I need to understand Noah’s history. It says in Genesis 6:9 that Noah was a just man; that he walked with God. But what does it mean by “just?” I mean, there wasn’t a law at the time, Moses didn’t exist.<\/p>\n
The same about Cain killing Abel. God told him to do good when God saw how his face changed. So, it was God telling him “do better than this and you won’t have a reason to be angry”?<\/p>\n
God often talks about good and evil in Genesis, but He didn’t give a law to follow. How did people know what was good and what was evil?<\/p>\n
I John 3:4 says that sin is the transgression of the law. How could Cain have sinned if there wasn’t a law? And Jacob, he deceived his father, but Israel came from him and not from Esau.<\/p>\n
I’m guessing the answer is in “Now man has become like Us, knowing good and evil.” Which means, they could tell what was good and evil naturally, even though they didn’t have a law for it.<\/p>\n
But I’d still ask for your help.<\/p>\n\t
You’ve stumbled onto questions that Paul addressed in Romans. Paul charged all men with sin, but “the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression<\/em>” (Romans 4:15). So, if there really was no law before Moses, then men could not be charged with sin. It would not be fair or just of God to charge people with not keeping what they did not know about.<\/p>\n However, we know that people did sin prior to Moses. “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come<\/em>” (Romans 5:13-14). Paul reasoned that because the consequence of sin existed (death) prior to Moses, then sin must have been present. Since sin was present, then there had to have been law.<\/p>\n We call the period before Moses the Patriarchal Age. This was the time when God dealt directly with the heads of families (the patriarchs). Like God’s warning to Cain (Genesis 4:6-7), we can assume that people were taught the difference between right and wrong.<\/p>\n But Paul takes this further. Even though most of the world did not have a written law, people did understand moral choices. “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them<\/em>” (Romans 2:14-15). No matter where you go in the world, most people understand that you don’t murder another human being, most people understand that you don’t take another person’s things without permission, you don’t sleep with another man’s wife, etc. For example, notice how Pharaoh scolded Abram, “And Pharaoh called Abram and said, ‘What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way’<\/em>” (Genesis 12:18-19). While all the fine details are not present, still people, without a written law, know instinctively about things found in God’s law. God was just to hold them accountable for the things they could have known. Even with the more generous provisions, all men still sinned. Thus we conclude that law always existed.<\/p>\n Where did that instinctive knowledge of right and wrong come from? I think you are correct in pointing to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That instinct doesn’t function immediately, but at some point in our development, it comes into play. That is why God did not hold the children guilty of their parent’s sin. “Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 1:39). I find this particular passage interesting because the same phrase in Hebrew is used to describe both the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the innocence of children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I need to understand Noah’s history. It says in Genesis 6:9 that Noah was a just man; that he walked with God. But what does it mean by “just?” I mean, there wasn’t a law at the time, Moses didn’t exist. The same about Cain killing Abel. God told him to do good when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[177,179],"class_list":["post-25018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-law","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47096,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-the-gentiles-be-guilty-of-sin-when-they-did-not-have-the-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":25018,"position":0},"title":"How could the Gentiles be guilty of sin when they did not have the Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was trying to figure out the comparison (or contrast) between Romans 2:12-16 and Romans 7:7-11 \"For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23555,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-god-doesnt-show-favoritism-then-why-was-abels-sacrifice-accepted-and-cains-was-rejected\/","url_meta":{"origin":25018,"position":1},"title":"If God doesn’t show favoritism, then why was Abel’s sacrifice accepted and Cain’s was rejected?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible says that God does not show favoritism toward anyone. So how is it that He favored Abel over Cain, and accepted Abel's offering while rejecting Cain's? Answer: By saying that God is impartial (Romans 2:11), what is being said is that God doesn't favor one person over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24218,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-romans-513-in-parenthesis-in-the-king-james-version\/","url_meta":{"origin":25018,"position":2},"title":"Why is Romans 5:13 in parenthesis in the King James Version?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This came up recently: Romans 5:13 is in parenthesis in the King James version. Could you please explain why? Answer: The parenthesis was added by the translators, both in the King James and New King James versions, to emphasize that this is explaining the charge made in Romans 5:12.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15087,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-concept-of-right-and-wrong-come-from-the-nature-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":25018,"position":3},"title":"Does the concept of right and wrong come from the nature of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: From past study, I have come to the conclusion that that morality, right and wrong, are bound up in the nature of God himself. Things are not right or wrong \u201cjust because God said so,\u201d \u2013 that is, God does not arbitrarily declare a thing to be wrong that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8254,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-put-the-forbidden-tree-in-the-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":25018,"position":4},"title":"Why did God put the forbidden tree in the garden?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a couple of doubts and am hoping to get an answer from you. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, which was a sin. Why did God has created that tree? If there is no tree, then there would have been no sin. Why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47711,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-to-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":25018,"position":5},"title":"Have to Sin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Sharp God Has Never Given Man a Law He Could Not Obey. \"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}