The stone weighs 52 kilograms, is 60 centimeters high and is said to be worth up to two million dollars (1.91 million euros): On Wednesday, auction house Sotheby’s will auction the white marble slab on which the oldest known inscription of the Ten is written. Commandments carved in stone must be read. About 1,500 years ago, someone wrote the commandments of God, which are fundamental to Judaism and Christianity, in ancient Hebrew.
The stone was discovered in 1913 during construction work for a railroad on the southern coast of present-day Israel, in an area where early churches and synagogues were built. However, the finders were not aware of the preciousness of the stone. The marble slab was used as a paving stone and ended up at the entrance of a house – with the inscribed side upwards.
Scientists recognized the value of the stone
For three decades, passersby could walk over the Ten Commandments until the stone was sold to a scientist in 1943. The man recognized that the inscription on the paving stone was the Decalogue, which could once have been displayed in a synagogue or even in a private home. These buildings were destroyed by the Romans between 400 and 600 AD, or by the Crusaders in the 11th century.
Bible verses in Exodus
The twenty lines engraved on the stone correspond to the Bible verses from Exodus, but the tablet contains only nine of the commandments listed in the Bible. The third, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” was omitted. . Instead, the stone contains the command to pray on Mount Gerizim in what is now the West Bank, which was sacred to the Samaritans.
For today’s people, the stone offers a connection to the beliefs “that shaped Western civilization,” explains Richard Austin of Sotheby’s. “Encountering this shared cultural asset is like a journey through the millennia.”
Bible auctioned for 35 million euros
Last year, the auction house auctioned a Hebrew Bible that is more than a thousand years old for a record price of the equivalent of 35 million euros. The so-called Codex Sassoon from the late ninth or early tenth century was the most expensive manuscript work ever sold at auction.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
