Why did god give Moses the 10 commandments instead of Adam?

Answer 1

Great question! You could add Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. There was no

lack of righteous people before Moses, so why didn't one of them get that great

set of moral and ethical guidelines ? Why the delay ?

Here's one answer. I hope other contributors will come along with more.

In order to understand my answer, you have to first go back and skim that part of

Exodus again, closely enough to notice that the Ten Commandments were not given

to Moses alone. All of the "children of Israel" ... as many as a few million people ...

stood assembled at the mountain, and heard or felt some kind of something

communicating the Ten Commandments to all of them at the same time. It was

such a traumatic experience that as soon as it passed, they begged Moses that

if there was going to be any more to hear, that he should please go and get it

on his own and then come tell them about it. They didn't want to go through

anything like that again.

And that's my answwer to the question. The Ten Commandments, plus a lot

more of what constitutes the Torah, is not a set of rules for individuals. It was

given to a nation because it's a set of rules for a nation, comprised of tribes and

communities. Back in Exodus again, what was the crowd's reaction when Moses

soon brought a section of the Law and taught it to them ? They exclaimed "in one

voice" . . . etc. The Law was given to a nation, and the nation responded as if it

were an individual: "We'll do it, and we'll listen." That's where the unity of the

nation was born, without which it could never survive.