Did Jesus wear one tassel, not four?
Originals 1200 years older than the Masoretic show us
Dear friends,
Most Christians have seen the tallit — the four-cornered Jewish prayer shawl with knotted fringes. But did you know that the earliest Hebrew texts — the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Samaritan Pentateuch — tell a different story?
They speak not of four corners, but of one tassel, with a cord of double-blue, attached to the extremity of the garment.
This could explain why the Gospels tell us the woman with the issue of blood touched “the fringe of His garment” (Matt. 9:20, Luke 8:44) — singular, not plural. Jesus’ humble Galilean robe likely bore the tassel, not the multiplied fringes of the Pharisees He rebuked.
Why does this matter? Because it connects directly to the prayer ropes still used in Orthodox and Celtic tradition today. That tassel at the end of a prayer rope may well be the most authentic living continuation of the biblical covenant sign — a reminder bound with blue, pointing us back to God’s commands and forward to Christ’s fulfillment.
I’ve just published a new article exploring this breakthrough in detail:
👉 The Tassel of the Covenant: From Torah to the Prayer Rope
It covers:
The witness of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Samaritan Pentateuch
Why the Pharisees’ “broad fringes” (Matt. 23:5) may have been an exaggeration of a simpler command
How Christ’s garment stood in contrast, and why the healing power flowed from the tassel
The prophetic call of Ephraim and Judah restored — till Shiloh comes
I believe you’ll find this both historically eye-opening and spiritually encouraging.
In Christ’s service,
Rev Dr Stephen MK Brunswick
St. Andrew’s OCC