Was there an oral law before the law of Moses? Assertions Noah Moses and Adam .
Some people claim that before the law was given through Moses was written down that this law existed in oral form. It is asserted that Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Moses were all aware of and followed this law. I have dealt in great detail with many of the assertions regarding Abel and Abraham. In this short writing, I am going to deal with a few more assertions. What we will see is that assertions are all that they are and in fact, the Bible answers these assertions and shows them incorrect.
We must first point out that the Bible itself NEVER refers to this oral law. Not one person makes any mention of it. Moses does not state that he received anything other than the law that he was told to write down.
Exodus 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
One assertion that is made is in regards to Noah. It is asserted that Noah knew about clean and unclean animals before the law was given through Moses and so Noah must have been aware of the laws.
So let’s have a look at the claim.
Genesis 7- 1And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 2Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 3Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth
So it would appear that Noah did know clean and unclean animals as it is correct that we are not told what animals are clean and unclean as part of the law until Leviticus.
However, there is actually more information that we are given in the book of Genesis regarding these animals.
If we go back just one to Genesis 6 we see that Noah is told the animals would come to him.
Genesis 6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
Noah was not instructed to go out and collect the clean and unclean animals himself. Noah did not need to know which animals were clean and which were unclean before they arrived. The animals came to Noah.
But what about after they arrived? How would Noah know which animals were clean and unclean if they all just turned up without Noah being told or having prior knowledge?
Well, the Bible answers this as well.
The clean animals would come in 7 pairs and the unclean animals would come in one single pair, male and female. If there were 7 pairs the animals were clean if there was one pair then the animals were unclean.
How do we know this? We simply read the text in full.
Genesis 7-2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
So we see that although the animals would come by 2’s (a pair, male and female.) There would actually be 7 pairs of clean animals.
If we look at the Hebrew of Genesis 7:2
מכל ׀ הבהמה הטהורה תקח־לך שבעה שבעה איש ואשתו ומן־הבהמה אשר לא טהרה הוא שנים איש ואשתו׃
What we will see is that the Hebrew here actually uses the word שִׁבְעָ֥ה שִׁבְעָ֥ה sheba or shibah which means 7, twice. . So the Hebrew states 7, 7 not simply 7. A male and his female. There would be 7 male and 7 female of the clean animals.
Of the unclean animals, it simply states 2 a male and his female.
So if there were 7 pairs the animal was clean, if there was only 1 pair the animal was unclean. No prior knowledge required.
Notice also that AFTER the flood when animals were allowed to be eaten for the first time, which in itself shows that Adam and everyone before the flood were not subject to the same dietary laws seeing they were not only instructed to not eat unclean animals but they were not allowed to eat animals at all, there is NO distinction between clean and unclean in what Noah and his family were instructed they could eat. The only restriction was that they could not eat the blood thereof.
Genesis 9- 3Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
This was not the command given to Adam and Eve who were given every herb and the fruit of the trees for food
Genesis 1: 29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Again, this shows that this law that was given to Noah was not the same that was given to Adam and Eve.
There simply was no requirement for Noah to have knowledge of clean and unclean animals before the animals came to the Ark. In the covenant that God made with Noah, Noah also had no law against the eating of clean and unclean animals like the Israelites within their covenant.
We see in Leviticus that God commanded the separation of the clean and unclean animals for the Israelites. God separated Israel from the other people and so also separated the clean and the unclean animals.
Leviticus 20: 24But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. 25Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. 26And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.
Now when it came to the sacrifice that Noah offered to the LORD, we will see that he did sacrifice only clean animals.
Genesis 8- 20And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar
However to claim that Noah was doing so as per the commands of the law is simply ridiculous and shows a lack of knowledge of the law.
We see that Noah offered one of EVERY clean beast and EVERY clean fowl. Noah sacrificing one of every clean animal simply cannot be because he is following the law. There is NO command in the entire law that states to do this. Noah most certainly did offer only clean animals but it was in no way in accordance with the law. Simply taking the fact that Noah offered clean animals and then asserting that this was done as per the law is disingenuous at best dishonest at worst. Anyone asserting Noah offered the clean animals according to the law clearly does not know the law or completely ignored the fact Noah sacrificed one of EVERY single clean animal. When someone is trying to force a belief back into the Bible then this is often what they resort to. Not having a verse to support their claims they have to try and make verses that are not support for their belief seem like they are.
What is also important to remember here is that Noah took 7 pairs of clean animals onto the Ark and ONE pair of unclean animals. If he had offered one of every unclean animal along with the clean animals he would have actually sent every single unclean animal into extinction. Noah did not need the Torah to work that one out.
What about Noah building an alter?
I must at this time state that EVEN if Noah was told by God how to build an altar and how to offer burnt offerings it would not show that Noah was under the same Torah as that given through Moses. Alters were being used by basically all nations to offer up sacrifices to their gods before the flood.
We see that there was no command to do so.
There is NO recorded occurrence of Noah being circumcised, circumcising his sons, tithing, keeping Passover or keeping Sabbath which had Noah actually been following the law he would have been required to do.
How did Moses and Jethro know to sacrifice before the law was given ?
It is asserted that Moses must have known about sacrifice to the LORD through the oral law when we see him and his father in law Jethro sacrifice to God in Exodus chapter 18. This of course is before the law was given.
Exodus 18: 12And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father in law before God.
However this assertion is again shown incorrect in the very same book just 15 chapters earlier in chapter 3 when God sent Moses to Pharaoh.
Exodus 3:18And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, ?that we may sacrifice? to the LORD our God.
God had instructed Moses to sacrifice to the LORD in the wilderness and so when they do sacrifice in the wilderness to God this is not because they did so as following the law but because they were following the instruction that Moses had been given by God. Jethro was a Midianite. He would have at this time have been sacrificing to gods. He just changes his sacrifice from false gods to the LORD
As we can see these assertions are shown incorrect when we just look closer at scripture. Nobody was following the oral law before the law was given through Moses because there simply was no oral law before the law was given through Moses.
Circumcision
Circumcision is part of the Law.
Leviticus 12:3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Circumcision was brought in through Abraham
Genesis 17:9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. 11And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 12And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
Abraham was 99 when he was circumcised and Ishmael his son was 13…..clearly not keeping the law……
Genesis 17: 24And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
There is no record of anyone being circumcised before Abraham. Any claim to the contrary is simply reading that into the text.
The Israelites who had been born in the wilderness were not circumcised UNTIL they arrived in Gilagal in the promised land. This is even after the law was given and written down.
Joshua 5:2 At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
Wasn’t Noah considered JUST by God….
Yes, the Bible tells us this very thing
Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Just is the Hebrew צַדִּ֛יק tsaddiq which is from the same word as was used when Abraham was stated as being righteous
Abraham wasn’t righteous because he followed the law but because he believed in YHWH
Genesis 15: 6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Abraham kept the commands that were given to him (Read about Abraham here)
Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Noah believed in God and did what he was commanded to do.
Now what about the Sabbath, didnt God create that and sanctify it back during the creation week?
The answer of course is yes. HOWEVER, that does not mean that he instructed anyone to keep it. We do not see Adam, Noah or Abraham for that matter keeping the sabbath. This again is an assertion that cannot be biblically supported beyond the assertion itself.
We do however, have a very clear passage where we see the Sabbath instigated. This comes in Exodus 16.
Exodus 16: 29See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30So the people rested on the seventh day.
This is before the law was given in Chapter 20. so it is asserted that clearly they knew about the Sabbath before the law. This is actually correct. But again I have to say HOWEVER, this in no way means that anyone before this chapter was keeping the sabbath. The sabbath here was NOT given as part of the law …it was a test to see if they would keep the law when it was given.
We need to go back to the beginning of the chapter and look at verses 4 and 5
Exodus 16: 4Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. 5And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
Notice here in verse 4 it states that God would rain bread from heaven and the people would go and gather a certain rate every day ..that I may PROVE (test to see) them WHETHER (if) they will walk in my law…..so God was very clearly seeing if they would keep the law, not that he had already given it. In verse 5 we see they are told that on the 6th day they were to gather twice as much. We see that they were being instructed.
Then notice in verse 23 after they had gathered twice as much on the 6th day that Moses explains that the next day was going to be a holy sabbath.
Exodus 16: 22And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
They didn’t know about the sabbath before they were instructed about it here, they had the sabbath explained to them.
The sabbath was given here as a test not as part of the law. The sabbath did become a law later through Moses.
What about Adam? How did he sin if there was no law?
we know that sin entered into the world through the sin of Adam
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
So there must have been a law for law for Adam to sin against.
Romans 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
1 John 3: 4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
The word LAw here is ἀνομία, anomia This means disobedience. It does not mean the law given by Moses.
This is NOT the same word as used for LAW as per Romans 5-13 which is νόμος nomos which is the actual law.
How did Adam sin? Adam sinned by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
This was against a direct COMMAND from God
Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
It was against THIS command that Adam sinned by disobeying not the law given through Moses.
Further questions that need to be answered.
If the Torah existed before it was written down then we must ask as to what law was added and what was it added to?
Galatians 3-19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
If the Torah is the complete 613 laws given through Moses then we are left with the only logical conclusion that no law was added. This then would render the verse incorrect.
If the law that was added was the law given through Moses and it was added to the 10 commandments and it was only the 10 commandments that existed from the beginning, then this would mean that the assertions regarding the sacrificial laws and dietary laws being in affect before they were given incorrect. Noah couldn’t have had the dietary laws if they had not yet been given.
I have even heard it argued that the law was added after the transgression of Adam and it is this transgression the verse refers to. However EVEN in this claim the law was not given at the beginning. If the law was added after Adams transgression then he did not have the law until he transgressed.
Whatever way we look at this the law advocates arguments do not stand up.
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