Question XIX. How many, how great, and of what kind [were] these stones?

First: They were twelve, namely for the number of the twelve tribes. For Moses too had set up just as many, when he was about to recite the law to the Israelites (Exod. 24, v. 4); and that reasoning pleases Masius — that what Moses had done there, his disciple Joshua does the same here. Secondly: They are handed down by all [to have been] huge; and for that reason they are called by Josephus βωμοὶ [bōmoi, “high-places”], as it were Bamoth. Thirdly: The same stones were indeed rough and unpolished — either because time did not allow that they be polished, or because in that way [writing] could be inscribed on them more easily, more quickly, and [in] greater [amount]. But, with a plastering of lime applied, they had to be smoothed (Deut. 27, v. 4). For thus they were both rendered more conspicuous to all by [their] whiteness, and, as I said, admitted writing more easily and more quickly — and indeed as much [writing] as one pleased to inscribe. These the 70 [LXX] call ὁλοκλήρους [holoklērous], “whole and entire,” concerning which [see] question 27.