The Giving of the Law is one of the most important events in Judeo-Christian civilisation. Variously interpreted by Jewish and Christian exegetes, profusely represented by poets and painters, source of interminable theological discussion and referential text of numberless doctrinal positions, the description of this momentous communication has deeply influenced Western civilisation. This influence has not been neutral, but guided by interpretations and translations. The Hebrew text of the book of Exodus which recounts the Giving of the Law (second tablets) contains an ambiguity: it is impossible to determine whether this communication is direct or mediate, whether it is the finger of God or the hand of Moses which has sculpted the Law in the stone. A detailed analysis of Christian exegesis, from the first Fathers of the Church until Medieval interpretations, reveals the way in which the choice between these two possible exegetical options has exercised a long lasting influence on the Western conception of both Law and Writing: the content of the tablets and their expressive form. From Augustine, who is the first Christian author to pay close attention to this interpretative dilemma, until the last Fathers of the Church, who fundamentally articulate this same exegesis, a typological interpretation is progressively built, which explains the second tablets as a reference to the New Testament. As a consequence, the writing of the Law is gradually spiritualised, in order to become the symbolic counterpart of the word of Christ. This provokes a dematerialisation of writing itself, which is a powerful semiotic myth of Western civilisation. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
