[114] _Scalig. de emend. temp. lib. 7. Idem refert Epiphan. lib. 1. Tom. 1. cap. 13._
5. _They fasted twice in the week_, _Luke 18. 12._ Namely,[115] _Mundays_ and _Thursdays_. Because _Moses_ (as they say)[116] went up into the Mount _Sinai_ on a _Thursday_, and came down on a _Munday_.
[115] _Theophylact. in Luke 18. 12. It. Epiph. hær. 16._
6. _They made broad their Phylacteries, and inlarged the borders of their garments_, _Matth. 23. 5._ Here three things are worthy our consideration. First, What these _Phylacteries_ were. Secondly, What was written in them. Thirdly, Whence they were so called. _Epiphanus_[117] interpreteth these _Phylacteries_ to be πλατέα σήματα πορφύρας, _purple studs, or flourishes, woven in their garments_: as if _Epiphanius_ had conceived the _Pharisees_ garment to be like that which the _Roman Senators_ were wont to wear, termed, by reason of those _broad-studs_ and _works_ woven in it, _Laticlavium_: but seeing that these _Phylacteries_ were additaments and ornaments, whereof there were[118] two sorts, the one tied to their _Fore-heads_, the other to their _Left-hands_; hence it followeth, that by these _Phylacteries_ could not be meant whole garments, or any embosments, or flourishings woven in the cloth. Generally they are thought to be schedules or scroles of parchments, whereof, as I noted, there were two sorts; _Phylacteries for the Fore-head_, or _Frontlets_, reaching from one Ear to the other, and tied behind with a thong; and _Phylacteries for the hand_, fastned upon the Left-arm above the Elbow on the inside, that it might be near the heart. Both these sorts were worn, not by the _Pharisees_ only,[119] but by the _Sadduces_ also, but with this difference; The _Pharisees_, haply for greater ostentation, wore their _Hand-Phylacteries above their Elbows_: the _Sadduces on the palms of their Hands_.[120] Nay, all the _Jews_ wore them, our _Saviour Christ_ not excepted. The command was general, _Exod. 13. 9._ It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes. So that it is not the wearing of them which our _Saviour_ condemned, but the making of them broad, whereby they would appear more holy than others.