A man, unaware of its historical significance, utilized the marble tablet as a doorstop. It is now gonna be offered for sale at millions.
A marble plaque was concealed and overlooked for generations until its discovery in 1913 during railway station building. Construction workers discovered the marble plaque in the city of Jaffa, now part of Israel, unaware of its significant historical worth. Consequently, they promptly sold it to a local individual.
The board emerges from obscurity
The proprietor utilized the tablet as a doorstep in their residence, resulting in the gradual erosion of several inscriptions over time. It was not until 1943 that it came into the possession of an archaeologist, who recognized it as the oldest known tablet containing the Ten Commandments. The archaeologist opted to sell the tablet to a rabbi from the United States, who displayed it at the Living Torah Museum in New York. In 2016, the museum auctioned the tablet, which was sold for almost one million US dollar. The auction house Sotheby's has listed it for sale again, with the price significantly increased, as experts estimate it may reach up to 2 million pounds during the auction on December 18.
One bid from the Book of Moses is "missing." The tablet was likely inscribed between 300 and 500 CE and presumably indicated the entrance to a synagogue that was destroyed either during the Roman conquests of the 4th to 6th centuries CE or during the Crusades in the 11th century. It is adorned with 20 lines inscribed in an archaic Hebrew script. The tablet is attributed to the Samaritans, a group associated with the Jews. They primarily resided on Mount Gerizim, situated in the contemporary West Bank, south of Nablus.
The passage enumerates only nine of the 10 commandments in Exodus. The commandment "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain" is excluded. It is stated that "a temple shall be constructed" on the sacred Mount Gerizim.