BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY:STONE TABLETS OF MOSES,STELE OF HAMMURABI,MOUNT SINAI

	ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE	RETURN TO HOME PAGE
	THE STONE TABLETS OF MOSES Bible Study Resource
WHAT	The Bible says that Moses was given 'stone tablets' by God - what exactly were they? See BIBLE PEOPLE: MOSES for a short version of Moses' story
WHERE	On Mount Sinai - whose exact whereabouts is unknown, though Jebel Musa is popularly thought to be the location (see map below)
WHEN	During the Exodus from Egypt, when the Hebrews were arguing about what God was, and what rules they should live by
BIBLE LINKS	Exodus 31:18
	See end of page for discussion: were the stone tablets of Moses the same as the ancient stele of Hammurabi? SCROLL DOWN FOR IMAGES
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	Rembrandt's 'Moses Smashing the Law Tablets	Michelangelo's 'Moses"
		The stele of Hammurabi is made of polished black diorite. It was made circa 1800BC in Babylon. The text is Cuneiform. It is held in the Louvre Museum, France.





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Moses' Stone Tablets - were they stelae?	Whenever artists depict Moses, they show him holding the two stone tablets given to him by God (see Exodus 20 and 34). These tablets were engraved with a long list of commandments that formed, in essence, a law code for the ancient Hebrew people. The Hebrew people were not isolated in time and space. They were part of Eastern Mediterranean culture, and shared in the culture and ideas of their neighbors. The Tablets of the Law, as described in Exodus 20 and 34, bear a striking resemblance to the stele on which the Laws of Hammurabi were carved (see above).	Similar codes of law were created in several nearby civilizations, including Ur-Nammu's code and the later Hittite code of laws. There were certainly differences between the content of the two sets of laws - comparison shows that the laws of the Old Testament were predominantly 'apodictic' - they began with 'thou shalt' or 'thou shalt not', whereas most ancient law codes were casuistic: 'when a man...., he shall....'. But the actual tablets were probably similar to the stele of Hammurabi.
	_____________________________________________________________________________________ INTERESTING WEBSITES - photographs, reconstructions, information A short version of the life of Moses - leader, lawgiver, legend BIBLE PEOPLE: MOSES The story of Miriam, sister of Moses - the historical context, Bible study activities, little known details BIBLE WOMEN: MIRIAM __________________________________________________________________________________________ Stone Tablets of Moses - Archaeology of The Bible - Bible Study Resource The Ten Commandments and the Laws of Hammurabi