Did the Ten Commandments exist before being handed down?

I can't understand why everyone thinks the Ten Commandments came first when they didn't. The Ten Commandments were a rip off of the Mesopotamian Hammurabi Code, which were a set laws, rules and guidelines for all humans to follow so that they wouldn't kill each other and get completely out of line. The Hammurabi Code existed long before the Ten Commandments did, and I think that they were slightly more reasonable considering the time period in which they were written. The only reason the Ten Commandments came about was because there was need to keep people in line and in check. People were out of control back then and there had to be rules. These rules were set into place to make sure that people knew that there were things that they just couldn't get away with. I think that Cain and the flood could have been catalyst for creating the Ten Commandments, but they weren't the main reasons. I am an Agnostic, and I have done some research on this, that and I have taken quite a few history classes in college. I was also a former Catholic.

Let us consider the 10 commandments. Besides the first 2, the rest are just the way to organize a reasonable society. If, and by saying if I don't mean I don't believe this isn't the case, but IF the Jews were slaves in Egypt, then quite possibly some of what would make a normal, reasonable society run. These things might've been regulated by the Egyptians and possibly they had rather misplaced some of the rules, like coveting other people's stuff, because they had little as slaves. I think God gave the commandment to the Jews as another way to distinguish themselves from other nomadic tribes of the day. Mind you, it didn't seem to apply to non-Jews because they certainly coveted the "Promised Land" didn't they?

This is my opinion on this matter. And I am no expert on the bible. No one is. I've read that book back and forth many times, and each time I find something new. So anyone I think the law was always there, it's just that it didn't matter, because mankind had sinned so much, that they were destined to be turned to dust anyway, once they all went extinct. But then God felt sorry for everyone, and said okay I'm going to save all of you people. But in the meantime this is what you can do to be forgiven of your sins (the animal sacrifices), and these are the rules that you should be following. (Ten commandments).

Allen- The number of times my husband and I have this discussion with others online could earn me serious monies! As Rogue already pointed out most of the bible is taken from the previous civilizations, namely that of Sumer and Babylon. The creation myth and most of genesis coincides with the tales found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. I'm not offended and I'm a former catholic. I was raised Roman Catholic, spent many years as a Christian, and now am Pagan. I've been open most of my life to actual history and not self-professed history, so I'm not naive enough to believe that Sumer was all an invention to "test our faith". Yes, I've actually been told that before in response to calling the bible a "fake". The bottom line is that we have historical archaeological proof that the Semitic people in the old testament were not the first civilization. Namaste-Anora

The Ten Commandments were laws handed down by God. i believe they existed before being given to Moses. They didn't just appear from nowhere.