Ten Proclamations

Do you know that our favorite phrase “Ten Commandments” is not a biblical expression?

If you search it on Google, you will be surprised — the Bible never uses this word, not in the Old Testament, and not in the New Testament.

In Hebrew it is called
• עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִי (‘Aseret HaDevarim) = “Ten Words/ Utterances/ Proclamations/ Essence”
• הָעֵדֻת (ha-‘edut) = “The Testimony.”
Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:45.
Refers to the stone tablets as witness of the covenant.
Ark is called “Ark of the Testimony” (אֲרוֹן הָעֵדוּת) because it contained them.
• הַבְּרִית (ha-brit) “The Covenant.”
Deuteronomy 4:13: “He declared to you His covenant … the Ten Words.”
These words embody God’s binding covenant with Israel.

The Greek (Septuagint) uses as well οἱ δέκα λόγοι = “Ten Sayings.”
“Ten Commandments” was introduced to us through Jerome (4th c.) who didn’t know well Hebrew.
“Ten Words” are never treated as an isolated law code in Torah. Rather, they function as the core and summary of the entire Torah. Ten Words (Decalogue) are the root, while the rest of the Torah unfolds as the branches.

The language of revelation was Biblical Hebrew, but the script used for the first tablets may not have been the block Hebrew letters we know today, but Proto-Sinaitic script (ca. 18th–15th c. BCE), the earliest known alphabetic writing system, discovered in the Sinai Peninsula.

I have to explain to you something profound and of uttermost importance. Without this foundation, one will be lost in the theology of the Tabernacle.

I will start with the very first original Tablets which have been shatted.

This is another translation from me to clarify the verse more: "They saw.... beneath His feet (throne stool) as the tile/brick/ pavement/tablet of sapphire/lapis lazuli/precious stone - as very essence - heaven pure". Ex. 24:10

“And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.” Ex. 32:16

Do you get this? It is not quarried from beneath God’s throne of glory, it was integral part of His environment. He gave it as foundational expression of His government.

A natural sapphire stone formed by God and given to humanity.

Ex 32:16 “And the tablets were the work of God “
All the natural things are called the work of God. In Psalms we read the description: the rains, winds, animals, followed by exclamation: “O Lord, how manifold thy works!” (Ps. 104:24) This is not work of carpentry or art, it is nature. It is God’s work. “The writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.” It means that sapphire blocks were formed independently as the rest of sapphire known in the area of Sinai. So not only the tablets are natural phenomenon, but the writings as well. It is essential for our discussion.

Revelation on Sinai was intended to remove all doubts what Supreme Intelligence created all, sustains all and communicates with man. The tablets are intended to be everlasting “Testament” (They are called the Tablets of Testament). That’s explains why when God concluded the Revelation of Himself to Moses and people He gave this Stones as Testimony, as evidence. That is how astonishing these Stones with 10 Words were.

The Torah says that the words were seen from both sides of the Tablets (Ex 32:15). Some are trying to explain that the letters were hollowed through, but that would not appear miraculous. My opinion that the letters were formed naturally through sapphire’s grain. As sapphire is translucent the letters can be seen from the both sides. The Creator of the message embedded the Words in the stone. In my opinion the commands were not subsequently carved into the sapphire, but literally grew as the stone formed over time. That explains why God says He will “write" on the second set the matters that “were” on the first set. Not that He “wrote” on the first set.