The Ten Words

The Ten Words – Shapira Fragments Poster

This elegant poster presents The Ten Words as they are preserved in the mysterious Shapira Fragments. Long dismissed, but in the post-Qumran era increasingly regarded by many as ancient and authentic, these leather fragments preserve a version of the Decalogue unlike any other. Could this be the original? After all, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 do not agree.

The text itself exhorts the reader to keep these words ever before them:

“And these words which I am commanding you today, shall be upon your heart and taught incisively to your children. And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and as you walk along the way and when you lie down and when you rise. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they will be as bands between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorframes of your house and on your gates...” (The Moses Scroll)

The full story of Moses Shapira and these fragments is told in Ross K. Nichols’ book The Moses Scroll. This poster is both a beautiful display piece and an invitation to study and reflect on words that may represent the earliest form of the Ten Commandments.