Did Jesus wear tefillin?

Question

Tefillin¹ are boxes containing Torah verses, worn by Jews on the head and the upper arm, in accordance with instructions in Exodus 13:9, 13:16, and Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18. There is a great deal of commentary in the Talmud and elsewhere about exactly how this should be done.

Jesus says that the Pharisees were ostentatious in their wearing of tefillin - Matthew 23:5 (NIV) reads:

Everything they do is done for people to see: they make their phylacteries¹ wide and the tassels on their garments long.

It seems from Mt 9:20, 14:36, Mk 6:56 that Jesus may have worn the same kind of fringes or tassels (tzitziyot), similarly commanded in the Law, albeit presumably his were not as long as those of the Pharisees.

Would Jesus also have worn tefillin, and why/why not? If he did (and his disciples too?) then when did Christians stop? If he didn't, then was this unusual or scandalous?

¹ Tefillin (תפילין), or totafot (טוטפת), or phylacteries (φυλακτήρια)

Answer 1

In the first council of Jerusalem (In the Acts of the Apostles), we see an outline of the practices which the Jews did that they thought were reasonable to ask of the Gentiles. The wearing of Tefillin is not among them.

In all likelihood after the destruction of Jerusalem and certainly after the Muslim incursions into the middle east, the number of culturally Jewish Christians was probably close to zero, and thus the practice of wearing Tefillin too would have disappeared.

Jesus may have worn Tefillin, we don't have a solid answer for that question. It is reasonable to assume that he didn't given his criticism of the practice. There are no records of him having worn them. It also would have been redundant.

Answer 2

It's also worth considering that tefillin is not necessarily a biblical commandment for Jews anwyay. There is argument about this in Judaism even today and some sects (Karaites) assert that the tefillin commandment is actually meant to be taken metaphorically. They compare it to the "circumcision of the heart" which is obviously not literal. It is possible that tefillin actually emerged in the time of Jesus and that he did not see it as a fulfillment of any real Biblical law. There is no evidence of tefillin being worn previous to the Second Temple period.

Answer 3

We don't know, but I think it would be safe to presume that if Jesus in Mt 23.5 criticized teachers of the law and the Pharisees for wearing longer Tzitzit but still wore some (Mt 9:20, 14:36, Mk 6:56), we can presume he also wore Tefillin while criticizing teachers of the law and Pharisees for using wider ones.

Answer 4

Apparently, the straps of the Tefillin can be identified as wrapped around the Jesus's arm in the Shroud of Turin. A small box above his head has been identified as well. If this is true, this means his body was placed in the tomb with Tefillin. Now if he was buried with Tefillin, this leaves us little room to doubt he would have worn them while living. A lot of the evidence suggests that Jesus lived as an essene, just like John the Baptist. Recently, there was a find in Qumran that revealed the essene's wore Tefillin. All of this seems to converge on the conclusion that Jesus did indeed wear Tefillin. Probably not because he thought it was literally required (the Karites argue the command for the Shema on the head and heart is symbolic) but because the Tefillin is an external sign/sentiment of having a commitment to God's Torah...And what's wrong with that?