BRO. H. C. WHITNEY'S QUESTION.
By James White
"Bro White: Will you compare 2 Cor, iii, 7, with Deut, xxvii, 8; Josh. viii, 32, and tell me what you think of it?. "QUESTION. Were the ten commandments ever engraven in stone? If so, where shall I find it?"85 REPLY. The passages do not refer to the same event. 2 Cor, iii, 8, mentions circumstances with which Moses was personally connected. "But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, &c. But Deut. xxvii, 8; Josh. viii, 31, 32, refer to events which occurred after the death of Moses. "As Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, (see Deut. xxvii, 8), an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron, and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel." As an answer to the "question" we quote Ex, xxxii, 16. "And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables." But the altar in mount Ebal was built of whole stones and covered with plaster upon which the law of Moses was written.