Талмуд к Йеошуа 4:3

HALAKHAH: It was stated: It was written on the stones of the dwelling place, the words of Rebbi Jehudah¹⁴⁵In the interpretation of Rashi, Babli 35b, they took the stones, built with them the altar on Mount Ebal, disassembled the altar, took the stones to Gilgal, inscribed the Torah with 70 translations on the stones and covered everything with whitewash. The text of the Babli is paralleled in the Tosephta, 8:6.
Both in the Babli and in the Tosephta this opinion is that of the anonymous majority.; Rebbi Yose says, it was written on the stones of the altar¹⁴⁶In Babli and Tosephta, this is ascribed to R. Jehudah... He who says, it was written on the stones of the dwelling place, every day the peoples of the world were sending their stenographers¹⁴⁷Latin notarius, “stenographer”. and they carried away the Torah which had been written in seventy languages¹⁴⁸They lifted the whitewash from the stone and had the letters stand out, and transported everything back to its place. In the opinion of R. Simeon, the translations were written on the whitewash where they could be copied.
In talmudic theory, Adam was created literate since he had a book (Gen. 5:1). If at any time in human history, peoples were found who were illiterate, they must have been degenerate [Sanhedrin 38b, Avodah zarah 5a; Gen. rabba 24(7)]. Adam was also created an inventor and engineer (cf. the author’s The Scholar’s Haggadah, pp. 219–221; A Jewish Fundamentalist Philosophy of Science and Development, Association F. Gonseth, Bulletin 63, 1992, pp. 9–20.). He who says, it was written on the stones of the altar, were they not only for a short time and then were hidden? That was another wonder, that the Holy One, praise to Him, gave insight to every people and they carried away the Torah which had been written in seventy languages. For him who says, it was written on the stones of the dwelling place, it is understandable that “you shall whitewash them with lime.” But he who says, it was written on the stones of the altar, how does he uphold “ “you shall whitewash them with lime”? Between the stones¹⁴⁹This is not mentioned in Babli-Tosephta.. Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥmani in the name of Rebbi Jonathan: “The peoples will be lime incinerators¹⁵⁰Is. 33:12. In Babli and Tosephta, this is attributed to R. Simeon.”, from the lime they took their death sentence¹⁵¹Greek ἀπόφασις “judgment, sentence”.. Rebbi Abba bar Cahana in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: “But the Gentiles will be totally destroyed¹⁵²Is. 60:12. This sermon is not mentioned in the parallel sources. It is based on the identification of חרב I, Akkadic ẖarābu “to dry up” and חרב II, Arabic خرب “to destroy”. The basis of this sermon and entire paragraph is the theory, based on Deut. 33:2, that before the epiphany on Horeb/Mount Sinai, God had offered the Torah to all the other peoples of the earth, who refused, and only Israel accepted. Therefore, only Israel reaps the rewards in the Future World (cf. Sifry Deut. 343, ed. L. Finkelstein; all the other sources are given there in Note 14.),” from Ḥoreb they took their death sentence.

You may say that there were three kinds of stones¹⁵³Tosephta 8:6, Babli 35b.: The stones of the resting place¹⁵⁴Jos. 4:3,8,20., and the stones which Joshua put under the soles of the feet of the Cohanim¹⁵⁵Jos. 4:9., and the steles¹⁵⁶Greek στήλη. For the use of steles in ancient synagogues, cf. י. בראבד, ״איצטלין״, לשוננו 32 תשכח-1968 ע׳ 276. that Moses had given them¹⁵⁷This is explained in the Babli, 35b. In Deut. 1:5 it is stated that Moses explained the Torah. In 27:8 it is commanded to copy the Torah on the stones, well explained. Since in the latter cases, “explained” means “engraved in stone”, it follows that in the first case “explained” also must mean engraved in stone.. Rebbi Ḥaninan said, it is obvious to us that there were four kinds of stones¹⁵⁸That the stones on which the Torah was written translated into 70 languages were none of the above three kinds. This opinion is not mentioned in Babli/Tosephta.. Rebbi Simon ben Zebid said, that is correct. If you would say, they were the stones of the resting place; these were temporary and were hidden¹⁵⁹This is difficult to understand since the stones should be there as a permanent memorial, Jos. 4:21–24. In any case, the verses make it clear that these stones were not to be used to be written on.. If you would say, the stones which Joshua put under the soles of the feet of the Cohanim; these were submerged in the water. If you would say, the steles that Moses had given them; they already had moved with them into the Land¹⁶⁰Even if they had taken the steles with them, the Torah already was written on them and they could not be those on which the Torah was written anew.. But we must deal with the stones that Joshua put up for them on the banks of the Jordan.