The Real Tablets?
What did they REally look like?
The text below, written in 2007, was passed by several archeologists and other scholars for their review, and a few adjustments to the text were made accordingly. It speaks only to what the original tablets may have looked like, and does not address what might be the most effective way of presenting the words of the Ten Statements (often mistranslated as "the Ten Commandments") to a modern audience.
The historicity of the Israelite exodus from Egypt is open to debate, as is its date and the existence of the Luchot (Decalogue tablets). However, if the Exodus occurred and if the Luchot existed and were originally intended for public display, and if the Israelites followed the conventions for public presentation of law codes, then the Luchot may have had some, if not all, of the following characteristics:
THE TABLETS
Shape:
If the date of the exodus was between the end of the Sixteenth Century BCE and Thirteenth Century BCE, and if the giving of the law took place somewhere in the Sinai, then the shape of the tablets possibly would be similar to the Hammurabi-type stele, though possibly wider and with a flattened arch on top like, for instance, the Merneptah stele.
In spite of the fact that modern representations of the Luchot show the words inscribed on rough hewn stone tablets (similar to something a prehistoric human might have created with flint), formal monumental tablets, such as those in Egypt, were expertly crafted, and there is no reason to suspect that the original Luchot should have looked “imperfect.”
Material
If the Luchot were written as described in Exodus, then the material would have been stone – basalt, granite, sandstone, greywacke, etc.
Color:
Color was often used in Antiquity to identify the status of people, type of document, etc. White indicated purity; unbleached cloth indicated "peasant;" pairs of red and yellow stripes indicated a musician, etc. The color black indicated the "authority." If the Luchot existed, and if the stone was chosen based on its color rather than by selecting merely what was readily available, then the color of the stone may have been black, which would have indicated that the subject of its text was law.
Size:
The tablets possibly would have been approximately 20 to 24 inches high by eight to nine inches wide (plus outer frame); and around two to three inches thick.
Layout of the text:
Each tablet would probably have had writing on only one of its two sides. The commandments would have been written on either the front face of one tablet and continued on the front face of the other. or else the same text appeared twice-- on one side of each tablet. In order to prevent additional letters or words from being added to the stone at a later date, the text would likely have been "full-justified," with even margins on both sides. The text would have appeared either written in a continuous stream with no spaces between the words, or else markings such as dots would have been used as separators between words.
The direction of the letters and the words on the tablets can only be guessed at, since documents from this period had letters and words reading from top to bottom and/or bottom to top and/or from left to right and/or right to left, or alternating in both directions
THE WORDS
The syntax, grammar and spelling of the text on the original tablets would likely have differed somewhat from more modern renderings (which may better reflect the spoken Hebrew of the Tenth to Ninth Century BCE), even though the meaning of the commandments might have been the same.
SCRIPT
Though it could be argued that there are too few examples from the time and place to come to any useful conclusions, it may be that some guesses can be made about two aspects of the script:
Symbol-set
If the Exodus was as late as the 14th-13th centuries:, then the script used probably would have been the Early Alphabetic linear alphabetic script. If the Exodus was at the beginning of the 16th century, then the possible candidates could have been one of the Sinaitic scripts (probably the Northern Sinaitic types).
Script design
If the Exodus was as late as the 14th-13th centuries, the script design could possibly have been Hebraeo-Phoenician. If the Exodus was at the beginning of the 15th century, the design might have been one of the Sinaitic (probably the Northern Sinaitic) types, or perhaps an Israelite version of the Akkadian cuneiform writing system.
THE TRADITIONAL RABBINIC VIEW
The rabbinic understanding (others might call it legendary or even mythological) differs considerably from the scientific/historic understanding.
Jewish tradition holds that the Commandments appeared on two flat-topped, rectangular, cuboid tablets of a blue sapphire-like material.
On the fist set, which Moses is said to have broken, the square-Hebrew letters (looking much like those in common use today) were said to have been cut straight through to the back side-- yet, miraculously were properly readable from that back side, rather than in mirror writing.
Also miraculously, the insides of certain letters, such as those that were circular, did not drop out but were said to have hung in their places.
Some have suggested that every word of all the other 600 or so commandments in the Torah were written in between the lines of the Decalogue.
The second (replacement) set were said to have been written in the Paleo-Hebrew script. (This contradicts the ideas put forth by most archeologists, epigraphers and paleographers that the Paleo-Hebrew script appeared in history prior to the square-Hebrew script influenced by the Babylonians.)
The historicity of the Israelite exodus from Egypt is open to debate, as is its date and the existence of the Luchot (Decalogue tablets). However, if the Exodus occurred and if the Luchot existed and were originally intended for public display, and if the Israelites followed the conventions for public presentation of law codes, then the Luchot may have had some, if not all, of the following characteristics:
THE TABLETS
Shape:
If the date of the exodus was between the end of the Sixteenth Century BCE and Thirteenth Century BCE, and if the giving of the law took place somewhere in the Sinai, then the shape of the tablets possibly would be similar to the Hammurabi-type stele, though possibly wider and with a flattened arch on top like, for instance, the Merneptah stele.
In spite of the fact that modern representations of the Luchot show the words inscribed on rough hewn stone tablets (similar to something a prehistoric human might have created with flint), formal monumental tablets, such as those in Egypt, were expertly crafted, and there is no reason to suspect that the original Luchot should have looked “imperfect.”
Material
If the Luchot were written as described in Exodus, then the material would have been stone – basalt, granite, sandstone, greywacke, etc.
Color:
Color was often used in Antiquity to identify the status of people, type of document, etc. White indicated purity; unbleached cloth indicated "peasant;" pairs of red and yellow stripes indicated a musician, etc. The color black indicated the "authority." If the Luchot existed, and if the stone was chosen based on its color rather than by selecting merely what was readily available, then the color of the stone may have been black, which would have indicated that the subject of its text was law.
Size:
The tablets possibly would have been approximately 20 to 24 inches high by eight to nine inches wide (plus outer frame); and around two to three inches thick.
Layout of the text:
Each tablet would probably have had writing on only one of its two sides. The commandments would have been written on either the front face of one tablet and continued on the front face of the other. or else the same text appeared twice-- on one side of each tablet. In order to prevent additional letters or words from being added to the stone at a later date, the text would likely have been "full-justified," with even margins on both sides. The text would have appeared either written in a continuous stream with no spaces between the words, or else markings such as dots would have been used as separators between words.
The direction of the letters and the words on the tablets can only be guessed at, since documents from this period had letters and words reading from top to bottom and/or bottom to top and/or from left to right and/or right to left, or alternating in both directions
THE WORDS
The syntax, grammar and spelling of the text on the original tablets would likely have differed somewhat from more modern renderings (which may better reflect the spoken Hebrew of the Tenth to Ninth Century BCE), even though the meaning of the commandments might have been the same.
SCRIPT
Though it could be argued that there are too few examples from the time and place to come to any useful conclusions, it may be that some guesses can be made about two aspects of the script:
Symbol-set
If the Exodus was as late as the 14th-13th centuries:, then the script used probably would have been the Early Alphabetic linear alphabetic script. If the Exodus was at the beginning of the 16th century, then the possible candidates could have been one of the Sinaitic scripts (probably the Northern Sinaitic types).
Script design
If the Exodus was as late as the 14th-13th centuries, the script design could possibly have been Hebraeo-Phoenician. If the Exodus was at the beginning of the 15th century, the design might have been one of the Sinaitic (probably the Northern Sinaitic) types, or perhaps an Israelite version of the Akkadian cuneiform writing system.
THE TRADITIONAL RABBINIC VIEW
The rabbinic understanding (others might call it legendary or even mythological) differs considerably from the scientific/historic understanding.
Jewish tradition holds that the Commandments appeared on two flat-topped, rectangular, cuboid tablets of a blue sapphire-like material.
On the fist set, which Moses is said to have broken, the square-Hebrew letters (looking much like those in common use today) were said to have been cut straight through to the back side-- yet, miraculously were properly readable from that back side, rather than in mirror writing.
Also miraculously, the insides of certain letters, such as those that were circular, did not drop out but were said to have hung in their places.
Some have suggested that every word of all the other 600 or so commandments in the Torah were written in between the lines of the Decalogue.
The second (replacement) set were said to have been written in the Paleo-Hebrew script. (This contradicts the ideas put forth by most archeologists, epigraphers and paleographers that the Paleo-Hebrew script appeared in history prior to the square-Hebrew script influenced by the Babylonians.)