Ancient Ten Commandments Tablet Fetches $5 Million at Sotheby’s
A 1,500-year-old stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments sold for a staggering $5.04 million at Sotheby’s New York on Wednesday, more than double its high estimate, CNN reports.
The sale, which saw over ten minutes of intense bidding, marks a significant event in the world of antiquities. The anonymous buyer intends to donate the artifact to an Israeli institution.
The remarkable artifact, weighing 115 pounds and standing two feet tall, boasts a fascinating history. Discovered in 1913 during railway construction in what is now southern Israel, near ancient synagogues, mosques, and churches, its significance was initially overlooked. For three decades, it served as a paving stone, its Paleo-Hebrew inscription facing upwards and enduring considerable foot traffic.
Its importance was eventually recognized, and the tablet passed to a scholar in 1943 who identified it as a Samaritan Decalogue. Samaritanism, an ancient monotheistic religion, differs from Judaism in its designation of Mount Gerizim as the dwelling place of Jehovah.
The tablet’s inscription, comprising 20 lines closely following biblical verses, includes nine of the Ten Commandments from Exodus. Notably absent is “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain,” replaced by a commandment to worship on Mount Gerizim.
Sotheby’s suggests the tablet’s original location was likely destroyed during Roman invasions (400-600 CE) or the Crusades (late 11th century). The auction house highlighted the Commandments as the “cornerstone of law and morality” and the “founding text of Western civilization.”
Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts, described the tablet as “a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization.” This sale follows last year’s record-breaking $38.1 million sale of the Codex Sassoon, a Hebrew Bible over 1,000 years old, at the same auction house.
