Seven Laws of Noah

The Noahide laws are the laws that Judaism teaches that all of mankind is morally bound to follow. They are first mentioned in Tosefta 9:4 and Talmud Sanhedrin 56a/b. There are always seven basic categories with a varying number of specific laws up to about 66 according to Dr. Aaron Lichtenstein's base on the Rambam.

Commandments

The commandments according to Rav Shmuel ben Hophni Gaon cover:

• Idolatry
  • No idolatry
  • To pray
  • To offer ritual sacrifices
• Blasphemy
  • To believe in the singularity of G-d)
  • No blasphemy
  • No witchcraft
  • No soothsayers
  • No conjurers
  • No sorcerers
  • No mediums
  • No demonology
  • No wizardry
  • No necromancy
  • To respect father & mother
• Murder
  • No murder
  • No suicide
  • No Molech worship (infanticide)
• Property
  • No stealing
• Sexual Immorality
  • No adultery
  • Formal marriages via bride price & marriage gifts
  • No incest with a sister
  • No homosexuality
  • No bestiality
  • Not to crossbreed animals
  • No castration
• Food Laws
  • Not to eat a limb of a living creature
  • Not to eat or drink blood
  • Not to eat carrion
• Justice
  • To establish courts and a system of justice
  • No false oaths

Theft, robbery, and stealing covers the appropriate understanding of other persons, their property, and their rights. The establishment of courts of justice promotes the value of the responsibility of a corporate society of people to enforce these laws, and define these terms. The refusal to engage in unnecessary lust or cruelty demonstrates respect for the Creation itself, as renewed after the Flood. To not do murder would include human sacrifice as being forbidden.

Background

All denominations of Judaism hold that gentiles (non-Jews) are not obligated to follow Jewish law and custom; only Jews are obligated do so. Since traditional rabbinic Judaism has always affirmed a fairly strong view of religious pluralism, it teaches that gentiles are not obligated to convert to Judaism; as long as people live in accord with a basic set of moral laws, they can and do have a meaningful relationship with God.

The Noahide laws are those laws of God which are seen as binding upon all people, due to the agreement of Noah and his family to abide by them. According to the biblical account, the great flood killed all of mankind except Noah's family, hence all people now alive are held to be descendants of Noah.

There are differing accounts of the obligations thereby imposed on man: Islam for instance interprets them with additional tales of Noah.

All people are considered Bnei Noach, but anyone who lives by these laws is also termed a Noahide (follower of the covenant of Noah), also called a righteous (chassid) gentile (goy) or G-d fearer (Geir). The Rainbow is the symbol of the Noahides.

Maimonides states in his work Yad ha-Chazaka (The laws of kings and their rulership 8:11) that a non-Jew who keeps the Seven Noahide commandments is considered to be a Righteous Gentile and has earned the afterlife.

Except for Unitarian Christians or other followers of Jesus who do not believe in his divinity, general Christians cannot be Noahides because the belief in trinity is considered blasphemous and to set a man up as a G-d is idolatry. It is thus ironic that the idolatry, blood, and immorality laws were first recognized as laws laid down for gentiles by the early disciples of Jesus in Acts 15:20&29.

If a non-Jew keeps the Seven Noahide commandments one is considered a Ger Toshav (pious inhabitant) in Israel.

Traditions of Origin

One tradition is that the Noahide Laws are seven laws from the covenant made between God and Noah after the 40 days and 40 nights of rain which flooded the whole world killing everyone except Noah and his family and the creatures of the ark. They are never specifically enumerated in the Bible, but the covenant that God made with Noah (Genesis 9) contains these admonitions:

Food

Also, flesh with the life -the blood- in it do not eat. (4)

Murder

I will also inquire about your blood, your life, from all animals, and from each human I will inquire about his brother's blood.

Who sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed, because in the image of God was man made.

The first documented Jewish council dealing with Gentiles who had expressed interest in living under a Jewish Legal System is the Nazarene council mentioned in the book of Acts 15 verses 19-21 & 28-29. Here Paqid Jacob Halophai (James the Just) dictates the first epistle to gentiles who wish to be under Israel's law. It is apparently taken for granted that such gentiles understood the prohibitions against Idolatry, Blasphemey, Murder & Stealing, but specific problems of contact with things poluted through Idolatry, Kashrut ("Strangled" refering to meat that has been killed without draining the blood) and Sexual Immorality needed to be outlined by the Jewish House of Law.

Another common tradition is that six were given to Adam and Eve in Paradise and one to Noah in Genesis chapter 9.

In the story of Noah we see mention of Sacrifice, Kashrut, and Uncovered Nakedness -a biblical euphemism for incest within a patriarch's family. In the story of the Tower of Babel (Book of Beginnings 11:1-9) Heaven puts an end to the experiment in dictatorship (indicated by the phrases "the people is one") when it had replaced the plurality intended in the original Law-Court system. Others have interpreted it that the command for a plural legal system instead of any dictatorial system was initiated at this time.

Further reading

• Clorfene C and Rogalsky Y. The Path of the Righteous Gentile: An Introduction to the Seven Laws of the Children of Noah. New York: Phillip Feldheim, 1987. ISBN 087306433X.

Links

Chabadnik site on Noahide laws Bnei Dodim messianist website