Paul wrote in Ga.3:19, “Why the Law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions”. What prior law(s) was transgressed that led to God adding the law of Moses? And what all did the Lord then add (for Moses/Israel) to His more ancient prior laws after those were transgressed?
The majority of Bible students think the New Testament (NT) apostle Paul meant the Lord’s Old Covenant for ancient Israel was added. Others think Paul mostly had in mind the detailed sacrificial system which was added. In this topic, we’ll explore the issue.
Paul said transgression, sin, law-breaking…doesn’t exist without law. Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no transgression [Strongs g3847, Greek].” And Ro.5:13 “For until the Law [of Moses], sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Ro.3:20 “Through law comes the knowledge of sin.” So there must have been some form of law already in existence for there to be sin or transgression (of that law), according to Paul.
Since the Bible mentions sin several times in Genesis (Ge.4:7, 13:13, 18:20, 20:9, 31:36, 39:9, 42:22, 50:17), prior to the Law of Moses…Divine Law must have existed and been revealed to humanity prior to Moses, for sin to have been present! 1Jn.3:4 “Sin is the transgression of the law [lawlessness].”
Sin occurred in the Garden of Eden (Ge.3)…long before sin was described in God’s theocratic laws for Moses & ancient Israel and identified elsewhere. 1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.” Divine Law, which the serpent violated (Ge.3:3-4) and Cain violated (Ge.4:7-11)…existed from the beginning!
Ge.26:5 the Lord said, “Abraham obeyed [h8085 shemá, Hebrew] Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”. Abraham did all that…prior to the Law of Moses! He was very obedient to God. Also Wisdom of Sírach 44:20 “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.” God Most High had laws in Abraham’s day (centuries before Moses). Abraham had much faith/belief, to obey God!
There were (eternal) laws of God in existence during the period from Adam to Moses. Those laws were kept by early righteous gentiles such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Job, etc. 1Enoch 99:2 “Woe unto them who pervert the words of uprightness, and transgress the eternal law.” 1Eno.106:13-14 “Some of the angels of heaven commit sin and transgress the law.” (cf. 1Jn.3:4) An eternal law existed before the Law of Moses, according to 1Enoch. Abraham was aware of God’s earlier moral laws, and he obeyed.
The topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?” references some of those more ancient (eternal) laws. They won’t be listed here. James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.208 “Law is presented, in the first canonical book of scripture [Genesis], as part of the created order.” There are scriptures that show principles of all the Ten Commandments reflected in Genesis, long before Moses.
Paul also indicated that a moral sense of God and of sin has always existed in man’s consciousness. Ro.1:19-21 “That which is known of God is evident within them. For since the creation of the world, even though they knew God, they [most] did not honor Him as God.” Early humans knew of God.
God’s moral principles/laws seen in Genesis, and given to ancient Israel…weren’t new in Moses’ day!
Evangelical Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser wrote in God’s Promise Plan and His Gracious Law: “So endemic is the moral law to the whole of the Mosaic law that evidences for its abiding nature can be found in the fact that even before it was given on Sinai it was held to be normative and binding on all who aspired to living by faith. In fact every one of the Ten Commandments is already implicitly found in the Genesis record even before their publication on Sinai. Moses did not invent the moral law; God did, and He had already been holding men and women responsible for heeding it millennia before he finally wrote it on tablets of stone.” Yes, real ‘living by faith’ includes living by God’s moral law.
Then in the Old Covenant, God included His preexisting moral commandments, statutes, laws (which Abraham obeyed)…and added to them. Added new in the Old Covenant Law of Moses were: pilgrim feasts (Ex.12:1-13:7, Ex.23:14-18); the daily morning & evening sacrifice (Ex.29:38-43); sin & guilt offerings (Le.4–6); the tabernacle/temple sequence of offerings, rituals, ceremonies (Nu.28–29); etc.
Conspicuously absent in Genesis are the (later) three pilgrim feasts and the Levitical ritualistic aspects with the detailed sacrificial system. In Genesis, there’s no tabernacle/temple, and no Passover before the Lord later ‘passed over’ Israelite homes (Ex.12:13). see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.
Ga.3:18-19 “If the inheritance is based on law [g3551 nómos], it is no longer based on a promise, but God granted it to Abraham based on a promise. Why the Law [of Moses] then? It was added because of transgressions [g3847 parábasis].” (7 NT occurrences: Ro.2:23, 4:15, 5:14, 1Ti.2:14, He.2:2, 9:15.)
Meyer’s NT Commentary Ga.3:19 “It [Law of Moses] was, after the covenant of promise was already in existence, superadded to the latter.” Cambridge Bible Ga.3:19 “It was added’, yet so as not to interfere with the promise.”
Expositor’s Greek Testament Ga.3:19 “But there could obviously be no transgressions until the law existed. The prohibitions of the Ten Commandments….these sins prevailed before the law.” Yes, laws of the Ten Commandments, and several other laws, existed for Abraham and gentiles in Genesis. There could be no transgressions, if there’s no existing laws to transgress (according to Paul, Ro.4:15).
God’s moral principles/laws existed, for gentiles, prior to the Old Covenant. The Lord carried-over those principles/laws into the Old Covenant as codified for Israel and for aliens among them. The prior laws remained applicable to gentiles. (see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses”.)
Moses wrote in De.11:1, “You shall love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, ordinances, and His commandments”. Notice the similarity of that verse to what all Abraham had obeyed earlier in Ge.26:5 (without an Old Covenant Law of Moses).
Barnes Notes Ga.3:19 “The Law [of Moses] was given [by the Lord] to show the true nature of transgressions, or to show what sin was.” Benson Commentary Ga.3:19 “To restrain the Israelites from transgressions.” Restrain them from transgressions of God’s prior enduring moral laws.
Also, the Old Covenant law contained judgments and case law to govern an orderly society.
Paul wrote in Ro.4:13, “The promise [g1860 epangeleéah] to Abraham or to his seed that he would be heir of the world [g2889 kósmos] wasn’t through law, but through the righteousness [g1343 dikaiosúnay] of faith”. Vincent Word Studies Ro.4:13 “Paul here takes the Jewish conception of the universal dominion of the Messianic theocracy prefigured by the inheritance of Canáan, divests it of its Judaistic element, and raises it to a christological truth.” Gill Exposition Ro.4:13 “Not through the law of circumcision, or on their obedience to that, for this promise was made before that was enjoined; see Genesis 12:2; nor through the law of Moses, which was not yet given.” God made the promise to Abrám back when there were no pilgrim feasts (no Passover), Levitical rituals, sin offerings, etc.
God’s promise to Abraham wasn’t made through the Law of Moses or the Old Covenant. The gentile Abraham didn’t have that. But Abraham knew God’s moral principles/laws which predated “the promise”. However, the focus of this topic isn’t “the promise” to Abraham…but what was added later, according to Paul in Ga.3:19. Yet the promise was made to the Abraham who…“obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”, Ge.26:5! He knew God’s righteous precepts…and they were later incorporated into the Old Covenant, which God codified for Moses/Israel.
{Sidelight: Moses too had known God’s preexistent righteous precepts. After Israel exited Egypt, Moses’s father-in-law Jethró came to Moses/Israel in the wilderness in Ex.18:5. Moses said to Jethro, Ex.18:16, “I judge between a man and his neighbor, and make known the statutes of God and His laws”. Moses made known God’s preexistent laws/principles and justice…prior to the Old Covenant (Ex.24), and even prior to God speaking the Ten Commandments (Ex.20)!}
Early gentiles like Abraham didn’t have the detailed sacrificial system. It was added for Israel…added after Israel rebelled against the Lord in unbelief as they left Egypt.
Je.7:22 “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. Gill Exposition Je.7:22 “These are not in the decalogue or ten commands…but are an appendage or addition to it; and though they are of early institution and use, yet they never were appointed for the sake of themselves.” JFB Commentary Je.7:22 “The ten commandments having been delivered first.” (see “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.) Cambridge Bible Je.7:22 “In general it may be said that obedience to the moral law always ranked first.” Ellicott Commentary Je.7:22 “The ritual in connection with sacrifice was prescribed partly as a concession to the feeling which showed itself, in its evil form, in the worship of the golden calf.”
Again, the (eternal) laws which Abraham and other righteous gentiles in Genesis obeyed, and the Decalogue spoken by the Lord (Ex.20)…were absorbed into the Old Covenant Law for Israel. It was ratified in Ex.24:1-8, and repeated/amplified in Deuteronomy as Israel was finally entering the Land.
Je.7:23 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [hearken to, h8085] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.” Barnes Notes Je.7:23 “Sacrifice is never the final cause of the [old] covenant, but always obedience.” God wants obedience first, not recurring sacrifices.
But Matthew Poole Commentary Je.7:22 “They [sacrifices] have been of Divine institution ever since Adam, Ge.4:3-4. God doth not condemn them, or deny them, save only comparatively in respect of obedience, not so much these as obeying His [moral] commands.”
The Lord didn’t institute the detailed sacrificial system for Israel until after they faithlessly rebelled against Him. Yet there was animal sacrifice before Moses/ancient Israel, and before Abraham.
Claude Mariottini Why Did God Ask For Animal Sacrifice? “As early as the 4th millennium BC, animal sacrifices were offered in Egypt at the temples at Abýdos, Thebes, and On….Babylon had centers of worship at Éridu, Níppur, Érech, Ur, and other places that can be dated from the 4th and the 3rd millenniums BC. Babylonian records give evidence of an elaborate system of worship and sacrifices at these temples. One document says that the animals offered in sacrifice by King Gúdea included oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, and birds. As for animal sacrifice in the Bible, the biblical record is very clear that animal sacrifice goes back to the earliest days of biblical history. For instance, the garments of skins for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21) were made from animals slain in sacrifice.”
Sacrifice was ordained by God, and it’s probable He told Adam how to do it. After Adam & Eve sinned, God required the first sacrifice, providing them with clothing (Ge.3:21). It’s unlikely Cain & Abel invented sacrifice on their own (Ge.4:3-5). The practice was passed down to others.
Animal sacrifice to (pagan) deities was customary in much of the ancient world. Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, (Job) offered sacrifices to the Lord long before ancient Israel left Egypt. see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”. Yet no verse in Genesis commanded anyone to do recurring animal sacrifices.
Later, in Ex.3:18, 5:3, 8:27, 10:24-26, Moses was to ask permission from Pharaoh for Israel to have a sacrificial 3-day feast in the wilderness (his request was denied). Animal sacrifice wasn’t new to those Egyptians.
Ex.12:1–13:7 God ordained the Passover for Israel and the accompanying days of unleavened bread as they were leaving Egypt. Ex.12:51 the Lord brought them out of Egypt.
What prompted the Lord to command the detailed sacrificial system to ancient Israel? Why did God add recurring animal sacrifices to His prior moral precepts which He brought into the Old Covenant?
Those questions are addressed as this topic is concluded in “Added in the Old Covenant (2)”.
Bible Topic Exposition 