Letter 150: When the celebrated temple was destroyed and the city was given over to its captors, many asked: why did God permit...

To Menas. On the meaning of: "They make broad their phylacteries." [Matthew 23:5] Since you have written wishing to learn what "They make broad their phylacteries" means, know that they were small tablets bearing, as it were, the Law, which the teachers of the Jews used to wear, just as now women wear the small Gospels. For since the lawgiver, thrusting them toward the deed and banishing forgetfulness, decreed, "You shall bind the ordinances upon your hand"-that is, you shall fasten them, you shall hang them up-but they made no account of the deed, while about the straps of the little books they took great pains, they were judged deserving of reproach.

Τίς ἐστι τό· «Μεγαλύνουσι τὰ φυλακτήρια αὐτῶν.» Ἐπειδὴ τί ἐστι τό, «Μεγαλύνουσι τὰ φυλακτήρια», μαθεῖν ἐθέλων γέγραφας, ἴσθι ὅτι δέλτια ἦν μικρά, ἴσῳ (58) τὸν νόμον ὠδίνοντα, ἅπερ ἐφόρουν οἱ τῶν Ἰουδαίων καθηγηταί, ὥσπερ νῦν [αἱ] γυναῖκες τὰ [Εὐαγγέλια [τὰ] μικρά. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁ νομοθέτης εἰς τὸ ἔργον αὐτοὺς ἐμβάλλων, καὶ τὴν λήθην ἐξοστρακίζων ἐθέσπισεν, «Ἐξάψεις τὰ δικαιώματα ἐπὶ τῆς χειρός σου», τοῦτ' ἔστιν ἐξαρτήσεις, κρεμάσεις· αὐτοὶ δὲ τοῦ μὲν ἔργου οὐδένα ἐποιοῦντο λόγον, περὶ δὲ τοὺς τελαμῶνας τῶν βιβλιδίων πολλὴν ἐποιοῦντο σπουδήν, μέμψεως ἠξιώθησαν.