In Exodus, Were the Tablets of Stone a Testimony, or did they Contain Testimony? [duplicate]

Question

<sup>Closely Related:
- What was written on the stone tablets?
- Why were the Ten Commandments written on two tablets?
- Does anyone know for sure what was written in the tablets mentioned in Exodus 16:34?</sup>

What does "Testimony" mean in this context?

• Were the stone tablets themselves a "testimony," immutably written?
• Or, were a "Testimony" AND "Commandments" written on the Tablets of Stone - in the Ark?
• Or, are "Commandments" and "Testimony" essentially synonyms and the same thing?

NASB, Exodus 31:18, Interlinear - When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.

In Scripture, "Testimonies" and "Commandments" seem like different things altogether:

NASB, 1 Kings 2:3 - Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses ...

Answer 1

The two are the same thing.

The biblical concept of testimony is connected with the Old Testament legal sense of term testimony given in a court of law. The term principally derives from the Hebrew yaad, ud, anah [h"n'a] and Greek marturein [marturevw] word groups; Testimony would be classed as fact in the same way a commandment is.