The Tassel of the Covenant: From Torah to the Prayer Rope

Babylon vs Christendom, Überzeugungen, Celtic Church Roots, Christian Israel Nationalism, Christian Israel: Tribal & Theological, Christian Worship / Liturgy, Bündnissouveränität, Ecclesiastical, Fighting Communism (CDL), Vom Schreibtisch unseres Primace, Gute Nachricht vom Königreich, Legitimist Philosophy, Literature, Neue Gläubige, Nachrichten, Order Establishments, Priorat von Salem, Sonderberichte, Templar, Theology Institute
Verbreite die Liebe

Introduction

One of the simplest yet most enduring commandments of the Torah is the making of fringes or tassels — tzitzit — as a visible reminder of covenant. Over time, Jewish tradition developed a complex system of knots and fringes on the four-cornered tallit. Yet, when we trace the earliest textual witnesses, we find a simpler, and perhaps more powerful, original command: a single tassel at the extremity of one’s garment, with a cord of blue.

This article explores the early textual traditions — Dead Sea Scrolls, Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, and Masoretic — and shows how the Orthodox prayer rope tassel may in fact be the closest surviving heir to the biblical tzitzit.

1. The Torah Command

The Torah’s words are straightforward:

  • Numbers 15:38–39 (Masoretic Text, c. 7th–10th c. CE form)
    “Make for yourselves tassels (tzitzit) on the corners (kanfei) of your garments … and you shall put on the tassel of the corner a cord of blue (ptil tekhelet).”

  • Deuteronomy 22:12 (Masoretic)
    “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners (arba kanfot) of the garment with which you cover yourself.”

Rabbinic Judaism, following the Masoretic text, codified this as four tassels on four corners, later formalized into the tallit we know today.

But skeptics note: the Masoretic is the youngest witness to the Pentateuch (stabilized c. 900–1000 AD), written over 1200 years later than the Samaritan Pentateuch and Qumran scrolls. In those older texts, the wording does not say “four corners,” but simply “the corner/extremity of your garment.”

2. Textual Variants: Multiple Witnesses

a. Samaritan Pentateuch (SP)

  • Preserved continuously by the Samaritan community, who claim descent from northern Israelite tribes.

  • Text form: 2nd Temple period (4th–2nd c. BC) — more than a millennium older than MT.

  • Deut 22:12 (SP):
    “Make for yourself a tassel (tzitzit) on the corner (kanaph, singular) of your garment with which you cover yourself.”

  • Singular: one tassel, not four.

  • This matches their tradition of a single tassel with blue.

b. Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran, Cave 4, 2nd c. BC – 1st c. AD)

  • Fragments of Deuteronomy confirm the singular reading, in line with SP.

  • One striking variant: “put upon the tassel a cord of double blue (ptil tekhelet mishneh).”

  • This makes blue even more central — multiple blue cords or doubled blue thread.

c. Septuagint (Greek translation, 3rd–2nd c. BC)

  • Produced in Alexandria by Hellenistic Jews.

  • Num 15:38 (LXX): “…fringes (kraspeda) on the corners (gōnias, plural)…”

  • Deut 22:12 (LXX): “…fringes on the four extremities (tessara akra) of your cloak.”

  • This is one of the first textual traditions to add “four.”

  • Some scholars believe the MT later followed this Greek expansion, “borrowing back” the plural/four language.

d. Masoretic Text (MT, 7th–10th c. AD)

  • Became authoritative in rabbinic Judaism.

  • Stabilized long after the DSS, SP, and LXX.

  • Reads: “four corners.”

  • Skeptics argue this is a late harmonization, absent in the earliest Hebrew traditions.

3. One Tassel vs. Four

  • Oldest texts (SP + DSS): Singular “corner” → one tassel, with emphasis on blue.

  • Later (LXX + MT): Plural/four corners → four tassels.

  • The question of “one vs. four” is not trivial: it marks the difference between a single covenant tassel vs. a uniform ritual garment.

It is also significant that Jesus was a Galilean — as were His apostles. Galileans were known to dress differently, not following Pharisaic fashions. This strengthens the likelihood that His garment bore a single tassel in the older Israelite tradition, not the multiplied tassels of the Pharisees He rebuked. (Matt 23:5)

4. Garments and Tassels in Practice

  • Mishnah Kilayim 9:2 (c. 200 AD):
    Garments eligible for tzitzit could be black, green, red, striped, or checkered — not only white.

  • Thus, the earliest tzitzit were not tied to the white-black striped tallit of today.

  • Military sashes, noble cloaks, and household leaders’ garments often bore tassels as marks of covenant and authority.

5. Rise of Knot Traditions

  • Rashi (1040–1105, France):
    Introduced the 613-symbolism: word tzitzit = 600, plus 8 threads and 5 knots = 613 commandments.
    This pushed Jews to view knot patterns as Torah-encoding symbols.

  • Isaac Luria (Arizal, 1534–1572, Safed):
    A Kabbalist who systematized the winding counts (7-8-11-13), tying them to mystical names of God.
    His method is the basis for Hasidic and Sephardi tzitzit today.
    These elaborate knots, however, are post-biblical, mystical inventions.

6. The Karaite Alternative

  • Karaites (8th–9th c. AD onward): rejected Talmud and rabbinic elaborations.

  • Their tzitzit: simple tassels, usually plain or multi-colored, but always including blue if available.

  • No knots to encode numerology.

  • This makes Karaite tzitzit closer to the DSS/Samaritan form — a tassel with blue, without mystical layers.

7. Christian Parallels

  • Gospels: The woman with the issue of blood touched the “fringe (kraspedon)” of Jesus’ garment (Matt 9:20).

  • Prayer rope tassel: In Orthodox Christianity, the chotki ends with a tassel at the extremity, recalling the hem of Christ’s garment.

  • In practice, this is functionally similar to the earliest tzitzit command.

8. The “All-Blue Tassel”

  • Torah: only requires a blue cord.

  • DSS: requires double-blue cord.

  • Mishnah: white and blue valid independently.

  • Therefore, an all-blue tassel is compliant — possibly the most faithful to the Qumranic form.

9. Prophetic Implications

  • Judah (Rabbinic/MT): Four fringes, later white with knots.

  • Ephraim (Samaritan/DSS): One tassel, double-blue.

  • Christians: Tassel on prayer ropes, often blue, often cross-marked.

The three streams together testify that the covenant tassel has never disappeared, only taken different forms.

10. Till Shiloh Comes: Covenant Restoration Today

When Jacob prophesied over his sons, he declared of Judah:

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall the obedience of the peoples be.” (Genesis 49:10)

This prophecy, echoed by later prophets, has long been tied to messianic fulfillment, but it also frames the tension between Judah and Ephraim — between those who clung to the Temple cult in Jerusalem and those who held to the older traditions at Shiloh, Gibeon, and Gerizim.

  • Shiloh was the first resting place of the Tabernacle, before Davidic centralization.

  • The Samaritans — heirs of Ephraim and Manasseh — continued to worship on Mount Gerizim, not Zion, as the Samaritan woman reminded Christ (John 4).

  • In John the Baptist’s day, the Sadducees were being driven aside, Pharisees rising in dominance. But another stream of “Hebrewism” — older, less legalistic — remained on the margins.

Today, with the recovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the witness of the Samaritan Pentateuch, we may be seeing signs of that older covenantal order being remembered — perhaps part of the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). Christ restores the Ephraimite simplicity of covenant, in contrast to Pharisaic excess.
https://celticorthodoxy.com/2025/03/the-tabernacles-journey-and-the-prophetic-restoration-of-ephraim-from-shiloh-to-gibeon-to-jerusalem/

 

Prophetic Implication

If tzitzit were originally a single blue tassel at the extremity of the garment, then restoring this practice may not simply be antiquarian curiosity. It may signal:

  • EIN return to Ephraimite heritage, where Shiloh was once central.

  • A covenantal reminder that transcends Pharisaic additions.

  • A unifying bridge: Judah’s rabbinic tassels, Ephraim’s one tassel, and Christianity’s prayer ropes can all converge when we remember the blue cord.

Implementation Today

  • Uniforms: Many military, ecclesiastical, and cultural uniforms already bear fringes, braids, or tassels. Simply weaving in the blue cord restores covenant symbolism.

  • Daily devotion: Prayer ropes and rosaries are already universal across Orthodoxy and Catholicism. Adding blue cords or tassels makes them align with the biblical command.

  • Household leadership: Fathers, ministers, and leaders may take up the mantle of wearing a tassel — as in antiquity — as a reminder of their covenant responsibility.

  • Morning prayer: The tassel can be kissed, touched, or grasped at the beginning of prayer, as a tangible reminder of walking in God’s commandments.

Fazit

The tassel of the covenant has traveled through history:

  • Von Shiloh and Gerizim to Jerusalem,

  • From the Qumran caves to rabbinic tallitot,

  • Von prayer ropes in Orthodox monasteries to rosaries in the West.

But its essence has never changed: a visible blue thread reminding us of the covenant.

If the Orthodox prayer rope tassel — especially in all-blue — is indeed the closest living heir of the biblical tzitzit, then perhaps we are also witnessing the beginning of a prophetic restoration:

That Ephraim and Judah together, in Messiah, may again wear the tassel of covenant —
“till Shiloh comes.”