I wrote in a previous blog (10/27/2014) that a painting decorating a wall in one of the scenes in EGK sug gested what the tablets would look like:
- The tablets will differ in color (the tablets in the 1956 version of The Ten Commandments were red).
- The writing on the tablets will be in a style known a paleo-Hebrew though not exactly correct for the era in which the film is placed.
- The writing on them would be similar to the style used in early Hebrew writing from a somewhat later period.
- The text will not be the shortened, truncated version that was used in the 1956 film.
- The text will be full-justified (the text flush with both left and right margins).
- There will be no blank spaces between words.They will like much like the tablets a painting (circa 1990) by Giora Eshkol:
The arch on the top of those tablets (absent from the one depicted in the EGK final trailer) was an important feature. It has been suggested that this indicated that the text had the imprimatur of a god/king.
On the other hand, Jewish tradition holds that the tablets had flat tops, since their container, the Ark of the Covenant, had no rounded sides. Though it also indicated that the tablets were less flat and more cuboid, the EGK tablets seems something of a hybrid—a cross between the traditional Ancient Near Eastern tablets and the traditional Jewish interpretation, though leaning heavily toward the Ancient Near Eastern paradigm.
Here is a brief analysis of the text on EGK Tablet #1:
The first six lines can be clearly read on the tablet, but the following one to three lines are blurry, and only partially visible in the frame.
As per the custom in the Ancient Near East, there are no blank spaces between words.
The text is primarily lines up flush with the right margin, with about 11 or 12 characters per line.
Line 3 should appear before Line 2.
Line 5 should appear above Line 4.
The following is a translation of the Hebrew as it appears on EGK tablet #1:
Line 1
I am the Lord thy God
Line 2
[the end of the word “god”s] before me
Line 3
Thou shalt have no other [the beginning of the word “gods”]
Line 4
[the end of the name of God”) your God in vain
Line 5
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy [the beginning of the name of God]
Line 6
the Sabbath day to keep it holy
* * * * * * *
The following is a translation of the Hebrew found in the biblical book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 2 through 22. The words in bold indicate which pieces are written on EGK tablet 1, though not necessarily in the order they appear in the text of the Bible:
I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
It is possible (but has not yet been confirmed) that the following appear to some extent on the second tablet:
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
* * * * * * *
Please note that the image of this tablet shown in the final trailer is proceeded by a very dark shot of Moses apparently either hewing the tablets or engraving the stone:
Again, time will tell…