{"id":55914,"date":"2025-01-17T16:31:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/?p=55914"},"modified":"2025-01-17T16:31:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:31:58","slug":"thou-shalt-be-auctioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2025\/01\/thou-shalt-be-auctioned\/","title":{"rendered":"Thou Shalt Be Auctioned"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"the<\/a>

Yavne Tablet<\/p><\/div>\n

Recently, the Yavne Tablet, a remarkable relic from the late Roman-Byzantine era (circa 300\u2013800 CE), was auctioned off. It is the oldest surviving complete stone inscription of the Ten Commandments. The tablet features twenty lines of Paleo-Hebrew text carved into a piece of white marble weighing 115 pounds. The use of Paleo-Hebrew and the omission of the third commandment (prohibiting taking God’s name in vain) led specialists to determine that this version came from the Israelite Samaritan community. The Samaritans omit the third commandment in favor of an additional commandment to worship at Mount Gerizim, their holy site. The Paleo-Hebrew script also points to it being a Samaritan creation, as most Israelites had been using classical Hebrew script for centuries. Only the Samaritans continued to use the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. The tablet’s concise format, necessitated by the difficulty of carving marble, keeps the commandments brief while still conveying their spiritual significance.<\/p>\n

The Tablet was discovered in 1913 near Yavne, an ancient cultural hub for both Jews and Samaritans. For decades, it served as a paving stone until it was identified in 1943 by archaeologist Jacob Kaplan. In 1947, Kaplan published his findings in the Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, linking the artifact to the Samaritan community during the Byzantine era. The tablet was uncovered near what used to be a Samaritan synagogue. It later had a church built on top of it by European crusaders, followed by a mosque a century after that. The tablet changed hands in 1995 when an Israeli antiquities dealer acquired it and eventually became part of Brooklyn’s Living Torah Museum<\/a>. In 2016, collector Mitchell S. Cappell purchased it for $850,000 and it had not been seen until it was presented for auction.<\/p>\n

The lot was estimated to fetch between $1 million and $2 million at auction. After 10 minutes of intense bidding from collectors worldwide, the Yavne Tablet sold for an astonishing $4.2 million ($5.04 million with the buyer’s premium), securing its status as one of modern history’s most extraordinary religious artifacts. The anonymous buyer intends to donate it back to Israel for public display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, the Yavne Tablet, a remarkable relic from the late Roman-Byzantine era (circa 300\u2013800 CE), was auctioned off. It is the oldest surviving complete stone inscription of the Ten Commandments. The tablet features twenty lines of Paleo-Hebrew text carved into … More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":55915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[570,111,49,207,20,11,606],"class_list":["post-55914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rehs-galleries","category-rehs-contemporary","tag-ancient","tag-antiquities","tag-auction","tag-auction-news","tag-auction-results","tag-rehs-contemporary-news","tag-sothebys"],"yoast_head":"\nThou Shalt Be Auctioned - Rehs Galleries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The oldest known copy of the Ten Commandments, known as the Yavne Tablet, was recently auctioned off at Sotheby's New York.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2025\/01\/thou-shalt-be-auctioned\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thou Shalt Be Auctioned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The oldest known copy of the Ten Commandments, known as the Yavne Tablet, was recently auctioned off at Sotheby's New York.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2025\/01\/thou-shalt-be-auctioned\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rehs Galleries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RehsGalleriesInc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-17T21:31:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/11-19-2024-Ten-Commandments-2048x1138-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1138\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amy Rehs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amy Rehs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/thou-shalt-be-auctioned\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/thou-shalt-be-auctioned\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amy Rehs\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e9be54a41856350ea54e2acf2fd6f8ec\"},\"headline\":\"Thou Shalt Be Auctioned\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-17T21:31:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/thou-shalt-be-auctioned\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":356,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/thou-shalt-be-auctioned\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/11-19-2024-Ten-Commandments-2048x1138-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"ancient\",\"Antiquities\",\"auction\",\"Auction News\",\"Auction Results\",\"Rehs Contemporary - 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