Stone tablets (Ex 24:12)

Abstract

Mentioned thirty and one times in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, the so called “stone tablets” gain representativeness with regard to the project of the exodus, fundamental, and hence, referential experience for the religion of ancient Israel. Therefore, it is worth to discover, with more accuracy, the symbolic connotations that this object possesses. In this regard, this study invests in an exegetical analysis of Ex 24:12, verse that mentions the “stone tablets” for the first time. And it will be possible to perceive that already in this text, written in a poetical form, there is an emphasis in three symbolic characteristics of the studied object. The listener-reader is actually invited to contemplate the materiality of the “tablets”, the presence of writing and, specifically, the double characterization of the inscriptions' contents as ‘instruction’ and ‘commandment’.