Posted on 11/16/2024 9:32:27 AM PST by george76
For decades it was merely a sidewalk stone at a home in the Middle East, its significance unbeknownst to its owner.
Now, the oldest inscribed tablet of the Ten Commandments is set to auction for $1 million to $2 million...
The relic is the only complete tablet of the Ten Commandments in existence from the Late Byzantine period, which ranged from 300–800 A.D.
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Sotheby’s is set to auction the 1,500-year-old piece on Dec. 18.
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This is really one-of-a-kind,” Mintz said. “It’s one of the most important historic artifacts that I’ve ever handled.”
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The marble relic weighs a hefty 115 pounds and stands two feet tall.
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Twenty lines of Paleo-Hebrew text are etched into the stone, with nine of the Ten Commandments being visible..
One commandment has been replaced with a much different instruction...
Instead of “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain,” the tablet instructs followers to worship on Mount Gerizim, a site holy to the Samaritans.
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After its discovery, it was sold to a local Arab and subsequently used as a sidewalk stone for his home — its inscription facing up and exposed to foot traffic
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“People didn’t realize the significance of it. It looked like just a big marble slab
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Then, in 1943, an archaeologist recognized the true value of the stone and purchased it.
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“This remarkable tablet is not only a vastly important historic artifact, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts.
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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
SO that’s where Charlton Heston left it.
Maybe it’s commandments 11 through 15 before Mel Brooks as Moses dropped them.
:^) I think that gag originated with Shel Silverstein. ;^)
“Instead of “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain,” the tablet instructs followers to worship on Mount Gerizim, a site holy to the Samaritans.”
Getting an idea here why someone thought this tablet suitable for foot traffic.
“In 2016, New York’s Living Torah Museum sold it at auction for $850,000 to an unknown buyer in Beverly Hills.
“This remarkable tablet is not only a vastly important historic artifact, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts”.
Why did New York’s Living Torah Museum sell this one in a kind archaeological artifact? This is something that belongs to the people.
Shouldn’t this be BACK in a museum?
How did they decide upon removing the Commandment “Thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain” and replace it with “Instead of “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain,” the tablet instructs followers to worship on Mount Gerizim, a site holy to the Samaritans”.
Wouldn’t that be kind of sacrilege?
“Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object” or is this artifact just viewed as a homemade copy for a homeowner to put up and if so even then how do you remove one commandment and replace it with another?
How come I don’t find anything like that. Best I did was find a TAG Hauer Carerra watch at a thrift store for $2.
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
It SHOULD be in a museum, that’s correct.
It’s interesting that what we call the “Ten Commandments” are explicated in Exodus 20:1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:4–21, but are never explicitly enumerated in the bible, and different traditions assign different numbers to the same rules.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments#Commandments_text_and_numbering
The Samaritan tradition, which differs from most Western churches, is shown under column “S” of the link, and appears to be the one represented by these stones.
Maybe the Museum Director wanted a new house.
How did they decide upon removing the Commandment
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Probably was an advertising gimmick at the time to drive people to someone’s concession stand at Mt. Gerizim.
““Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object” or is this artifact just viewed as a homemade copy for a homeowner to put up and if so even then how do you remove one commandment and replace it with another?”
The tell-tale marks of the pneumatic chisels will answer that question. ;-)
I smell fish?.
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