According to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Biblical Hebrew: לוּחֹת הַבְּרִית ''lûḥōt habbǝrît'' "tablets of the covenant", לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן ''lūḥōt hāʾeben'' or לֻחֹת אֶבֶן ''lūḥōt eben'' or לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים ''lūḥōt ʾăbānîm'' "stone tablets", and לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת ''lūḥōt hāʿēdūt'' "tablets of testimony",

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: أَلْوَاحُ مُوسَى) were the two stone tablets inscribed with the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...

when Moses ascended

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...

as written in the

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from grc, Ἔξοδος, translit=Éxodos; he, שְׁמוֹת ''Šəmōṯ'', "Names") is the second book of the Bible. It narrates the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through ...

. According to the biblical narrative, the first set of tablets, inscribed by the

finger of God The "finger of God" ( ''’etsba‘ ’Ĕlōhîm'') is a phrase used in the Bible. In Exodus 8:16–20 it is used during the plagues of Egypt by the Egyptian magicians. In Exodus 31:18 and Deuteronomy 9:10 it refers to the method by which the T ...

, () were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping a golden calf () and the second were later chiseled out by Moses and rewritten by God (). According to traditional teachings of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

, the stones were made of blue

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...

as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's

throne A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign on state occasions; or the seat occupied by a pope or bishop on ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the mona ...

. Many

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

scholars, however, have opined that the biblical ''sapir'' was, in fact, lapis lazuli (see , 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 ). According to , the tablets were stored in the Ark of the Covenant.

Appearance of the tablets

In recent centuries the tablets have been popularly described and depicted as round-topped rectangles but this has little basis in religious tradition. According to rabbinic tradition, they were rectangles, with sharp corners, and indeed they are so depicted in the 3rd century paintings at the

Dura-Europos Synagogue The Dura-Europos synagogue (or "Dura Europas", "Dura Europos" etc.) was an ancient synagogue uncovered at Dura-Europos, Syria, in 1932. The synagogue contains a forecourt and house of assembly with painted walls depicting people and animals, and ...

and in Christian art throughout the 1st millennium, drawing on Jewish traditions of iconography. Meister der Bibel des Patrice Léon 001

The rounded tablets appear in the Middle Ages, following in size and shape contemporary hinged writing tablets for taking notes (with a stylus on a layer of wax on the insides). For Michelangelo and

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in orde ...

they still have sharp corners (see gallery), and are about the size found in rabbinic tradition. Later artists such as Rembrandt tended to combine the rounded shape with the larger size. While, as mentioned above, rabbinic tradition teaches that the tablets were squared, according to some authorities, the Rabbis themselves approved of rounded depictions of the tablets in replicas so that the replicas would not exactly match the historical tablets. According to the Talmud, each Tablet was square, six Tefachim (approximately 50 centimeters, 20 inches) wide and high, and more a thicker block than a tablet, at three Tefachim (25 centimeters, 10 inches) thick, though they tend to be shown larger in art. (Other Rabbinic sources say they were rectangular rather than square, six Tefachim high and three wide and deep.) Also according to tradition, the words were not engraved on the surface, but rather were bored fully through the stone.

Christian replicas

Replicas of the tablets, known as

tabot ''Tabot'' ( Ge'ez ታቦት ''tābōt'', sometimes spelled ''tabout'') is a Ge'ez word referring to a replica of the Tablets of Law, onto which the Biblical Ten Commandments were inscribed, used in the practices of Orthodox Tewahedo Christians ...

s 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 The Church of Our Lady, Mary of Zion is an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church which is claimed to contain the Ark of the Covenant. The church is located in the town of Axum, Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia, near the grounds of Obelisks ...

in Axum.Paul Raffaele
"Keepers of the Lost Ark?" ''Smithsonian Magazine''
December 2007 (accessed 9 April 2011)

In the Quran

The

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

states that '' tablets'' were given to Moses, without quoting their contents explicitly: :"And We wrote for him on the tablets omethingof all things – instruction and explanation for all things, aying 'Take them with determination and order your people to take the best of it. I will show you the home of the defiantly disobedient. () These tablets are not broken in the Quran, but picked up later: :"And when Moses returned to his people, angry and grieved, he said, 'How wretched is that by which you have replaced me after y departure Were you impatient over the matter of your Lord?' And he threw down the tablets and seized his brother by he hair ofhis head, pulling him toward him.

aron Aron may refer to: Characters *Aron (comics), from the Marvel Universe comic ''Aron! HyperSpace Boy!'' *Aron (Pokémon), in the ''Pokémon'' franchise * Aron Trask, from John Steinbeck's novel ''East of Eden'' *Áron or Aaron, the brother of Mos ...

said, 'O son of my mother, indeed the people overpowered me and were about to kill me, so let not the enemies rejoice over me and do not place me among the wrongdoing people. (). :"And when the anger subsided in Moses, he took up the tablets; and in their inscription was guidance and mercy for those who are fearful of their Lord." ().

Gallery

File:Reims Façade Portail de droite 40808 2.jpg, Round corners, 13th century, France File:Torun sw Janow popiersie Mojzesza.jpg, Round corners, c. 1390 File:Andrea Mantegna 009.jpg, Sharp corners by

, c. 1461 File:Moises.jpg, Sharp corners by Michelangelo, c. 1513–1515 Philippe de Champaigne - Moses with the Ten Commandments - WGA04717.jpg, Moses with the Ten Commandments by

Philippe de Champaigne Philippe de Champaigne (; 26 May 1602 – 12 August 1674) was a Brabançon-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school. He was a founding member of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, the premier art ...

, 1648

References

{{Characters and names in the Quran Ten Commandments Hebrew Bible objects Ark of the Covenant

Appearance of the tablets

Christian replicas

In the Quran

Gallery

See also

References