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Abraham E. Goldminz, MD
Carlsbad, NM

JAMA. 1986;255(11):1436-1437.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

THE JOURNAL'S recent cover reproduction of Rembrandt's Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law¹ and its cursory description was thought provoking.

In his book, Professor Franz Landsberger² labels this painting as Moses Lifting the Tablets of the Law. His discussion cites a source in which the title of the painting is Moses Zeigt die Gesetzentafeln. The German verb zeigen may be translated "to exhibit, display or demonstrate." The action of lifting or displaying the tablets could either have preceded or perhaps initiated the act of breaking them. On the other hand, the lifting and display could have been just that and no more.

The portentous painting itself must answer the question raised in the discussion of the cover—Which Moses and which tablets? I submit it is the Moses described in Exodus 32:15, 19, rather than the radiant Moses of Exodus 34:27, 29.

This great Dutch . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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