The Lord told Abraham’s son Isaac in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”. Doing all that, Abraham was very obedient to God! Also Wisdom of Sirach 44:20, “Abraham kept the laws of the Most High.” To be so consecrated in obedience, for sure Abraham had much faith and belief in the God he obeyed!
The apostle Paul referred to the gentile Abraham as the “father” of Christians. Ro.4:16 “Abraham, who is the father of us all.” Christians speculate as to which of God’s numerous commandments and principles given in the Bible were obeyed by our spiritual forefather Abraham, as per Ge.26:5.
God Most High had laws in Abraham’s day. We don’t know the full extent of the laws kept by early righteous gentiles such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Job, etc. James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p. 18 “In the Genesis narrative….conditional and unconditional commands are usually represented rhetorically by implication as oughts and ought nots.”
Abraham/Abrám would’ve also been subject to the human laws of the powers that be of his day. For example, the discovered Babylonian law code of Hammurabi dates from near the time of Abraham’s grandson Jacob or great-grandson Joseph. (Also see the topic “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.)
However, there’s no scriptural record of any antediluvian civil government or law courts with capital punishment prior to Ge.9:5-6.
Previously, it seems that personal vengeance had been the rule. Cain murdered his brother Abel. Then Cain said in Ge.4:14-15, “Whoever finds me shall kill me”. He feared some individual or a kin of Abel would take vengeance upon him.
Yet Paul 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 did not honor Him as God.” Early humans knew of God.
Sin occurred in the Garden of Eden (Ge.3)…long before sin was described in the Lord’s theocratic laws for Moses & ancient Israel and identified elsewhere.
But Paul said sin and law-breaking doesn’t exist without Law. Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no violation.” And Ro.5:13 “For until the Law 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.”
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 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.”
The Bible indicates some of the ancients were good men. He.11:4-5 Abel was righteous, and Enoch pleased God. Enoch means ‘dedicated’ or ‘teacher’. According to the (supposed) Book of Jasher 3:4-8, Enoch taught the ways of God. “He went to the sons of men and taught them the ways of the Lord; in all places where the sons of men dwelt.”
1Eno.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 Moses, according to 1Enoch.
Also Noah was “blameless and walked with God” (Ge.6:9), and was a “preacher of righteousness” (2Pe.2:5). What is righteousness? Ps.119:172 “All Thy commandments are righteousness.”
Righteous Noah may well have taught the commandments of God that righteous Abraham obeyed in Ge.26:5! Abraham knew priest/king Melchisedek (Ge.14:18-20), who is called “greater” than Abraham (He.7:3-ff)! These individuals taught others about God and the principles of God’s (eternal) law.
The Lord spoke to Abraham several times, and even appeared to him! e.g. Ge.12:1-7, 15:1-21, 18:1-33, 22:1-18, Ac.7:2. God called Abraham His “friend” (Is.41:8, Ja.2:23). God didn’t hide from Abraham what He was about to do to Sodom (Ge.18:17). God also didn’t hide His commandments from him.
In his Genesis narrative, Moses didn’t describe all of God’s principles obeyed by early gentiles. There was no need…the Lord gave Moses/Israel the Law with moral principles which he went on to describe in detail in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Most of the same (Hebrew) terms are present in Ge.26:5 to note Abraham’s obedience (quoted at the top), as appear in the later De.11:1 terms for directives which the Lord gave to ancient Israel.
De.11:1 “You shall love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments.” (Judgments/legal decisions [mishpát Strongs h4941, Hebrew] refer to God’s justice system for the theocracy, which Abraham predated.) We see that the categories of directives the Holy Spirit inspired to be recorded in Genesis in describing Abraham’s obedience, and those used to describe directives for ancient Israel, overlap! This similarity and consistency is significant.
In the books of Genesis and Job we see glimpses of most of the moral directives later contained in the Mosaic Law for Israel and the Jewish people! (also see “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)
Let’s see from scripture a sampling of God’s commandments which were known by ancient gentiles such as Abraham, prior to the codification of God’s Law for Israel in Moses’ time.
The book of Job shows that Job practiced the Golden Rule. Jb.1:1 Job was an upright man who treated his neighbor well. Later, Jesus said in Mt.7:12, “However you want people to treat you, so treat them”. This principle is from Le.19:18 in the Law. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (prior to Mt.)
A close reading of activity in Genesis reveals both knowledge of and violations of commandments which later became part of the Decalogue the Lord spoke to ancient Israel at Mt. Sinai in Ex.20.
Murder occurred in Ge.4:8. “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” Blasphemy or slander of God’s character & Name is in Ge.3:1-4. “God said, ‘You shall not eat from it lest you die.’ The serpent said, ‘You shall not surely die!” Adultery is known in Ge.12:15-19, and is called a great evil in Ge.39:9. “How could I do this great evil and sin against God?” Coveting by Laban is evident in Ge.31:7. “Your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times.” Stealing is in 31:19. “Rachel stole the idols that were her father’s.” Idolatry is a sin. 31:35-36 “Laban searched, but did not find his idols. Jacob said to him, ‘What is my sin?” And Ge.35:2 “Put away the foreign gods among you.”
The above was sin for gentiles/non-Jews in Genesis before God spoke them as commandments in the Decalogue of the Law for Moses & Israel (Ex.20, and repeated in De.5).
And the great type for the 7th day sabbath is in Ge.2:1-3, when Christ Himself ceased on the 7th day from His first six days of Creation. God made that weekly time holy before there was any nation of Israel or Jews! Later, Israel probably was forced to labor on the sabbath as slaves in Egypt. After being freed (Ex.12), some of them chose to gather manna on the sabbath day. God said in Ex.16:28, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?” The Sabbath had existed as a law of God before the Ex.20:8 codification! (see the series, “Sabbath 7th Day”.)
Besides the Decalogue/Ten Commandments, there are other principles of God seen in His “book of the law” (De.31:26) and elsewhere in scripture. Following are several such principles we glimpse from the lives of gentiles earlier in Genesis. (for further detail, see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses”.):
Ge.4:4 Abel didn’t eat the (saturated) fat portions. It’s unhealthy. God later prohibited eating fat in Le.3:17.
Ge.7:2 Noah knew which creatures were clean & unclean, later described in Le.11 & De.14:2-21.
Ge.9:3 “moving” things are food too, but nothing dying of itself/“strangled”. See Le.17:15, Ac.15:29.
Ge.9:4 consuming blood is forbidden from Noah’s day. This later is codified in Le.3:17. ref Ac.15:29.
Ge.9:20-24 indecency and drunkenness have bad consequences. Later this is in De.24:1, Ep.5:18.
Ge.14:20 the tithing principle to church & state (priest/king Melchisedek is both). See Nu.18:25-28.
Ge.19:5-ff homosexuality and sex with another kind/beastiality…divine punishment! See Le.20:13-16.
Ge.31:35 avoid close contact with those discharging blood or menstruating. Le.15, 18:19; Ac.15:29.
Ge.34:1-ff marriage or compensation due after seducing or raping a virgin. Ex.22:16-17, De.22:28-29.
Ge.35:22 marriage or sex with your father’s wife (Ge.30:4) is prohibited. See later in Le.18:8, 1Co.5:1.
The above principles are a sampling. Bruckner op.cit., p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”
But conspicuously absent in Genesis are later Levitical ritualistic/ceremonial aspects, such as the three pilgrim feasts with the detailed sacrificial system. These were authorized for Israel to keep only at God’s central sanctuary (ref De.16:5-6, 10-11, 15-16). In Genesis there’s no tabernacle/temple, and there’s no Passover recorded before the Lord “passed over” Israelite homes (Ex.12:13). see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews” and “Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained”.
Sacrifice was ordained by God, and it’s probable He told Adam how to do it. After Adam & Eve sinned, God involved 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. Yet no verse commanded anyone to do recurring animal sacrifice away from the place of God’s Name/temple.
All the above shouldn’t give the impression that Christians today could devise a comprehensive church dogma/doctrine for Christian conduct gleaned from righteous practices (and wrongs) done by gentiles prior to Sinai. Although much of it is still applicable, there are other practices/customs besides animal sacrifice apparent in Genesis which Christians today shouldn’t do. Such as….
Ge.20:11-18 shows that some of what is later called incest was allowed in Genesis, back when the earth must be populated. (But not all forms of what is today called incest were allowed then!) In Ge.24:4, Abraham told his servant to “Go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for Isaac [son of Abraham]”. Isaac told his son Jacob in Ge.28:2, “Take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother”. Endogamy, including marriage between kin, was the cultural norm.
God commanded the first humans in Ge.1:28. “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” Humankind is to manage the earth and its vast resources. According to Genesis, God began with only one man (and one woman). Thereby, God determined that the earth be populated through a form of incest…since the only humans for Adam & Eve’s children to fill the earth with would come from their own brothers & sisters (and then nieces)! Ge.5:3 the first man Adam had “other sons and daughters”. Those siblings could’ve married each other…since no other humans (the same “kind”) were there, besides their parents! According to the Book of Jubilees 4:9, “Cain took Awan his sister to be his wife”.
Abraham married his half-sister (or possibly niece) Sarah. Way back then there wasn’t the risk of birth defects, it is said. Hugh Ross Navigating Genesis, p.120 “Genetic defects as a result of intrafamily marriage develop slowly. They would present no risk until after the first several dozen generations.” However, DNA damage began accumulating over generations of sinning humanity, and caused gene mutation. So in the time of Moses, God prohibited marriage between close kin. ref Le.18 & 20 for prohibited partners. And today there’s the risk of birth defects when near kin marry. (This has occurred in some historical royal families.)
Modern nations have varying definitions of incest. The New Testament itself is silent about single close relatives marrying each other. But in Le.18 & 20, the Lord had much to say to Moses forbidding that, and other incest!
Ge.29:23-28 Jacob became married to two biological sisters simultaneously. Later this is prohibited in Le.18:18 of the Law…when there is more female population (although plural wives are still allowed).
Also Ge.38:8-10, where a man’s refusal to conceive a child with his deceased brother’s widow could possibly constitute life-threatening neglect of her in God’s eyes. This provision later appears in the law, De.25:5-ff (and is seen in the book of Ruth 4:5-7). In those days, a son was often a necessity to provide for his mother in her old age!
(But much later when Paul wrote to Corinth, 1Co.7:39, a Christian widow may marry any “brother” who is “in the Lord”. She isn’t restricted to a biological relative of her husband. Endogamous tribal inheritance rights in the Land of Canáan aren’t a concern where Paul wrote.)
Also, added to Abraham (not to his gentile ancestors) at age 99 was the covenant of physical circumcision, to be passed down through descendants of Isaac & Jacob primarily in the Land (Ge.17, Ac.7:8). This practice was unnecessary for Christians worldwide (Ac.15). see the topic “Circumcision in the Bible”.
Conclusion: It seems quite feasible that the commandments, statutes, and laws glimpsed in Genesis that we’ve referenced and compared to the Mosaic Law…are among those which father Abraham obeyed (Gen.26:5). Even though he didn’t have the later codified Law of Moses (cf. Ro.4:13).
Jesus said to the Jews who opposed Him in Jn.8:39, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham”.
Abraham was given such faith to believe and obey existing commandments/statutes/laws of the Lord who revealed Himself to him! e.g. Ge.18:1 “The Lord appeared to him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamré.” (For more, relative to Abram’s prior decades, see “Abraham’s Birthplace and Siblings”.)
It may well strengthen our faith to believe the eternal God has some form of eternal Law as an enduring righteous standard, which men and angels aren’t to violate in the heavenly realm or on earth.
Re.22:14 “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and enter in through the gates into the city.”
Jesus is “Lord”. The Lord Jesus isn’t an anarchist! He’s never been lawless. Praise our Lord!!
Bible Topic Exposition 