As before, the Q is the claimed contradiction, M is my response. “Guy” is the generic name I gave to the people posting these supposed errors.
This one might be a little controversial; I will present the facts as they are written and present my interpretation of them. It was a real eye opener when I first learned this, never having heard of it in church, nor catching it when I read the verses. And this was a long one because of wanting to give a fair amount of sources for this belief, so it’s the only contradiction in this article.
If you disagree with any of this, please feel free to give your input. Just remember to use facts, or add some I might have missed, to help back up your claim. I’m not always right (my husband would love to hear me say that 😂), no one is always right. Someone has to be wrong, and I’ll gladly admit I am if you show me what I’ve missed or misunderstood–by using Scripture. Study this one on your own, study all of them on your own. Take your time on it, especially if you are confused or disagree. But enjoy!
Q: How did Moses get the Law?
Exod 20:1-17 God gave the law directly to Moses (without using an intermediary).
Gal 3:19 The law was ordained through angels by a mediator (an intermediary).
M: Simply put, Moses was the deliverer of God's Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and they were given directly from Yahweh to Moses, then Moses to the Israelites. The Law Paul refers to in Galatians was not the Ten Commandments of Exodus, but the Law of Moses which was “ordained” through angels with Moses as a mediator, then Moses delivered them to the Israelites. So no contradiction, the Ten Commandments and the Law are two different things.
However, I have found that many Christians do not understand the difference between God’s Laws and the Mosaic Law. Many will disagree with what I am about to say. That’s okay. I could be wrong, but with all the Scriptures that back this up, it might take a bit to change my mind, but I’ll definitely put thought and prayer into it.
Let’s look at God’s Commandments first. There are only ten, not hundreds, and we are to be living by them today. In Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, these were given directly from God to Moses. Period. No go-betweens, no mediations, no end of adherence.
The Law, known also as the Law of Moses, was a covenant between God and the Israelites. As I said before, this is the Mosaic Covenant, the one to be finalized by the sacrifice of Jesus, at which time we start with the Jeremiah Covenant, or better known as the New Covenant. Deuteronomy 5 shows the timeline better where one can see God’s Commandments did not include all the rest of the Law. Moses lists all the Commandments, then he says in verse 22, “These are the Commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and He added nothing more. Then He wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.”
In verse 30, Yahweh instructed the people to return to their tents, but wanted Moses to stay there and learn all the rest. Moses did not mention the angels at this point, for some reason. However, in Deut 33:2, it talked how at the time Moses gave the Law to the people, God had come with 10,000s of “holy ones” (most suppose them to be angels) from His right hand a “fiery law [cascades] for them.” That’s the original Hebrew, no punctuations. So there were angels there at the time.
Here are a few sources that show it was widely believed that angels worked with Moses to complete the Mosaic Covenant laws.
Josephus(39 AD - 100 AD)
Antiquities of the Jews, Bk. 3, Chp. 5, Para. 6 (or Sect. 93-95): “But on the following days [the multitude] came to [Moses'] tent and desired him to bring them, besides, other laws from God. [This after being told about the Ten Commandments.] Accordingly, he appointed such laws, and afterwards informed them in what manner they should act in all cases…”(Para. 7) When matters were brought to this state, Moses went up again to Mount Sinai, of which he had told them beforehand…”; Josephus related how Moses brought back the 10 Commandment tablets written by God this time, but did not tell of Moses destroying them. Wonder why?
Antiquities Bk. 15, Chp. 5, Para. 3 (or Sect. 136b): “And for ourselves, we have learned from God the most excellent of our doctrines, and the most holy part of our law, by angels or ambassadors; for this name brings God to the knowledge of mankind.”
Against Apion Bk. 2, Para. 21 (or Sect. 184): “But while we are ourselves persuaded that our law was made agreeably to the will of God.” This would seem to imply Josephus believed that the Law was settled before they had God’s approval and had been formulated well enough to ultimately receive God’s approval.
Bible
Acts 7:53: “You who have received the law that was given through the angels”;
Hebrews 2:2 “For if the message spoken by the angels was binding and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment.”
Jesus says in Mt 19:8 and Mk 10:3: “Moses permitted you to divorce.”
Jesus in John 7:23: “Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?”
Gal 3:19: “Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by a mediator.” [The original is not “intermediary” as some translations have it.]
Col 2:16-17: “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you from the prize.” Though this doesn’t say that angels were the ones who gave the instructions of what to eat, drink or celebrate as described in the Torah, it can be implied. As Paul said, these things were all a shadow, a foretelling, of Jesus.
Isaiah 1:11 “‘The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?’” says the Lord. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams, and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.’” This shows that the sacrifices were not God’s idea, as does…
Hosea 6:6 “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Jeremiah 7:22-24 “For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.” But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and stubbornness of the evil hearts and went backward and not forward.” This seems to agrees with what Josephus wrote in Antiquities, Bk. 3, Chp. 5, Para. 6 I have quoted above, where the Israelites weren’t satisfied with only the 10 Commandments, but wanted more. Could Moses’ second Sinai visit have been God reinforcing His Law by writing them in His own hand, but Moses, finding the golden calf on his return, lost it?
Church Fathers
St. Aristides of Athens (died c 134AD) refers to the Colossians passage I just gave. In his The Apology of Aristides, Sect. 14, he said, “Nevertheless [the Jews] too have gone astray from accurate knowledge, and they suppose in their minds that they are serving God, but in the methods of their actions their service is to angels and not to God, in that they observe sabbaths and new moons and the passover and the great fast, and the fast, and circumcision, and cleanness of meats, which things not even thus have they perfectly observed.”
Origen of Alexandria (c185-254) In his Commentary in Canticles, Sect. 1-2, he talks about how “Indeed it has been said that the Law was promulgated through the angels by means of mediator,” and again, “In fact, it seems to me that the Law, which was promulgated through the agency of a mediator, did indeed contain a foreshadowing of the good things that were to come,” and Origen finishes with “It is these imitations that were given to the Church, the Bride, by the angels, who are the friends of the Bridegroom and who served her in the Law and other mysteries. That, I believe, is what St. Paul meant when he spoke of the ‘worship of angels which some enter into blindly puffed up by their mere human minds.’ (Col. 2:18) Thus the entire cult and the religion of the Jews were imitation of the gold.”
There are several other verses and references to this, but these are the ones I think most clearly show it was widely believed that Moses mediated with angels to fine-tune the Law. A mediator is someone, per Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, “one who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or to form a compact, or for ratifying a covenant, an arbitrator [one who settles disputes].” Strong’s Concordance has “a go-between, i.e. (simply) an internunciator, or (by implication) a reconciler (intercessor).”
As you can see, I’m not solid sola scriptura, but the only writings that I take as full truth is the Bible. Josephus, simply a Jewish historian, and the Church Fathers were not “Spirit-breathed,” so I always use the Bible to see if they have a foundation in truth. So, yeah, maybe you can say I am “sola scriptura with a tendency toward using non-Biblical writings to prop up the Biblical ones.”
In conclusion, the difference between the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments? God gave Moses the Ten Commandments directly, something to be adhered to by all and throughout all time. The Law of Moses was different. It was the covenant sanctioned between Moses (Israelites included) and God, known today as the Mosaic Covenant. God gave it a finishing point: the death of Jesus upon the cross. He was the final–the ultimate–sacrifice.
The Ten Commandments are the only set of laws that God gave us to be followed ceaselessly. The Law of Moses, the Mosaic Covenant, was completed through the death of Jesus. Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
This means Jesus released us from having to follow the Law, leaving the Commandments, which He shortened to two new Commandments in Matt 22:36-40: 1) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” 2) “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He finished with how these two cover the Law and Prophets.
I hope I’ve given enough sources to show why I believe that the Law of Moses was actually something “put in place” by the angels and Moses, with several verses showing that God then approved and adopted as His own (probably since that was what Moses wanted).
In hopes of not making this too long, I still must comment on how I can see where the psychology of having just left a sacrificing, superstitious culture, this type of law was needed for the Israelites. By the time of Jesus, many generations had passed since Egypt, and aside from their rebellion into other idol worshiping, the Israelites should have been ready to change their culture into one that did not require blood any more. Talk about freedom.
©2024 Kelly L. Hartley
Kelly L. Hartley, a new author, writes Bible studies, devotions, fiction, and poems. She focuses on Bible contradictions for her “Spare Time Musings” on Substack. She’s a member of Ozark Chapter of American Christian Writers and Springfield Writer’s Guild. Social media: Substack, 𝕏, Facebook, Instagram.