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Line 2: {{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 ''lûḥōt habbǝrît'' "tablets of the covenant", לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן ''lūḥōt hāʾeben'' or לֻחֹת אֶבֶן ''lūḥōt eben'' or לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים ''lūḥōt ʾăbānîm'' "stone tablets", and לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת ''lūḥōt hāʿēdūt'' "tablets of testimony", [[Arabic]]: أَلْوَاحُ مُوسَى) 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}}). Line 8: 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]]. [[Alan Millard]] and [[Daniel I. Block]] note parallels between this aspect of Israelite religion 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, [[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 holds that “the original Ark contained a [[cult image|statue]] [i.e. a [[cult image]]] of [[Yahweh|Yhwh ==Appearance of the tablets== | |||