DID ABRAHAM HAVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?
By S. B. Whitney
Some persons answer this question negatively, but without reason and positive evidence. In Deut. 4:13 Moses says, “And he declared unto you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments: and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” At this time God was formally establishing the ten commandments as a law among the people of Israel. Now compare the above with 1 Chron. 16:12, 15-18. “Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth.” “Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.” As David composed this psalm to be sung before the ark containing the tables of stone, the identity of the covenants in the two passages cannot be questioned; and in the latter it is expressly declared that the covenant which was confirmed to Jacob for a law was the same as that made with Abraham, and therefore he had the ten commandments. It is also evident that a thing cannot be confirmed that did not previously exist, and this is evidence that the law given on Mt. Sinai was previously in existence and therefore did not originate then. The sense in which those commandments were the covenant made with them is the same in both cases, and is clearly shown by reference to Gen. 26:5, when God says that he will perform the oath which he sware to Abraham, “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws.” They were incorporated into the covenant in both instances, as the conditions of the promises which the covenants respectively contained. S. B. WHITNEY.