Tablets of stone
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The Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, Tablets of Law, or Tablets of Testimony (in Hebrew: Luchot HaBrit - "the tablets [of] the covenant") in the Bible, were the two pieces of special stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments when Moses ascended Mount Sinai as recorded in the Book of Exodus.Exodus 31:18 refers to the tablets as the "Tablets of Testimony" because they give insight into the nature of God.
According to the Bible, there were two sets: the first, inscribed by God, were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping the Golden Calf; and the second, inscribed later by Moses as commanded by God as an atonement.
According to traditional teachings of Judaism in the Talmud, they were made of blue sapphire stone as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's throne. Both the first shattered set and the second unbroken set were stored in the Ark of the Covenant (the aron habrit in Hebrew).
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[edit] Appearance of the tablets according to Jewish tradition
The tablets are popularly described as semi-flat rounded off rectangles but this understanding has little basis in religious tradition. According to rabbinic tradition, they were rectangles, with sharp corners.[1] Also according to tradition, the words were not engraved on the surface, but rather were bored fully through the stone.
(At least) two miracles are mentioned in connection with the tablets: even though they were bored fully through the stone, and you would expect the reverse side to be a mirror image, it was not, and both sides appeared normally.
Since the letters were bored fully through the stone, the inner part of the letters (for example ס or ם) were not supported by anything, yet the unsupported stone remained in position.
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In Jewish religious tradition, the arrangement of the commandments on the two tablets is interpreted in different ways. Rabbi Hanina ben Gamaliel said that each tablet contained five commandments, "but the Sages say ten on one tablet and ten on the other".[2] Because the commandments establish a covenant, it is likely that they were duplicated on both tablets. This can be compared to diplomatic treaties of Ancient Egypt, in which a copy was made for each party.[3]
[edit] Christian replicas
Replicas of the tablets, known as tabots or sellats, are a vital part of the practice of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which claims that the original Ark of the Covenant is kept in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum.
[edit] References
- ^ Bava Batra 14a. The length and width of each of the Tablets was six Tefachim, each was three Tefachim thick.
- ^ Rabbi Ishmael. in Horowitz-Rabin (ed.): Mekhilta, 233, Tractate de-ba-Hodesh, 5.
- ^ Margaliot, Dr. Meshulam (July 2004). What was Written on the Two Tablets?. Bar-Ilan University. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.
[edit] External links
- Ark of the Covenant page
- Stone tablet receipt from Nebo-Sarsekim discovered (including image). Newspaper article.
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