Controversy surrounds sale of ancient stone with Ten Commandments inscription for almost 5 million

new york - An ancient stone with the oldest known inscription of the Ten Commandments has been sold at auction for nearly 5 million dollars despite concerns over its authenticity.

An ancient stone with the oldest known inscription of the Ten Commandments has been sold at auction for nearly 5 million dollars, according to auction house Sotheby's. The auction house dates the white marble stone to approximately 1500 years old.

The stone was first described in 1947 by archaeologist Jacob Kaplan. He claimed to have purchased it a few years earlier from an Arab man, who reportedly received it from his father, found it thirty years prior in southern Israel, and kept the 52-kilo stone in his house as a doorstep.

Experts cautioned earlier this week in The New York Times that the story of the stone's discovery cannot be verified. There are doubts about its authenticity, as there are many forgeries that are not always easy to detect.

While the stone bears ten commandments, they do not precisely match the biblical Ten Commandments. The third commandment, forbidding the vain use of God's name, is missing. Instead, there is a tenth commandment instructing believers to worship God on Mount Gerizim.

Sotheby's had originally anticipated the stone to fetch between 1 to 2 million dollars.