second temple times.

The Tefillin commandment

Quote:
Deut 6:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת, עַל-יָדֶךָ; וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת, בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ.

Where the translation of לְטֹטָפֹת as "for frontlets" is hardly obvious.

This word (totafot Strong's H2903) appears only three times in the bible Exod 13:6, Deut 6:8, and Deut 11:18.

By contrast

Quote:
Deut 6:9 And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
וּכְתַבְתָּם עַל-מְזֻזוֹת בֵּיתֶךָ, וּבִשְׁעָרֶיךָ.

מְזֻזוֹת appears many times and is door posts. Mezuzah (singular Strong's H4201).

If one is going to take this literally, it is, at least, easy to do.

כְתַבְתָּם Khtavtam - you shall write (or inscribe, engrave) (Katav Strong's 3788) is often taken as inscribe or engrave during sermons, so the commandment seems to make the most sense to write it into the door post as opposed to sticking into a little case, etc.
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