00:00Behind us we have one of the most important treasures that I have ever handled.
00:24It is the earliest complete stone tablet of the Ten Commandments.
00:30It dates back to the late Roman Byzantine period from over 1500 years ago and it is
00:37inscribed in paleo-Hebrew script with the words of the Ten Commandments as is familiar
00:44to millions of people around the world in the Christian and Hebrew Bible.
01:14These stones are incredibly rare.
01:20We have a census where we have found a total of ten, but all other nine are fragments which
01:27contain only part of the Ten Commandments.
01:30This is the only one which contains the complete Ten Commandments.
01:35This is also the earliest with the complete Ten Commandments.
02:00This stone weighs 115 pounds.
02:04It measures about 20 by 22 inches and in fact this is exactly the same measurements
02:11that the rabbis in the early first centuries agreed was the measurements of the original
02:15Ten Commandments that Moses carried down from the mount.
02:20After that we have, this is honor your father and your mother, this is you should not kill.
02:42Paleo-Hebrew is a script that the Jewish people used from the 10th century before the Common
02:47Era until the 5th century of the Common Era.
02:51It's closely modeled on Phoenician script.
02:55At that point in the 5th century before the Common Era, the Jewish people began using
03:00Ksav Ashuri which is the Hebrew that we know today.
03:05So while the text, the language is still Hebrew, the script is known as Paleo-Hebrew.
03:12Lo tirtzach, you should not kill, and lo t'ach, you should not commit adultery.
03:28It has the first nine commandments as we know them.
03:32The third commandment, thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain, is not there because
03:38this commandment was written by a Samaritan for use in a Samaritan synagogue, place of
03:45worship, and instead the 10th commandment here is the admonition that one should worship
03:52on Mount Grizim.
03:54Mount Grizim is a holy site near Nablus where the Samaritans still worship.
04:25This treasure, the earliest 10 commandment tablets, extant, is coming for auction on
04:32December 18th at Sotheby's.
04:34The estimate is $1 to $2 million.
04:36I have been asked why it's so low, and on December 18th we will find out exactly where
04:42it goes.
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