The earliest complete stone tablet of the 10 Commandments, dating back over 1,500 years, is set to be auctioned at Sotheby's New York. Inscribed in Hagar Hebrew, this rare artifact offers a fascinating window into ancient history.
DIVINE AUCTION
(ILTV)
“Behind us, we have one of the most important treasures that I have ever handled,” said Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby’s International Senior Specialist for Judaica. “It is the earliest stone tablet of the 10 Commandments. It dates back to the late Roman Byzantine period from over 1,500 years ago.”
Weighing 115 pounds and standing about two feet tall, the marble tablet was unearthed in 1913 during railway excavations along Israel's southern coast.
Remarkably, its significance remained overlooked for decades. Notably, this tablet features only nine of the traditional commandments. The third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain,” was replaced with a directive to worship.
This extraordinary relic is expected to fetch between $1 million and $2 million at auction.