Ancient copy of Ten Commandments sells for over $5M

Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday auctioned a stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament. The 155-pound marble slab dates from between 300 and 800 A.D., according to the auction house. An anonymous buyer purchased the tablet for $5.04 million with plans to donate it to an Israeli institution. The auction house earlier had estimated it would be sold for $1 or $2 million. The inscription includes the traditional commandments except the third commandment against taking the Lord’s name in vain, Sotheby’s said.

Where did the tablet come from? The 115-pound, two-foot-high slab is inscribed in Paleo-Hebrew script. Railway excavators unearthed the tablet in 1913 along the southern coast of Israel and it was used as a paving stone at the entrance to a local home for thirty years. A scholar bought the table in 1943 and recognized its significance, saying that it included a directive to Samaritans to worship on Mount Gerizim. Sotheby’s said the original site of the tablet was likely destroyed by Roman invaders or during the later Crusades.

Meanwhile, some experts have raised questions about the tablet’s authenticity. Biblical scholar Christopher Rollston said the auction house did not do enough to confirm the slab’s age. He also suggested that the omission of the commandment against using God’s name in vain could be evidence that forgers created the tablet. Rollston is chairman of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University.

Dig deeper: Listen to Emma Perley’s report in The World and Everything in It about a missionary who translated the Bible for people in Africa.