Historic Ten Commandments Tablet to be Auctioned Off and Could Fetch $1 Million or More

Mar. 15, 2025

One of the most widely known and influential texts in history: the oldest inscribed stone tablet of the Ten Commandments is on displayed during a press preview at Sotheby’s in New York, on December 9, 2024. Dating to the Late Byzantine period, this remarkable artifact is approximately 1,500 years old and is the only complete tablet of the Ten Commandments still extant from this early era. It will be offered as a single-lot sale on 18 December

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty

A stone tablet containing the Ten Commandments is going up for auction.

The 115-lb. tablet “was unearthed in 1913 during railway excavations along the southern coast of the Land of Israel,” and has an estimated value of $1 million to $2 million.

The stone itself dates back to between 300 and 800 C.E.

Sotheby’s workers hold one of the most widely known and influential texts in history: the oldest inscribed stone tablet of the Ten Commandments during a press preview at Sotheby’s in New York, on December 9, 2024. Dating to the Late Byzantine period, this remarkable artifact is approximately 1,500 years old and is the only complete tablet of the Ten Commandments still extant from this early era. It will be offered as a single-lot sale on 18 December.

Austin added, “To encounter this shared piece of cultural heritage is to journey through millennia and connect with cultures and faiths told through one of humanity’s earliest and most enduring moral codes."

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

There are 20 lines of text featured on the tablet that “closely follow the Biblical verses familiar to both Christian and Jewish traditions.”

However, “only nine of the commandments as found in the Book of Exodus.” The only commandment omitted was “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.”

source: people.com