Tablets of Stone

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tablets of the Law (also Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, or Tablets of Testimony; Biblical Hebrew: לוּחֹת הַבְּרִית lūḥōt habbǝrīt "tablets of the covenant", לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן luḥōt hāʾeḇen or לֻחֹת אֶבֶן luḥōt ʾeḇen or לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים luḥōt ʾăbānīm "stone tablets", and לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת luḥōt hāʿēdut "tablets of testimony"; Arabic: أَلْوَاحُ مُوسَى āl-wāḥ Mūsā "the tablets of Moses") were the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments when Moses ascended Mount Sinai as written in the Book of Exodus.^[1]

According to the biblical narrative, the first set of tablets, inscribed by the finger of God, (Exodus 31:18) were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping a golden calf (Exodus 32:19) and the second were later chiseled out by Moses and rewritten by God (Exodus 34:1).

According to traditional teachings of Judaism in the Talmud, the stones were made of blue sapphire as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's throne. Many Torah scholars, however, have opined that the biblical sapir was, in fact, lapis lazuli (see Exodus 24:10, lapis lazuli is a possible alternate rendering of "sapphire" the stone pavement under God's feet when the intention to craft the tablets of the covenant is disclosed Exodus 24:12).^[2]

According to Exodus 25:10–22, the tablets were stored in the Ark of the Covenant. Alan Millard and Daniel I. Block note parallels between this aspect of Israelite religion with the practice of other Ancient Near Eastern cultures whose treaty texts were preserved in their temples.^[3]^[4] Alternatively, Thomas Römer argued in 2015 that “clearly… the tablets of the law are a substitute for something else.”^[5] He holds that “the original Ark contained a statue [i.e. a cult image] of Yhwh”,^[6]^: 4 which he specifically identifies as “two betyles (sacred stones), or two cult image statues symbolizing Yhwh and his female companion Ashera or a statue representing Yhwh alone.”^[5]

^ William Schniedewind has proposed that the original contents of the tablets as described in Exodus were the instructions for building the Tabernacle. See William M. Schniedwind (2004). "7: How the Torah Became a Text". How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82946-1.
^ See: Staples, W. E., "Lapis Lazuli", in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 3, p. 72
^ Millard, Alan R. (2007). "The Tablets in the Ark". In McConville, J. G.; Möller, Karl (eds.). Reading the Law: Studies in Honour of Gordon J. Wenham. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 264–265. ISBN 978-0-567-45454-6.
^ Block, Daniel I. (2020). "For Whose Eyes? The Divine Origin and Function of the Two Tablets of the Israelite Covenant". In Block, Daniel I.; Deuel, David C.; Collins, C. John; Lawrence, Paul J. N. (eds.). Write That They May Read: Studies in Literacy and Textualization in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Scriptures: Essays in Honour of Professor Alan R. Millard. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-7252-5210-3.
^ ^a ^b Thomas Römer, The Invention of God (Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 92.
^ Römer, Thomas (2023). "The mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant". Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology. 77 (2): 169–185. doi:10.1080/0039338X.2023.2167861.

[1] William Schniedewind has proposed that the original contents of the tablets as described in Exodus were the instructions for building the Tabernacle. See William M. Schniedwind (2004). "7: How the Torah Became a Text". How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82946-1.

[2] See: Staples, W. E., "Lapis Lazuli", in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 3, p. 72

[3] Millard, Alan R. (2007). "The Tablets in the Ark". In McConville, J. G.; Möller, Karl (eds.). Reading the Law: Studies in Honour of Gordon J. Wenham. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 264–265. ISBN 978-0-567-45454-6.

[4] Block, Daniel I. (2020). "For Whose Eyes? The Divine Origin and Function of the Two Tablets of the Israelite Covenant". In Block, Daniel I.; Deuel, David C.; Collins, C. John; Lawrence, Paul J. N. (eds.). Write That They May Read: Studies in Literacy and Textualization in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Scriptures: Essays in Honour of Professor Alan R. Millard. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-7252-5210-3.

[Römer92-5] Thomas Römer, The Invention of God (Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 92.

[6] Römer, Thomas (2023). "The mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant". Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology. 77 (2): 169–185. doi:10.1080/0039338X.2023.2167861.

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