Bible Dictionary
FRINGES
Fringes were tassels worn on the four corners of Israelite garments as reminders to obey the Lord’s commandments. They were still worn in Jesus’ time and are mentioned in the Gospels.
Definition
Fringes were tassels or twisted threads attached to the four corners of Israelite garments. They served as visible reminders of the Lord’s commandments. The law required them on the garments of the Israelites, and their use continued in the period of the New Testament.
Biblical Usage
The fringes were intended to remind Israelites of all the commandments of the Lord. Garments bearing them are associated with people whom Jesus encountered and with the religious display condemned in the Gospels.
Historical Background
The tassels originally included a violet thread. Later Jewish practice used fringed prayer garments and an undergarment, with prescribed arrangements of cords, windings, and knots.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>frin'-jis (tsitsith, "tassel, lock" (Nu 15:38,39), gedhilim, "twisted threads," "festoons" (De 22:12)): Tassels worn by the Israelites on the four corners of their garments as reminders of "all the commandments of Yahweh," in accordance with the law set out in Nu 15:37-41 and De 22:12. These tassels originally contained a thread of tekheleth, "violet." Jewish tradition, however, has failed to retain the tekheleth, because of doubt as to the exact meaning of the term, and instead dark blue lines were dyed on the borders of the Tallith or garment in which the fringes were placed. According to tradition any garment having four corners required the mnemonic fringes, the importance of which was weighed against "all the commandments of the Lord." In New Testament times such garments were still worn (compare Mt 9:20; 14:36; 23:5). The later Jews, after adopting the garments of the Diaspora, in order to observe the tsitsith commandment began to use two extra four-cornered fringed garments: the large Tallith while at prayer, and the small Tallith, or 'arba` kanephoth, as an undergarment during the day. Their tradition prescribes the exact manner in which each tassel shall be made, and gives a symbolic meaning to the numbers of windings and knots, somewhat after the manner of the string-writing of several early civilizations (compare the Peruvian quipus). Thus in the tsitsith a long cord is wrapped around seven shorter cords first seven times, then eight, then eleven, and finally thirteen, each series being separated from the others by two knots. The numbers seven and eight constituting fifteen together suggest YH, and the number eleven, WH. Together they make up the holy name YaHWeH. The number thirteen stands for echadh, the letters of which taken as numerals equal thirteen. The sentence Yahweh 'echadh means "Yahweh is one." Many other suggestions, more or less fanciful, have been worked out, all tending to associate the fringes with the Law in the mind of the wearer.</p><p>See DRESS.</p><p>Ella Davis Isaacs</p>