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{{short description|Two pieces of stone inscribed with Ten Commandments}}
{{for|funeral or commemorative tablets carved in stone|Stele}}
{{Ten Commandments series}}
According to the [[Hebrew Bible]], the '''Tablets of the Law''' (also '''Tablets of Stone''', '''Stone Tablets''', or '''Tablets of Testimony'''; [[Biblical Hebrew]]: לוּחֹת הַבְּרִית ''lūḥōṯ habbǝrīṯ'' "tablets of the covenant", לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן ''luḥōṯ hāʾeḇen'' or לֻחֹת אֶבֶן ''luḥōṯ ʾeḇen'' or לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים ''luḥōṯ ʾăḇānīm'' "stone tablets", and לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת ''luḥōṯ hāʿēḏuṯ'' "tablets of testimony") were the two [[stone tablet]]s inscribed with the [[Ten Commandments]] when [[Moses]] ascended [[Mount Sinai (Bible)|Mount Sinai]] as written in the [[Book of Exodus]].<ref>[[William Schniedewind]] has proposed that the original contents of the tablets as described in Exodus were the instructions for building the [[Tabernacle]]. See {{cite book |author=William M. Schniedwind |title=How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel |year=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-82946-1 |chapter=7: How the Torah Became a Text}}</ref>

According to the biblical narrative, the first set of tablets, inscribed by the [[finger of God]], ({{bibleref2|Exodus|31:18|NIV}}) were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the [[Children of Israel]] worshiping a [[golden calf]] ({{bibleref2|Exodus|32:19|NIV}}) and the second were later chiseled out by Moses and rewritten by God ({{bibleref2|Exodus|34:1|NIV}}).
 
According to traditional teachings of [[Judaism]] in the [[Talmud]], the stones were made of blue [[sapphire]] as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's [[throne]]. Many [[Torah]] scholars, however, have opined that the biblical ''sapir'' was, in fact, [[lapis lazuli]] (see {{bibleref2|Exodus|24:10|NIV}}: 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 {{bibleref2|Exodus|24:12|NIV}}).<ref>See: Staples, W. E., "Lapis Lazuli", in ''The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible'', vol. 3, p. 72</ref>

According to {{Bibleref2|Exodus|25:10–22}}, the tablets were stored in the [[Ark of the Covenant]].

==Appearance of the tablets==
[[File:The10Commandments.png|thumb|A popular image of the tablets as rounded-off rectangles bears little relationship with religious traditions about their appearance. In this case, the [[Ten Commandments]] are represented by the first ten letters of the [[Hebrew alphabet]], which in Hebrew usage may be used [[gematria| interchangeably with the numbers 1–10]].]]
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,<ref>[[Bava Batra]] 14a.</ref> and indeed they are so depicted in the 3rd-century paintings at the [[Dura-Europos Synagogue]] and in Christian art throughout the 1st millennium CE,<ref>Except for a variant tradition where a [[scroll]] is shown, only known from Christian examples. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BUyGDWSsi4sC&dq=Dura-Europos+Moses+receiving+the+law&pg=PT37]</ref> drawing on Jewish traditions of [[iconography]].

[[File:Meister der Bibel des Patrice Léon 001.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Rectangular tablets passed down by the [[Hand of God (art)|Hand of God]] in the 10th century [[Byzantine]] [[Leo Bible]].]]
Depictions of round-topped tablets appear in the Middle Ages, following in size and shape contemporary hinged [[Wax tablet|writing-tablets]] for taking notes (with a stylus pressing on a layer of wax on the insides). For [[Michelangelo]] (1475–1564) and [[Andrea Mantegna]] (1431–1506) they  still have sharp corners (see [[#Gallery| gallery]]), and are about the size found in rabbinic tradition. Later artists, such as [[Rembrandt]] (1606–1669), tended to combine the rounded shape with a 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.<ref>See [http://rchaimqoton.blogspot.com/ HaQoton, Reb Chaim] "[http://rchaimqoton.blogspot.co.il/2014/06/squared-vs-rounded-tablets.html Squared vs. Rounded Tablets]" (also available on [https://www.academia.edu/7237484/Squared_vs._Rounded_Tablets academia.edu])</ref>

According to the Talmud, each tablet was square, six [[Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement| tefachim]] (approximately 50 centimeters, or 20 inches) wide and high, and more a thicker block than a tablet, at three tefachim (25 centimeters, 10 inches) thick,<ref>[[Bava Batra]] 14a.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/michelangelo-was-right-about-the-tablets/ |title=Michelangelo was right about tablets |website=[[The Times of Israel]] |quote=As detailed in the Talmud, the two tablets were eight tefahim wide and high—perfect squares, [...] — equal to about 24 centimeters or eight inches, and four tefahim deep, with sharp, not curved, corners.}}</ref> 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.{{cn|date=June 2023}}) Also according to tradition, the words were not engraved on the surface, but rather were bored fully through the stone.<ref>{{Cite Talmud|b|Shabbat|104a}}</ref>

==Christian replicas==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:10 Commandments in Ilocano.jpg|thumb|The Tablets of Stone in [[Ilokano language]] in the Church of [[Saint Monica]].]] -->
Replicas of the tablets, known as [[tabot]]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]] in [[Axum]].<ref>Paul Raffaele, [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/ark-covenant-200712.html?c=y&page=1 "Keepers of the Lost Ark?" ''Smithsonian Magazine''], December 2007 (accessed 9 April 2011)</ref>

==In the Quran==
{{Musa|related}}
{{See also|Moses in Islam|Islamic ethics#Moral commandments}}
The [[Quran]] states that ''[[tablet (religious)|tablet]]s'' were given to [[Moses]], without quoting their contents explicitly:
:"And We wrote for him on the tablets [something] of all things – instruction and explanation for all things, [saying], 'Take them with determination and order your people to take the best of it. I will show you the home of the defiantly disobedient.{{'"}} ({{cite quran|7|145|style=ref}})

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 [my departure]. Were you impatient over the matter of your Lord?' And he threw down the tablets and seized his brother by [the hair of] his head, pulling him toward him. [Aaron] 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.{{'"}} ({{cite quran|7|150|style=ref}}). 
:"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." ({{cite quran|7|154|style=ref}}).

==Modern interpretation==
Biblical scholars [[Alan Millard]] and [[Daniel I. Block]] note parallels between the storage of the tablets in the [[Ark of the Covenant]] with the practice of other [[Ancient Near Eastern]] cultures whose treaty texts were preserved in their temples.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Reading the Law: Studies in Honour of Gordon J. Wenham |last=Millard |first=Alan R. |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-567-45454-6 |editor-last=McConville |editor-first=J. G. |page=264–265 |chapter=The Tablets in the Ark |editor-last2=Möller |editor-first2=Karl |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ipUKbxg6dkIC&pg=PA264}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Write That They May Read: Studies in Literacy and Textualization in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Scriptures: Essays in Honour of Professor Alan R. Millard |last=Block |first=Daniel I. |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-7252-5210-3 |editor-last=Block |editor-first=Daniel I. |page=113 |chapter=For Whose Eyes? The Divine Origin and Function of the Two Tablets of the Israelite Covenant |editor-last2=Deuel |editor-first2=David C. |editor-last3=Collins |editor-first3=C. John |editor-last4=Lawrence |editor-first4=Paul J. N. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSj4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA113}}</ref>

Alternatively, the scholar [[Thomas Römer]] argued in 2015 that “clearly… the tablets of the law are a substitute for something else.”<ref name="Römer92"> Thomas Römer, ''The Invention of God'' (Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 92.</ref> He proposed that “the original Ark contained a [[cult image|statue]] [i.e. a [[cult image]]] of [[Yahweh|Yhwh]]”,<ref>{{cite journal |title=The mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant |journal=Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology |url=https://www.academia.edu/99766658 |last=Römer |first=Thomas |issue=2 |volume=77 |pages=169–185 |doi=10.1080/0039338X.2023.2167861 |year=2023}}</ref>{{rp|4}} which he specifically identifies as “two [[Baetylus|betyles]] (sacred stones), or two [[cult image]] statues symbolizing Yhwh and his female companion [[Asherah|Ashera]] or a statue representing Yhwh alone.”<ref name="Römer92" />

==Gallery==
<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 [[Andrea Mantegna]], c. 1461
File:Moises.jpg|Sharp corners by [[Michelangelo]], c.&nbsp;1513–1515
Philippe de Champaigne - Moses with the Ten Commandments - WGA04717.jpg|Moses with the Ten Commandments by [[Philippe de Champaigne]], 1648
File:Rabbi_Raphael_Evers.jpg|Example behind rabbi [[Raphael Evers]], son of [[Bloeme Evers-Emden]], friend with [[Anne Frank]]; the Hebrew lines are incomplete.
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[World's largest book]], a stone book the pages of which are inscribed stone tablets

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Ten Commandments}}
{{Ark of the Covenant}}
{{Book of Exodus navbox}}
{{Temples in Jewish history}}
{{Characters and names in the Quran}}

[[Category:Ten Commandments]]
[[Category:Hebrew Bible objects]]
[[Category:Ark of the Covenant]]
[[Category:Steles]]