Oldest Stone Tablet With 10 Biblical Commandments Sold at Auction for Over $5 Million

The oldest known tablet with the Ten Commandments of the Biblical Old Testament was sold at Sotheby's on Wednesday for $5.04 million, CNN reports.

The stone tablet, which is approximately 1,500 years old and dates back to the early Byzantine era, was sold for more than twice the previous estimate - experts estimated its value at $1-2 million, 

Sotheby's New York auction reported that the intense bidding lasted more than 10 minutes. Eventually, the tablets were bought by an anonymous buyer who said he planned to donate the artefact to an institution in Israel.

‘This magnificent tablet is not only an extremely important historical artefact, but also a link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilisation,’ said Richard Austin, head of Sotheby's Books and Manuscripts, on the eve of the sale.

According to the Sotheby's website, the stone, weighing more than 50 kilograms and 60 centimetres high, was found in 1913 during excavations for a new railway line in the southern part of modern Israel.

Despite the fact that it was inscribed with 10 biblical laws in Paleo-Hebrew script, the find was not appreciated at the time. For three decades, it was used as part of a paving stone. The stone was placed on the road with the inscriptions facing up, so pedestrians could walk on it.

In 1943, the stone was sold to a scientist. He determined that the tablet was a monument and contained the Samaritan Decalogue of Commandments. He also suggested that the tablet with the commandments was displayed in a synagogue or in a private home.

There are 20 lines of text engraved on the stone, and they exactly repeat verses from the Bible. One of the Ten Commandments is missing: ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.’ Instead, there is an instruction to worship God on the sacred mountain of Gerizim for the Samaritans.