Ancient Ten Commandments Tablet Sells for $5 Million at Sotheby's Auction

The Paleo-Hebrew inscribed artifact, dating between 300 and 800 CE, faces questions over its authenticity and provenance.

The marble tablet, weighing 155 pounds and inscribed with nine of the Ten Commandments, sold for $5.04 million after intense global bidding.
The tablet, discovered in 1913 during railway construction in Israel, was used as a paving stone for decades before its historical significance was recognized.
Scholars have raised doubts about the artifact's authenticity and the accuracy of its purported age and origin story.
The text includes an unusual directive to worship on Mount Gerizim, a site sacred to Samaritans, instead of the traditional third commandment.
The anonymous buyer intends to donate the artifact to an Israeli institution for public display, according to Sotheby's.