There is much debate about when the practice of wearing phylacteries, or more correctly "tefillin" (the preferred Hebrew word) arose. Some claim it was as early as the first century but this is unlikely - it was some-time later.
The reason for this is simple - many Jews believe that the instruction in Deut 6 about tying God's laws on the hand and forehead are only metaphorical (the same as Jer 31:33) is rather simple - the same verses (see V9) also instructs people to write the laws on the door posts of their homes which the same observant Jews do not.
In any case, John is unlikely to be alluding to tefillin in Rev 13:6, 17. However, his allusion to Deut 6:7, 8, 11:18-20 (as well as Ex 13:9, 16) is unmissable and has been observed for many centuries. However, it should be seen in a larger context.
The mark of the beast is a direct literary and metaphorical counterpoint to the seal of God as shown in the following table:
| Holy Spirit |
Beast from the Land |
| Spirit like blazing lamps (Rev 4:5, Acts 2) |
Calls fire from heaven (Rev 13:11, 12) |
| Purpose is to brings glory to Jesus (John 16:14, 15) |
Purpose is bring attention to sea beast (Rev 13:14) |
| Administers the seal of God (Eph 1:13, 4:30, Rev 14:1-5) |
Administers the mark of the (sea) beast (Rev 13:16) |
| Seal given on the forehead only (Rev 7:3, 4, 9:4) |
Mark given on the forehead and hand (Rev 13:16, 14:9, 20:4) |
| Inspires the prophets (2 Peter 1:19-21) |
Is the false prophet (Rev 19:20 – cf 13:13) |
| Guides into all truth (John 16:13) |
Deceives the world (Rev 13:14) |
There is also likely an allusion by John in Revelation to Eze 9 and the marking of the wicked for destruction. In any case, we observe the following about this survey:
- the writing on the forehead and hand (and the doorposts of the home) is always (in the OT) in the context of writing of God's laws and the recalling of the miracle of the Exodus. These two reasons are, in fact, the same reason precisely because the purpose and rationale for giving the moral law of the 10 commandments is explicitly stated in both case (Ex 20 and Deut 5) is because God and miraculously brought the Israelites out of Egypt and slavery.
- in the case of Deut 6, the law or words that must be written are those of Deut 6:4, 5 -
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength.
- the same is true in Deut 11:18-20 where, immediately after reciting the 10 commandments (Deut 5) and re-emphasizing the prohibition to worship false gods (Deut 11), God (via Moses' speech) says:
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as
reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to
your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you
walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them
on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, 21so that as long
as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your
children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give
your fathers.
- about 800 years after Moses, Jeremiah took of the same metaphor with the following prophecy in Jer 31:31-34 -
31 Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their
fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt— a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
33 “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds
and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they
will be My people. 34 No longer will each man teach his neighbor
or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know
Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I
will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”
[We should recall that a covenant is broken, not by God but by the people who would not keep the law as was intended - the Israelite covenant was to teach about God.]
