Tablets of the Testimony

Biblical Text

The tablets of the testimony are the two stone tablets that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments were inscribed on them. The New Korean Revised Version calls them the "tablets of the testimony" (Exodus 31:18; 32:15; 34:29; KJV "tables of testimony") and also renders them "tablets of stone" or "tablets of the covenant" (Deuteronomy 9:9).

• First giving: God gave Moses two tablets written with His finger (Exodus 31:18). The tablets were written on both sides (Exodus 32:15).
• Breaking: During the golden calf incident, Moses threw the tablets down at the foot of the mountain and broke them (Exodus 32:19).
• Second giving: Moses hewed two tablets of stone like the first and went up the mountain again (Exodus 34:1-4). He afterward placed these tablets in the ark (Deuteronomy 10:1-5).
• Keeping: God commanded that the tablets of the testimony be placed inside the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:16). Scripture records that when Solomon dedicated the temple, there was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone (1 Kings 8:9). Hebrews 9:4 states that the ark contained "the tables of the covenant" together with the pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded.

Meaning and Background of the Term

The Hebrew word 'edut, translated "testimony," means a witness, that is, words that bear witness. The term is understood to signify that the covenant stipulations engraved on the tablets bear witness to the covenant between God and Israel. For this reason the ark containing the tablets is also called "the ark of the testimony" (Exodus 25:22), and the tabernacle is called "the tabernacle of testimony" (Exodus 38:21).

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The law engraved on stone is later contrasted with a covenant written on the heart. In Jeremiah 31:33 God promises to write His law in the hearts of His people. In Ezekiel 36:26 God says that He will give a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.

Paul applies this contrast to the ministry of the new covenant. He calls the Corinthian believers an epistle of Christ written "not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:3-6). He also compares the ministration of the letter engraved in stones with the ministration of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:7-8).

Interpretations and Issues

• Division between the two tablets: The text does not say how the Ten Commandments were divided between the two tablets.
• Jewish tradition commonly divides them five and five.
• The Reformed tradition divides them into four commandments concerning God and six concerning one's neighbor.
• The Catholic and Lutheran traditions, which number the commandments differently, divide them three and seven.
• Some scholars hold that, like ancient Near Eastern treaty documents, the two tablets were duplicate copies containing the same text.
• Who wrote the second tablets: Exodus 34:27-28 can be read in context as indicating that Moses did the writing. Deuteronomy 10:2-4, by contrast, states that God wrote them. Many traditions harmonize the two passages by following Deuteronomy.
• Shape: The familiar image of two tablets with rounded tops became established in later artistic tradition. The text does not describe the shape of the tablets.
• Fate: Scripture does not record what became of the tablets of the testimony. 2 Maccabees 2 contains an account of Jeremiah hiding the ark in a cave on a mountain. This book is received as Scripture (deuterocanonical) by the Catholic and Orthodox churches but is classified as apocryphal by Protestants. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds a tradition that the Ark of the Covenant is in Aksum, but this has not been verified.