Seven Laws of Noah

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Jewish new religious movement, see Noahidism.

The rainbow is the unofficial symbol of Noahidism, recalling the Genesis flood narrative in which a rainbow appears to Noah after the Flood; it represents God's promise to Noah to refrain from flooding the Earth and destroying all life again.[1]

In

humanity.[12]

The Seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions against

courts of justice.[15]

According to

World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba), the final reward of the righteous.[19] The non-Jews that choose to follow the Seven Laws of Noah are regarded as "Righteous Gentiles" (Hebrew: חסידי אומות העולם, Chassiddei Umot ha-Olam: "Pious People of the World").[20]

List

The seven Noahide laws as traditionally enumerated in the

Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 56a-b and Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9:4,[21] are the following:[22]

  1. Not to worship idols.[23]
  2. Not to
    curse God
    .
  3. Not to commit murder.[24]
  4. Not to commit adultery or sexual immorality.[25]
  5. Not to steal.[26]
  6. Not to eat flesh torn from a living animal.[27]
  7. To establish
    courts of justice.[28]

According to the Talmud, the seven laws were given first to Adam and subsequently to Noah.[30] The Tannaitic and Amoraitic rabbinic sages (1st–6th centuries CE) disagreed on the exact number of Noahide laws that were originally given to Adam.[3][7][9] Six of the seven laws were exegetically derived from passages in the Book of Genesis,[32] with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.[7][9] The earliest complete rabbinic version of the seven Noahide laws can be found in the Tosefta:[3][33][34]

Seven commandments were commanded of the sons of Noah:

  1. concerning adjudication (dinim)
  2. concerning idolatry (
    avodah zarah
    )
  3. concerning blasphemy (qilelat ha-Shem)
  4. concerning sexual immorality (
    gilui arayot
    )
  5. concerning blood-shed (shefikhut damim)
  6. concerning robbery (gezel)
  7. concerning a limb torn from a living animal (ever min ha-hay)

Origins

Biblical sources

According to the

covenant with Noah with the following admonitions as written in Genesis 9:4-6:[35]

  • Flesh of a living animal: "However, flesh with its life-blood [in it], you shall not eat." (9:4)
  • Murder and courts: "Furthermore, I will demand your blood, for [the taking of] your lives, I shall demand it [even] from any wild animal. From man too, I will demand of each person's brother the blood of man. He who spills the blood of man, by man his blood shall be spilt; for in the image of God He made man." (9:5–6)

Book of Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees, generally dated to the 1st century BCE,[3][36] may include a substantially different list of six commandments at verses 7:20–25:[3] (1) to observe righteousness; (2) to cover the shame of their flesh; (3) to bless their creator; (4) to honor their parents; (5) to love their neighbor; and (6) to guard against fornication, uncleanness, and all iniquity.[37]

Modern analysis

Rabbinical

For this reason you will find that the Noachian and the Mosaic laws, though differing in matters of detail, as we shall see, agree in the general matters which come from the giver. They both existed at the same time. While the Mosaic law existed in Israel, all the other nations had the Noachian law, and the difference was due to geographical diversity, Palestine (i.e. "

Eretz Israel" being different from the other lands, and to national diversity, due to difference in ancestry. And there is no doubt that the other nations attained human happiness through the Noachian law, since it is divine; though they could not reach the same degree of happiness as that attained by Israel through the Torah. The Rabbis say: "The pious men of the other nations have a share in the world to come". This shows that there may be two divine laws existing at the same time among different nations, and that each one leads those who live by it to attain human happiness; though there is a difference in the degree of happiness attainable by the two laws. This difference in the laws can not concern fundamental or derivative principles. Therefore the examination of the law itself is always of the same kind. But the examination relating to the messenger may undergo change. At all events the verification must be direct, though the verification of one religion may be different from that of another. The question whether a given divine law may change for the same people in the same land, we shall examine in the Third Book...

— Joseph Albo, Sefer HaIkkarim

The

Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 59a, see also Tosafot ad. loc.) states that Jews are obligated in all things that gentiles are obligated in, albeit with some differences in the details.[9] According to the Encyclopedia Talmudit, most medieval Jewish authorities considered that all the seven commandments were given to Adam, although Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot M'lakhim 9:1) considered the dietary law to have been given to Noah.[9]

Jewish people to bring the rest of the world to fulfill the Seven Laws of Noah.[39]

Academic and secular

According to Michael S. Kogan, professor of philosophy and religious studies at Montclair State University, the Seven Laws of Noah are not explicitly mentioned in the Torah but were exegetically extrapolated from the Book of Genesis by 2nd-century rabbis,[40] which wrote them down in the Tosefta.[40]

According to Adam J. Silverstein, professor of

Jewish–Christian relations and Jewish–Islamic relations), since both Christians and Muslims recognize the patriarch Abraham as the unifying figure of the Abrahamic tradition, alongside the monotheistic conception of God.[41] Silverstein states that Jewish theology came to include concepts and frameworks that would permit certain types of non-Jews to be recognized as righteous and deserving of life in the Hereafter due to the "Noachide Law". He sees there being two "Torahs": one for Jews, the other for the gentile "Children of Noah". Whilst theoretically the Noachide Law should be universal, its prohibitions against blasphemy and idolatry mean that in practice it only really applied to non-idolatrous theists. Therefore Jews normally considered Christians and/or Muslims when discussing this concept.[41]

Roman period.[42] Regarding the modern Noahide movement, he denounced it by stating that "If Jews are telling Gentiles what to do, it's a form of imperialism".[43]

Judaism

Talmud

According to the Talmud, the Noahide laws apply to all of humanity.[3][9][29] In Judaism, the term B'nei Noach (Hebrew: בני נח, "Sons of Noah")[18] refers to all mankind.[9] The Talmud also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come".[44] Any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as one of the righteous among the gentiles.[29] According to the Talmud, the seven laws were given first to Adam and subsequently to Noah.[2][3][9][29] Six of the seven laws were exegetically derived from passages in the Book of Genesis,[2][7][9][29] with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.[2][7][9][29]

The Talmudic sages expanded the concept of

homosexuality, pederasty, and sorcery among others,[2][3][7][9][29][45][46] with some of the sages, such as Ulla, going so far as to make a list of 30 laws.[2][3][7][47] The Talmud expands the scope of the seven laws to cover about 100 of the 613 mitzvot.[48]

Punishment

Main article:
Capital and corporal punishment in Judaism

In practice, Jewish law makes it very difficult to apply the death penalty.[49] No record exists of a gentile having been put to death for violating the seven Noahide laws.[42] Some of the categories of capital punishment recorded in the Talmud are recorded as having never been carried out. It is thought that the rabbis included discussion of them in anticipation of the coming Messianic Age.[49]

According Sanhedrin 56a, for Noahides convicted of a capital crime, the only sanctioned method of execution is decapitation,[50] considered one of the lightest capital punishments.[51] Other sources state that the execution is to be by stoning if he has intercourse with a Jewish betrothed woman, or by strangulation if the Jewish woman has completed the marriage ceremonies, but had not yet consummated the marriage. In Jewish law, the only form of blasphemy which is punishable by death is blaspheming the Ineffable Name (Leviticus 24:16).[52] Some Talmudic rabbis held that only those offences for which a Jew would be executed, are forbidden to gentiles.[53] The Talmudic rabbis discuss which offences and sub-offences are capital offences and which are merely forbidden.[54]

Nahmanides disagrees with Maimonides' reasoning. He limits the obligation of enforcing the seven laws to non-Jewish authorities, thus taking the matter out of Jewish hands. The Tosafot seems to agree with Nahmanides reasoning.[57]: 39  According to some opinions, punishment is the same whether the individual transgresses with knowledge of the law or is ignorant of the law.[58]

Some authorities debate whether non-Jewish societies may decide to modify the Noachide laws of evidence (for example, by requiring more witnesses before punishment, or by permitting circumstantial evidence) if they consider that to be more just.[59] Whilst Jewish law requires two witnesses, Noachide law, as recorded by Rambam, Hilkhot Melakhim 9:14, can accept the testimony of a single eyewitness as sufficient for use of the death penalty. Whilst a confession of guilt is not admissible as evidence before a Jewish court, it is a matter of considerable dispute as to whether or not it constitutes sufficient grounds for conviction in Noachide courts.[60]

Subdivisions

Various rabbinic sources have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. Maimonides', in his Mishneh Torah, included the grafting of trees.[56] Like the Talmud, he interpreted the prohibition against homicide as including a prohibition against abortion.[61][62] David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, a commentator on Maimonides, expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were also listed in the Talmud.[63]

The Talmudist

human flesh in the market and to respect the Torah. The rest of the laws are not listed.[64] Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws are also possible from the reading. Two different lists of the 30 laws exist. Both lists include an additional twenty-three mitzvot which are subdivisions or extensions of the seven laws. One from the 16th-century work Asarah Maamarot by Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano and a second from the 10th century Samuel ben Hofni which was recently published from his Judeo-Arabic writings after having been found in the Cairo Geniza.[65][66] Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes suggests Menahem Azariah of Fano enumerated commandments are not related to the first seven, nor based on Scripture, but instead were passed down by oral tradition.[67]

Ger toshav (resident alien)

Main article: Ger toshav

During

World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba).[5][7][10][16][17][18]

The rabbinic regulations regarding Jewish-gentile relations are modified in the case of a ger toshav.[17] The accepted halakhic opinion is that the ger toshav must accept the seven Noahide laws in the presence of three haberim (men of authority),[70] or, according to the rabbinic tradition, before a beth din (Jewish rabbinical court).[17] He will receive certain legal protection and privileges from the Jewish community, and there is an obligation to render him aid when in need. The restrictions on having a gentile do work for a Jew on the Shabbat are also greater when the gentile is a ger toshav.[17]

According to the Jewish philosopher and professor Menachem Kellner's study on Maimonidean texts (1991), a ger toshav could be a transitional stage on the way to becoming a "righteous alien" (Hebrew: גר צדק, ger tzedek), i.e. a full convert to Judaism.[71] He conjectures that, according to Maimonides, only a full ger tzedek would be found during the Messianic era.[71] Furthermore, Kellner criticizes the assumption within Orthodox Judaism that there is an "ontological divide between Jews and Gentiles",[72] which he believes is contrary to what Maimonides thought and the Torah teaches,[72] stating that "Gentiles as well as Jews are fully created in the image of God".[72]

Maimonides' view and his critics

During the

medieval Jewish philosopher and rabbi Maimonides (1135–1204) wrote in the halakhic legal code Mishneh Torah that gentiles must perform exclusively the Seven Laws of Noah and refrain from studying the Torah or performing any Jewish commandment, including resting on the Shabbat.[73] He also states that if gentiles want to perform any Jewish commandment besides the Seven Laws of Noah according to the correct halakhic procedure, they are not prevented from doing so.[29][74] According to Maimonides, teaching non-Jews to follow the Seven Laws of Noah is incumbent on all Jews, a commandment in and of itself.[43] Nevertheless, the majority of rabbinic authorities over the centuries have rejected Maimonides' opinion, and the dominant halakhic consensus has always been that Jews are not required to spread the Noahide laws to non-Jews.[43]

Maimonides held that gentiles may have a part in the

World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba) just by observing the Seven Laws of Noah and accepting them as divinely revealed to Moses.[2][18][29][75] According to Maimonides, such non-Jews achieve the status of Chassid Umot Ha-Olam ("Pious People of the World"),[18] and are different from those which solely keep the Noahide laws out of moral/ethical reasoning alone.[18] He wrote in Hilkhot M'lakhim:"[18]

Anyone who accepts upon himself and carefully observes the Seven Commandments is of the Righteous of the Nations of the World and has a portion in the World to Come. This is as long as he accepts and performs them because (he truly believes that) it was the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Who commanded them in the Torah, and that it was through Moses our Teacher we were informed that the Sons of Noah had already been commanded to observe them. But if he observes them because he convinced himself, then he is not considered a Resident Convert and is not of the Righteous of the Nations of the World, but merely one of their wise.[76]

Some later editions of the Mishneh Torah differ by one letter and read "Nor one of their wise men"; the latter reading is narrower. In either reading, Maimonides appears to exclude philosophical Noahides from being "Righteous Gentiles".[18] According to him, a truly "Righteous Gentile" follows the seven laws because they are divinely revealed, and thus are followed out of obedience to God.[18][77][78]

The 15th-century Sephardic Orthodox rabbi

anti-rationalistic and unfounded, asserting that there isn't any justification to uphold such a view in the Talmud.[75] The 17th-century Sephardic philosopher Baruch Spinoza read Maimonides as using "nor"[clarification needed], and accused him of being narrow and particularistic.[75] Other Jewish philosophers influenced by Spinoza, such as Moses Mendelssohn and Hermann Cohen, also have formulated more inclusive and universal interpretations of the Seven Laws of Noah.[75][77]

salvation.[79] According to Steven Schwarzschild, Maimonides' position has its source in his adoption of Aristotle's skeptical attitude towards the ability of reason to arrive at moral truths,[80] and "many of the most outstanding spokesmen of Judaism themselves dissented sharply from" this position, which is "individual and certainly somewhat eccentric" in comparison to other Jewish thinkers.[81]

A novel understanding of Maimonides' position in the 20th century, advanced by the Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, is that a non-Jew who follows the commandments due to philosophical conviction rather than revelation (what Maimonides calls "one of their wise men") also merits the World to Come; this would be in line with Maimonides' general approach that following philosophical wisdom advances a person more than following revelatory commands.[82]

Modern Noahide movement

Main article: Noahidism
Further information: Jewish fundamentalism and Religious Zionism

The Temple Institute, which advocates to rebuild the Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, started to promote the Noahide laws as well.[10][84]

Public recognition

In the 1980s,

Chabad-Lubavitch movement has been one of the most active in Noahide outreach, believing that there is spiritual and societal value for non-Jews in at least simply acknowledging the Noahide laws.[10][16][43][85]

In 1982, Chabad-Lubavitch had a reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. Presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 4921",[86] signed by the then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan.[86] The United States Congress, recalling House Joint Resolution 447 and in celebration of Schneerson's 80th birthday, proclaimed 4 April 1982, as a "National Day of Reflection".[86]

In 1989 and 1990, Chabad-Lubavitch had another reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. Presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 5956",[87] signed by then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush.[87] The United States Congress, recalling House Joint Resolution 173 and in celebration of Schneerson's 87th birthday, proclaimed 16 April 1989, and 6 April 1990, as "Education Day, U.S.A.".[87]

In January 2004, the spiritual leader of the

Shefa-'Amr (Shfaram) — where Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities live side-by-side – also signed the document.[88]

In March 2016, the

members of the Knesset;[89] Jonathan Greenblatt, Anti-Defamation League's CEO and national director, and Carole Nuriel, Anti-Defamation League's Israel Office acting director, issued a strong denunciation of Yosef's sermon:[89][91]

The statement by Chief Rabbi Yosef is shocking and unacceptable. It is unconscionable that the Chief Rabbi, an official representative of the State of Israel, would express such intolerant and ignorant views about Israel's non-Jewish population – including the millions of non-Jewish citizens.
As a spiritual leader, Rabbi Yosef should be using his influence to preach tolerance and compassion towards others, regardless of their faith, and not seek to exclude and demean a large segment of Israelis.
We call upon the Chief Rabbi to retract his statements and apologize for any offense caused by his comments.[91]

Contemporary status

Historically, some rabbinic opinions consider non-Jews not only not obliged to adhere to all the remaining laws of the Torah, but actually forbidden from observing them.[92][93]

Noahide law differs radically from Roman law for gentiles (Jus Gentium), if only because the latter was enforceable judicial policy. Rabbinic Judaism has never adjudicated any cases under the Noahide laws,[42] and Jewish scholars disagree about whether the Noahide laws are a functional part of the Halakha (Jewish law).[94]

Some modern views hold that penalties are a detail of the Noahide Laws and that Noahides themselves must determine the details of their own laws for themselves. According to this school of thought – see N. Rakover, Law and the Noahides (1998); M. Dallen, The Rainbow Covenant (2003) – the Noahide laws offer humankind a set of absolute values and a framework for righteousness and justice, while the detailed laws that are currently on the books of the world's states and nations are presumptively valid.

In recent years, the term "Noahide" has come to refer to non-Jews who strive to live in accord with the seven Noahide Laws; the terms "observant Noahide" or "Torah-centered Noahides" would be more precise but these are infrequently used. Support for the use of "Noahide" in this sense can be found with the

Ritva, who uses the term Son of Noah to refer to a gentile who keeps the seven laws, but is not a ger toshav.[17]

Early Christianity

Main articles:
Split of early Christianity and Judaism
Further information:
Paul the Apostle and Judaism, and Supersessionism
NRSV
)

In the

Apostolic Decree recorded in Acts 15 is commonly seen as a parallel to the Seven Laws of Noah, and thus be a commonality rather than a differential.[3][95][96] Some modern scholars dispute the connection between Acts 15 and the seven Noahide laws.[96] The Apostolic Decree is still observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and includes some food restrictions.[97]

The

Jewish Encyclopedia article on Paul of Tarsus
states:

According to Acts 13, 14, 17, 18 [...], Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the proselytes of the gate [e.g., Exodus 20:9] and the Jews met; and only because he failed to win the Jews to his views, encountering strong opposition and persecution from them, did he turn to the gentile world after he had agreed at a council with the apostles at Jerusalem to admit the gentiles into the Church only as proselytes of the gate, that is, after their acceptance of the Noachian laws (Acts 15:1–31)".[98]

The article on the New Testament states:

For great as was the success of Barnabas and Paul in the heathen world, the authorities in Jerusalem insisted upon circumcision as the condition of admission of members into the Church, until, on the initiative of Peter, and of James, the head of the Jerusalem church, it was agreed that acceptance of the Noachian Laws—namely, regarding avoidance of idolatry, fornication, and the eating of flesh cut from a living animal—should be demanded of the heathen desirous of entering the Church.[99]

The 18th-century rabbi Jacob Emden hypothesized that Jesus, and Paul after him, intended to convert the gentiles to the Seven Laws of Noah while calling on the Jews to keep the full Law of Moses.[92]

See also

References

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  29. ^
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  69. ISBN 0-88125-474-6 – via Google Books. Rashi, Yevamot 48b, maintains that a resident alien (ger toshav) is obliged to observe Shabbat. The ger toshav, in accepting the Seven Commandments of the Sons of Noah, has renounced idolatry and [...] thereby acquires a status similar to that of Abraham. [...] Indeed, Rabbenu Nissim, Avodah Zarah 67b, declares that the status on an unimmersed convert is inferior to that of a ger toshav because the former's acceptance of the "yoke of the commandments" is intended to be binding only upon subsequent immersion. Moreover, the institution of ger toshav as a formal halakhic construct has lapsed with the destruction of the Temple
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  97. Contra Faustum, where he states that the Apostles had given this command to unite the heathens and Jews in the one ark of Noah; but that then, when the barrier between Jewish and heathen converts had fallen, this command concerning things strangled and blood had lost its meaning, and was only observed by few. But still, as late as the eighth century, Pope Gregory the Third (731) forbade the eating of blood or things strangled under threat of a penance of forty days. No one will pretend that the disciplinary enactments of any council, even though it be one of the undisputed Ecumenical Synods, can be of greater and more unchanging force than the decree of that first council, held by the Holy Apostles at Jerusalem, and the fact that its decree has been obsolete for centuries in the West
    is proof that even Ecumenical canons may be of only temporary utility and may be repealed by disuse, like other laws."
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Further reading

External links
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