The oldest stone inscription giving a rendering of the "Ten Commandments" will go up for auction on 18 December at Sotheby’s in New York.
Dating to the late Roman-Byzantine era, the “remarkable” artefact is approximately 1,500 years old and is reportedly "the only complete tablet of the Ten Commandments still extant from this early era", <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/digital-catalogues/the-ten-commandments"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">notes</mark></a> the auction house.
The twenty lines of text incised on the stone closely follow the Biblical verses relating to both the Christian and Jewish traditions, Sotheby's notes. However, the tablet contains only nine of the commandments as found in the Book of Exodus, omitting the admonition: <em>Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain</em>.
Instead, it includes a different 10th "directive" – to worship on Mount Gerizim, a holy site specific to the Samaritans – though the auction house emphasises that the tablet's civilisational significance remains undiminished.
Known as the Yavne Tablet – so named after the city where it was first found – it is "not simply the earliest surviving complete inscribed stone tablet of the Ten commandments, but the text it preserves represents the spirit, precision and concision of the Decalogue in what is believed to be its earliest and original formulation", Sotheby's <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/12/09/ancient-tablet-carved-with-ten-commandments-set-for-auction/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">told</mark></a> the <em>New York Daily News</em>.
It adds: "The influence of the Decalogue extends far beyond the Judeo-Christian religions, underpinning around the globe the foundational concepts of common law, natural law, formal legal codes, personal conduct and the social compact."
Richard Austin, Sotheby’s Global Head of Books & Manuscripts, says: "This remarkable tablet is not only a vastly important historic artefact, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilisation.
“To encounter this shared piece of cultural heritage is to journey through millennia and connect with cultures and faiths told through one of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes."
Weighing 115 pounds (52 kgs) and measuring approximately two feet in height, the marble tablet is inscribed in Paleo-Hebrew script, the alphabet that was replaced among ancient Judeans in the last centuries before the Common Era [CE is equivalent to AD of the Gregorian calendar], <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ten-commandments-tablet-up-for-auction-at-sothebys-to-come-with-disclaimer/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>Times of Israel</em>.
It notes that the older script remained in use among the Samaritan people, who share ancestry with the modern-day Jewish people, but who split off at least two thousand years ago, including appearing in the New Testament’s “Good Samaritan” parable. Today, they number less than 1,000, and hold both Israeli and Palestinian citizenship.
The tablet was unearthed in 1913 during railway excavations along the southern coast of Israel, near the sites of early synagogues, mosques and churches.
The original site of the tablet was likely destroyed during either the Roman invasions of 400-600 AD or the later Crusades of the 11th century. It is reckoned that the tablet may have originally been displayed in a synagogue or a private dwelling.
The significance of the discovery went unrecognised for many decades, notes Sotheby’s, and for thirty years the tablet served as a paving stone at the entrance to a local home, with the inscription facing outwards and being exposed to the elements and to foot traffic.
In 1943, the tablet was sold to a scholar who "recognised it as an important Samaritan Decalogue featuring the divine precepts central to many faiths", Sotheby's reports.
The tablet subsequently changed hands further times, eventually making its way to the auction house in New York.
Sharon Mintz, Sotheby's senior specialist on Judaica – artefacts pertaining to the Jews, their culture or their religion, particularly ritual objects – said in an interview that she’d like to see the tablet end up with a public institution. Such a requirement isn't part of the terms of Sotheby's auction sale, though Mintz said there is reason to be optimistic that the tablet will end up either in a public institution or with a private individual who places it on permanent loan to a public institution, notes the <em>Times of Israel</em>.
“I anticipate that this will go to an institution that will immediately put it on public display,” Mintz said. “My track record for placing objects back into institutions is pretty good recently; I am mindful of public access to treasures of Judaica.”
Ultimately, though, there’s no guarantee what will happen with the tablet, the <em>Times</em> notes. The highest bidder will win the prize and then do with it what he or she will.
The auction house estimates the tablet will sell for anywhere between $1 million to $2 million. Since 5 December, the tablet has been on public display at Sotheby’s New York.
"An extraordinary treasure from antiquity, inscribed with the moral code that underpins Western civilisation, this stone tablet is a bridge between faiths, regions and eras," states Sotheby's.
<a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/ch/if-men-will-not-be-governed-by-the-ten-commandments/"><strong><em><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">RELATED: If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments</mark></em></strong></a>
<em>Photo: Tablet of the 'Ten Commandments' that is up for auction, screenshot from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/digital-catalogues/the-ten-commandments"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">sothebys.com</mark></a>.</em>
