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{{Short description|Universal moral laws in Judaism}}
] is the modern symbol of the ], recalling the rainbow that appeared after the ] of the Bible.]]
{{For|the Jewish new religious movement|Noahidism}}
The '''Seven Laws of Noah''' ({{lang-he|שבע מצוות בני נח}} ''Sheva mitzvot B'nei Noach'') form the major part of the '''Noachide Laws''', or '''Noahide Code'''.<ref>That the Noachide code may include more than the seven laws, see Talmud Bavli, ] 58b–59a; also see Rabbi ], Kesef Mishna, explaining ], ], Hilkhot M'lakhim 10:9, as well as Encyclopedia Talmudit (Hebrew edition, Israel, 5741/1981, Entry ''Ben Noah''), for both this opinion (various places) and for an indication (page 350) that there are views that all of the Noachide code can be subsumed under the seven laws</ref> This code is a set of moral imperatives that, according to the ], were given by ]<ref>According to Encyclopedia Talmudit (Hebrew edition, Israel, 5741/1981, Entry ''Ben Noah'', page 349), most ] consider that all seven commandments were given to ], although ] (], Hilkhot M'lakhim 9:1) considers the dietary law to have been given to Noah.</ref> as a binding set of laws for the "children of Noah" – that is, all of ]kind.<ref>Encyclopedia Talmudit (Hebrew edition, Israel, 5741/1981, entry ''Ben Noah'', introduction) states that after the giving of the ], the Jewish people were no longer in the category of the sons of Noah; however, Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot M'lakhim 9:1) indicates that the seven laws are also part of the Torah, and the Talmud (Bavli, ] 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.</ref><ref>Compare {{bibleverse||Genesis|9:4–6|HE}}.</ref> According to religious ], any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as a ], and is assured of a place in the ] (Olam Haba), the final reward of the righteous.<ref>], Hilkhot M'lakhim 8:14</ref><ref>Encyclopedia Talmudit (Hebrew edition, Israel, 5741/1981, entry ''Ben Noah'', end of article); note the variant reading of Maimonides and the references in the footnote</ref> Adherents are often called "]" (Children of Noah) or "Noahides" and may often network in Jewish ]s.{{citation needed | date=August 2011}}
{{over-quotation|date=February 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
] is the unofficial symbol of Noahidism, recalling the ] in which a rainbow appears to ] after the Flood; it represents ]'s promise to Noah to refrain from ].<ref name="Segal 1993">{{cite book |author-last=Segal |author-first=Alan F. |author-link=Alan F. Segal |year=1993 |chapter=Conversion and Universalism: Opposites that Attract |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5-7eBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA178 |editor-last=McLean |editor-first=Bradley H. |title=Origins and Method: Towards a New Understanding of Judaism and Christianity |location=] and ] |publisher=] |series=Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement Series |volume=86 |pages=177–178 |isbn=9780567495570 |quote=Furthermore, the sign of the Noahide covenant, the ], is available to all humanity to symbolize God's promise of safety. And it is completely outside of the special ]. The covenant with Noah is expanded to the entire ], encompassing all the revealed commandments preceding ].}}</ref>]]


In ], the '''Seven Laws of Noah''' ({{langx|he|שבע מצוות בני נח}}, ''Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach''), otherwise referred to as the '''Noahide Laws'''{{refn|<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=] |title=Noahide Laws |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Noahide-Laws |date=14 January 2008 |publisher=] |location=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121153759/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Noahide-Laws |archive-date=21 January 2016 |url-status=live |access-date=10 November 2020 |quote='''Noahide Laws''', also called '''Noachian Laws''', a Jewish ]ic designation for seven biblical laws given to ] and to Noah before the revelation to Moses on ] and consequently binding on all mankind.<br /> Beginning with ] ], the Babylonian Talmud listed the first six commandments as prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and robbery and the positive command to establish courts of justice (with all that this implies). After the Flood a seventh commandment, given to Noah, forbade the eating of flesh cut from a living animal (Genesis 9:4). Though the number of laws was later increased to 30 with the addition of prohibitions against castration, sorcery, and other practices, the "seven laws", with minor variations, retained their original status as authoritative commandments and as the source of other laws. As basic statutes safeguarding ] and guaranteeing proper ] in society, these laws provided a legal framework for ] in Jewish territory. ] thus regarded anyone who observed these laws as one "assured of a portion in the ]."}}</ref><ref name="Vana 2013">{{cite journal |last=Vana |first=Liliane |date=May 2013 |title=Les lois noaẖides: Une mini-Torah pré-sinaïtique pour l'humanité et pour Israël |trans-title=The Noahid Laws: A Pre-Sinaitic Mini-Torah for Humanity and for Israel |editor-last=Trigano |editor-first=Shmuel |journal=Pardés: Études et culture juives |publisher=Éditions in Press |location=] |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=211–236 |language=fr |doi=10.3917/parde.052.0211 |doi-access=free |eissn=2271-1880 |isbn=978-2-84835-260-2 |issn=0295-5652 |via=]}}</ref><ref name="Novak 1992">{{cite book |last=Novak |first=David |author-link=David Novak |year=1992 |orig-date=1989 |chapter=The Doctrine of the Noahide Laws |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhvd8geFHoIC&pg=PA26 |title=Jewish-Christian Dialogue: A Jewish Justification |location=] and ] |publisher=] |pages=26–41 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195072730.003.0002 |isbn=9780195072730 |via=]}}</ref><ref name="myjewishlearning.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-noahide-laws/ |title=The Noahide Laws |last=Spitzer |first=Jeffrey |date=2018 |website=My Jewish Learning |access-date=7 November 2020}}</ref>}} or the '''Noachian Laws'''{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="JE1">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9679-laws-noachian |title=Noachian Laws |last1=Singer |first1=Isidore |last2=Greenstone |first2=Julius H. |author1-link=Isidore Singer |encyclopedia=] |publisher=] |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205022051/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9679-laws-noachian |archive-date=5 February 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=7 November 2020}}</ref>}} (from the ] pronunciation of "Noah"), are a set of ] which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a ] and with the "]"—that is, all of ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica">{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Berlin |editor1-first=Meyer |editor2-last=Zevin |editor2-first=Shlomo Yosef |editor2-link=Shlomo Yosef Zevin |title=BEN NOAH |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lkLnwuXpbl4C&pg=PA360 |encyclopedia=] |volume=IV |year=1992 |orig-year=1969 |publisher=Yad Harav Herzog (Emet) |location=] |pages=360–380 |isbn=0873067142 |via=]}}</ref><ref name="Feldman2017">{{cite web |url=https://wrldrels.org/2017/10/08/the-bnei-noah-children-of-noah/ |title=The Bnei Noah (Children of Noah) |last=Feldman |first=Rachel Z. |date=8 October 2017 |website=World Religions and Spirituality Project |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200121162034/https://wrldrels.org/2017/10/08/the-bnei-noah-children-of-noah/ |archive-date=21 January 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=7 November 2020}}</ref><ref>Compare {{Tanakhverse|Genesis|9:4–6}}.</ref>}}
The seven laws listed by the ] and the ] are<ref>Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9.4, dated circa 300, quoted in Talmud ] 56a.</ref>
# Prohibition of ]
# Prohibition of ]
# Prohibition of ]
# Prohibition of ]
# Prohibition of ]
# Prohibition of eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive
# Establishment of courts of law


The Seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions against ], ], ], ] and ], ], ], as well as the obligation to establish ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Reiner 1997">{{cite book |last=Reiner |first=Gary |chapter=Ha-Me'iri's Theory of Religious Toleration |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AnYSxFMq48gC&pg=PA86 |editor1-last=Laursen |editor1-first=John Christian |editor2-last=Nederman |editor2-first=Cary J. |year=2011 |orig-year=1997 |title=Beyond the Persecuting Society: Religious Toleration Before the Enlightenment |location=] |publisher=] |pages=86–87 |doi=10.9783/9780812205862.71 |isbn=978-0-8122-0586-2 |via=]}}</ref><ref name="Hayes 2017">{{cite book |last=Berkowitz |first=Beth |chapter=Approaches to Foreign Law in Biblical Israel and Classical Judaism through the Medieval Period |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RdccDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 |editor-last=Hayes |editor-first=Christine |editor-link=Christine Hayes |year=2017 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law |location=New York City |publisher=] |pages=147–149 |isbn=978-1-107-03615-4 |lccn=2016028972 |via=]}}</ref>}}
The Noachide Laws comprise the six laws which were given to ] in the ], according to the Talmud's interpretation of {{bibleverse||Gen|2:16|HE}},<ref></ref> and a seventh one, which was added after the Flood of Noah. Later, at the ], the Seven Laws of Noah were re-given to humanity and embedded in the 613 Laws given to the Children of Israel along with the ], which are part of, and not separate from, the ]. These laws are derived from the ]. According to religious Judaism, the 613 mitzvot or "commandments" given in the written Torah, as well as their reasonings in the ], were only issued to the Jews and are therefore binding only upon them, having inherited the obligation from their ancestors. At the same time, at ], the Children of Israel were given the obligation to teach other nations the embedded Noachide Laws.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}} These laws also affect Jewish law in a number of ways.


According to ], non-Jews (]) are not obligated to ], but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the ], the final reward of the righteous.{{refn|<ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018">{{cite journal |last=Feldman |first=Rachel Z. |date=August 2018 |title=The Children of Noah: Has Messianic Zionism Created a New World Religion? |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/737561/pdf |format=PDF |journal=] |publisher=] |location=] |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=115–128 |doi=10.1525/nr.2018.22.1.115 |s2cid=149940089 |eissn=1541-8480 |issn=1092-6690 |lccn=98656716 |oclc=36349271 |via=] |access-date=7 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="ET1">{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Zevin |editor-first=Shlomo Yosef |editor-link=Shlomo Yosef Zevin |title="Ger Toshav", Section 1 |encyclopedia=] |year=1979 |publisher=Yad Harav Herzog (Emet) |location=] |edition=4th |language=he}}</ref><ref name="Sefaria">{{cite book |first=Moses |last=Maimonides |author-link=Maimonides |year=2012 |chapter-url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.8?lang=bi |chapter=Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars) |title=] |page=8:11–14 |translator-last=Brauner |translator-first=Reuven |publisher=] |access-date=7 November 2020}}</ref>}} The non-Jews that choose to follow the Seven Laws of Noah are regarded as "Righteous Gentiles" ({{langx|he|חסידי אומות העולם}}, ''Chassiddei Umot ha-Olam'': "Pious People of the World").{{refn|<ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="ET1"/><ref name="Sefaria"/>}}
While some Jewish organizations, such as ] have worked to promote the observance of the Noachide laws, there are no figures for how many actually do.


==Biblical origins== == List ==
The seven Noahide laws as traditionally enumerated in the ] '']'' 56a-b and ] '']'' 9:4,{{refn|<ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Reiner 1997"/><ref name="Hayes 2017"/>}} are the following:{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/>}}<ref>For a discussion of whether the rabbinic conception of the Noahide prohibition of idolatry mirrors the Torah's prohibition of idolatry or has more leeway, see {{Cite journal|url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:50798/CONTENT/shituf-article.pdf |title=World Religions and the Noahide Prohibition of Idolatry |author=Klein, Reuven Chaim|year=2022|journal=Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society|volume=79|pages=109–167|doi=10.17613/h2nz-ep07}}.</ref>
{{Judaism}}
===Hebrew Bible===
The Hebrew Bible does not explicitly mention the Law in connection with Noah, nor that there were seven laws. However, it is clear that Noah was able to distinguish between "clean" animals (seven of each) and "unclean" animals (two of each) when loading the animals onto the ark, which indicates the existence of food laws even before the ].


#Not to ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/>}}
According to the Biblical narrative, the ] covered the whole world, killing every surface-dwelling creature except Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, sea creatures, and the animals taken aboard ]. After the flood, God sealed a ] with the following admonitions ({{bibleverse||Genesis|9|HE}}):
#Not to ].
* Food: "However, flesh with its life-blood , you shall not eat." (9:4)
#Not to commit ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/>}}
* Murder: "Furthermore, I will demand your blood, for your lives, I shall demand it 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)
#Not to commit ] or ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/>}}
#Not to ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/>}}
#Not to ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/>}}
#To establish ].{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/>}}


According to the Talmud, the seven laws were given first to Adam and subsequently to Noah.{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="JVL">{{cite encyclopedia |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Jewish Concepts: The Seven Noachide Laws |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-seven-noachide-laws |url-status=live |year=2021 |orig-year=2017 |encyclopedia=] |publisher=American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210052305/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-seven-noachide-laws |archive-date=10 February 2017 |access-date=17 October 2021 |quote=Except for the seventh law, all are negative commands, and the last itself is usually interpreted as commanding the enforcement of the others. They are derived exegetically from divine demands addressed to Adam and Noah, the progenitors of all mankind, and are thus regarded as universal. Noachides may also freely choose to practice certain other ] and Maimonides held that Noachides must not only accept these seven laws on their own merit, but must also accept them as divinely revealed. Even though the ] and Maimonides stipulate that ], contemporary authorities have expressed the view that this is only the maximal punishment. According to this view, there is a difference between Noachide law and halakhah. According to halakhah, when a Jew was liable for capital punishment it was a mandatory punishment, provided that all conditions had been met, whereas in Noachide law death is the maximal punishment, to be enforced only in exceptional cases. In view of the strict monotheism of Islam, ] whereas ]. Since the ], Christianity too has come to be regarded as Noachide, on the ground that ] is not forbidden to non-Jews.}}</ref>}} The ] and ] ]nic ] (1st–6th centuries CE) disagreed on the exact number of Noahide laws that were originally given to Adam.<ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/> Six of the seven laws were ] derived from passages in the ],{{refn|<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="JVL"/><ref>Rabbinical authorities disputed whether there were only one or several commandments given to Adam: see {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106145103/http://www.halakhah.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_56.html |date=6 November 2017}}</ref>}} with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.<ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/> The earliest complete rabbinic version of the seven Noahide laws can be found in the Tosefta:<ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Tosefta_Avodah_Zarah.9.4?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en|title=Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9:4|website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref><ref name="Oxford">{{cite book |title=The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UEzgAgAAQBAJ&q=Tosefta+Avodah+Zarah+noah&pg=PA591 |page=591 |editor1-first=Lewis Ray |editor1-last=Rambo |editor2-first=Charles E. |editor2-last=Farhadian |publisher=] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-533852-2 |via=]}}</ref>
===Second Temple period texts===
Although other texts from the Second Temple period are not considered authoritative in Judaism, they do show reference to the concept of Noahic laws before the Talmud.
====2nd Century BCE, Book of Jubilees====
An early reference to ''Noachide Law'' may appear in the ] 7:20–28, which is generally dated to the 2nd century BCE:
:"And in the twenty-eighth ] ]] Noah began to enjoin upon his sons' sons the ordinances and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to observe ], and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to ], and ], and ], and guard their souls from ] and ] and all ]. For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth ... For whoso sheddeth man's blood, and whoso eateth the ], shall all be destroyed from the earth."<ref>, This is ]' 1913 translation from the ], but ''Jubilees'' is also extant in ] and multiple texts found at ] which are still being examined.</ref><ref></ref>
====1st century CE, Acts 15====
{{Main|Council of Jerusalem}}
The ] article on states:
::According to Acts, Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the ] and the Jews met; and only because he failed to win the Jews to his views, encountering strong opposition and ], did he turn to the Gentile world after he had agreed at a convention 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 ({{bibleref|Acts|15:1–31|KJV}}).


{{Blockquote|Seven commandments were commanded of the sons of Noah:
states:
#concerning ] (''dinim'')
::For great as was the success of ] and Paul in the heathen world, the authorities in Jerusalem insisted upon ] 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.
#concerning idolatry ('']'')
#concerning blasphemy (''qilelat ha-Shem'')
#concerning sexual immorality ('']'')
#concerning blood-shed (''shefikhut damim'')
#concerning robbery (''gezel'')
#concerning a limb torn from a living animal (''ever min ha-hay'')
}}


== Origins ==
{{Bibleverse||Acts|15:19-21}}, the ''Apostolic Decree'' of the Council of Jerusalem, resolved this ] dispute by commending righteous ] to understand Noahide law, rather than to live under the same dictates as ]-observant Jews and be ] (cf. {{Bibleverse||Acts|15:5}}, {{Bibleverse||Acts|15:24|}}). As Christianity began as a sect of first-century ], so modern Judaism has continued to observe Gentiles and ] as not being under the scrutiny of the ordinances as Jews. Jewish scholar ] (13th century) held Gentiles may have a part in salvation and in the world to come just by observing Noahide law. Some modern Jewish and Christian scholars, however, dispute the connection between Acts 15 and Noahide law,<ref>], ''The Acts of the Apostles (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)'', Yale University Press (December 2, 1998), ISBN 0-300-13982-9, chapter V</ref> the content of Noahide law, the ], and the nature of ].
=== Biblical sources ===
According to the ], a ] covered the whole world on account of violent corruption on the earth, killing every surface-dwelling creature except Noah, his wife, his sons, their wives, and the animals taken aboard ]. According to the biblical narrative, all modern humans are descendants of Noah, thus the name ''Noahide Laws'' refers to the laws that apply to all of humanity.<ref name="Vana 2013" /> After the Flood, ] sealed a ] with the following admonitions as written in Genesis 9:4–6:<ref>{{Tanakhverse|Genesis|9:4–6}}</ref>
* Flesh of a living animal: "However, flesh with its life-blood , you shall not eat." (9:4)
* Murder and courts: "Furthermore, I will demand your blood, for your lives, I shall demand it 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)


===Talmud=== === Book of Jubilees ===
The ], generally dated to the 1st century BCE,<ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref>{{cite book |last=VanderKam |first=James C. |year=2001 |title=The Book of Jubilees |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P-vUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |location=] |publisher=] |series=Guides to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha |pages=17–21 |isbn=1-85075-767-4 |via=]}}</ref> may include a substantially different list of six commandments at verses 7:20–25:<ref name="Vana 2013"/>
According to Judaism, as expressed in the ], the '''Noachide Laws''' apply to all humanity through humankind's descent from one paternal ancestor, the head of the only family to survive ], who in Hebrew tradition is called ]. In Judaism, בני נח '']'' (], "Descendants of Noah", "Children of Noah") refers to all of humankind.<ref>Encyclopedia Talmudit, Hebrew edition, Israel, 5741/1981, entry Ben Noah, introduction</ref> The Talmud also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come" (Sanhedrin 105a). Any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as one of "the righteous among the gentiles". ] writes that this refers to those who have acquired knowledge of God and act in accordance with the Noachide laws out of obedience to God. According to what scholars consider to be the most accurate texts of the ], Maimonides goes on to say that anyone who upholds the Noachide laws only because they appear logical is not one of the "''righteous'' among the nations," but rather he is one of the ''wise'' among them. The more prolific versions of the Mishneh Torah say of such a person: "..nor is he one of the wise among them."<ref>] ''Shoftim'', ''Laws of Kings and their wars'' 8:14</ref>
(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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Saul |last=Berman |title=Noachide Laws:In Jewish Law |encyclopedia=ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 15 Ja–Kas |page=286 |publisher=Thomson Gale |year=2007 }}</ref>


== Modern analysis ==
The Talmud states that the instruction not to eat "flesh with the life" was given to Noah, and that ] had already received six other commandments. Adam and Eve were not enjoined from eating from a living animal; they were forbidden to eat any animal. The remaining six are exegetically derived from the sentence "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." in {{bibleverse||Gen|2:16}}.<ref>] , quoting ] Avodah Zarah 9:4; see also Rashi on Genesis 9:3</ref>
=== Rabbinical ===
{{blockquote|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. "]" 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 ] 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 ]". 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...|], '']''}}


The '']'', edited by Rabbi ], states that after the giving of the ], the Jewish people were no longer included in the category of the sons of Noah. Maimonides ('']'', ''Hilkhot M'lakhim'' 9:1) indicates that the seven commandments are also part of the Torah, and the ] ('']'' 59a, see also ] ad. loc.) states that Jews are obligated in all things that gentiles are obligated in, albeit with some differences in the details.<ref name="Talmudica"/> According to the ''Encyclopedia Talmudit'', most ] considered that all the seven commandments were given to Adam, although Maimonides ('']'', ''Hilkhot M'lakhim'' 9:1) considered the dietary law to have been given to Noah.<ref name="Talmudica"/>
Historically, some rabbinic opinions consider non-Jews not only not obligated to adhere to all the remaining laws of the Torah, but are actually forbidden to observe them.<ref></ref> The Noachide Laws are regarded as the way through which non-Jews can have a direct and meaningful relationship with God, or at least comply with the minimal requisites of civilization and of ].{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}


], the ], published and spoke about the Seven Laws of Noah many times. According to Schneerson's view, based on a detailed reading of Maimonides' ''Hilkhot M'lakhim'', the Talmud, and the ], the seven laws originally given to Noah were given yet again, through ], and it's exclusively through the giving of the Torah that the seven laws derive their current force.<ref name=lk_26_yisro3>{{cite book |last=Schneerson |first=Menachem Mendel |author-link=Menachem Mendel Schneerson |year=1985 |title=] |volume=26 |pages=132–144 |trans-title=Collected Talks |language=yi |location=Brooklyn |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-8266-5749-7}}</ref> What has changed with the giving of the Torah is that now, it is the duty of the ] to bring the rest of the world to fulfill the Seven Laws of Noah.<ref name=lk_4_vaeschonon>{{cite book |last=Schneerson |first=Menachem Mendel |author-link=Menachem Mendel Schneerson |year=1979 |title=] |volume=4 |page=1094 |trans-title=Collected Talks |language=yi |location=] |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-8266-5722-0}}</ref>
] states, in ]<ref>''The Laws of Kings'' 8:11,</ref> that a non-Jew who is precise in the observance of these seven Noachide commandments is considered to be a ''Righteous Gentile'' and has earned a place in the world to come. This follows a similar statement in the Talmud.<ref>Sanhedrin 105b</ref>


=== Academic and secular ===
Noachide law differs radically from ] for gentiles (''Jus Gentium''), if only because the latter was enforceable judicial policy. Rabbinic Judaism has never adjudicated any cases under Noachide law (per Novak, 1983:28ff.), although scholars disagree about whether Noachide law is a functional part of ] ("Jewish law") (cf. Bleich).
According to ], professor of philosophy and ] at ], 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,<ref name="Kogan 2008">{{cite book |last=Kogan |first=Michael S. |year=2008 |chapter=Three Jewish Theologians of Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aE8SDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 |title=Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity |location=New York City |publisher=] |pages=73–76 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112597.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-19-511259-7 |s2cid=170858477 |via=]}}</ref> which wrote them down in the Tosefta.<ref name="Kogan 2008"/>


According to Adam J. Silverstein, professor of ] and ] at the ], Jewish theologians started to rethink the relevance and applicability of the Seven Laws of Noah during the ], primarily due to the precarious living conditions of the Jewish people under the ] and the ] (see ] and ]), since both ] and ] recognize the ] ] as the unifying figure of the ], alongside the ] ].<ref name="Silverstein 2015">{{cite book |last=Silverstein |first=Adam J. |year=2015 |chapter=Abrahamic Experiments in History |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_B2DCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |editor1-last=Blidstein |editor1-first=Moshe |editor2-last=Silverstein |editor2-first=Adam J. |editor3-last=Stroumsa |editor3-first=Guy G. |editor3-link=Guy Stroumsa |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions |location=] |publisher=] |pages=43–46 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697762.013.35 |isbn=978-0-19-969776-2 |lccn=2014960132 |s2cid=170623059 |via=]}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Silverstein 2015"/>
In recent years, the term "Noahide" has come to refer to non-Jews who strive to live in accord with the seven Noachide Laws; the terms "observant Noahide" or "Torah-centered Noahides" would be more precise but are infrequently used. Support for the use of Noahide in this sense can be found with the ], who uses the term ''Son of Noah'' to refer to a Gentile who keeps the seven laws, but is not a ].<ref>Encyclopedia Talmudit, Hebrew edition, 5741/1981, Appendix, entry Ben Noah, introduction</ref> The ], referring to the Noachide or First ] (] 9), is the symbol of many organized Noahide groups, following {{bibleverse||Genesis|9:12-17|HE}}. A non-Jew of any ethnicity or religion is referred to as a ''bat'' ("daughter") or ''ben'' ("son") of Noah, but most organizations that call themselves בני נח (''b'nei noach'') are composed of gentiles who are keeping the Noachide Laws.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}


], professor of ] and ] at the ], presents a range of theories regarding the sources from which the Seven Laws of Noah originated, including the Hebrew Bible itself, ], the ], and the ].<ref name="Novak 1983">{{cite book |last=Novak |first=David |author-link=David Novak |year=2011 |orig-year=1983 |title=The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism: An Historical and Constructive Study of the Noahide Laws |location=] |publisher=] |series=Littman Library of Jewish Civilization |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1rmj9w |isbn=9781786949820}}</ref> Regarding the ], he denounced it by stating that "If Jews are telling Gentiles what to do, it's a form of ]".<ref name="Kress"/>
==Subdividing the Seven Laws==
Various ] have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. Maimonides<ref>Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 10:6</ref> lists other additional Noahide commandments, including the coupling of different kinds of animals and the grafting of different species (as defined by Jewish law) of trees. Rabbi ] (''Radbaz''), a contemporary commentator on Maimonides, expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were listed in the Talmud.<ref>Sanhedrin 56b.</ref>


== Judaism ==
The 10th century Rabbi ] added ]s and ]. The 11th century Rav ] included "listening to God's Voice", "knowing God" and "serving God" besides going on to say that all religious acts which can be understood through human reasoning are obligatory upon Jew and Gentile alike. The 14th century Rabbi ] added the commandment of ].
=== Talmud ===
According to the Talmud, the Noahide laws apply to all of humanity.<ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="JVL"/> In Judaism, the term ''B'nei Noach'' ({{langx|he|בני נח}}, "Sons of Noah")<ref name="Sefaria"/> refers to all mankind.<ref name="Talmudica"/> The Talmud also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come".<ref>Sanhedrin 105a</ref> Any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as one of the righteous among the gentiles.<ref name="JVL"/> According to the Talmud, the seven laws were given first to ] and subsequently to ].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="JVL"/> Six of the seven laws were ] derived from passages in the Book of Genesis,<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="JVL"/> with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="JVL"/>


The Talmudic sages expanded the concept of ] within the Noahide laws and added several other laws beyond the seven listed in the Talmud and Tosefta which are attributed to different rabbis,<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/> such as prohibitions against committing ], ], ], grafting trees of different kinds, ], ], ], ], and ] among others,<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Talmudica"/><ref name="JVL"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Goodman |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Goodman (historian) |chapter=Identity and Authority in Ancient Judaism |year=2007 |title=Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVI2a9jc4pMC&pg=PA30 |location=] |publisher=] |series=Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity |volume=66 |pages=30–32 |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004153097.i-275.7 |isbn=978-90-04-15309-7 |issn=1871-6636 |lccn=2006049637 |s2cid=161369763 |via=]}}</ref><ref>] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106145103/http://www.halakhah.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_56.html |date=6 November 2017 }}, quoting ] Avodah Zarah 9:4; see also Rashi on Genesis 9:4</ref> with some of the sages, such as ], going so far as to make a list of 30 laws.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref>Chullin 92a-b</ref> The Talmud expands the scope of the seven laws to cover about 100 of the ].<ref name="Annual">{{cite book |editor1-last=Grishaver |editor1-first=Joel Lurie |editor2-last=Kelman |editor2-first=Stuart |year=1996 |title=Learn Torah With 1994–1995 Torah Annual: A Collection of the Year's Best Torah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8pxv3NpOLdEC&q=maimonides+seven+laws+differ+from+the++talmud&pg=PA18 |publisher=Torah Aura Productions |page=18 |isbn=978-1-881283-13-3 |via=]}}</ref>
The 16th century work ''Asarah Maamarot'' by Rabbi ] (''Rema mi-Fano'') enumerates thirty commandments, listing the latter twenty-three as extensions of the original seven, which includes prohibitions on various forms of ], as well as ] and ]. Another commentator, Rabbi ] (''Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess'' I, end Ch. 10) suggests these are not related to the first seven, nor based on Scripture, but were passed down by oral tradition. The number thirty derives from the statement of the Talmudic sage ] in tractate Hullin 92a, though he lists only three other rules in addition to the original seven, consisting of details of the prohibitions against homosexuality and cannibalism, as well as the imperative to honor the Torah.


=== Punishment ===
Talmud commentator ] remarks on this that he does not know the other Commandments that are referred to. Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws is also possible from the reading{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}.
{{Main|Capital and corporal punishment in Judaism}}


In practice, Jewish law makes it very difficult to apply the death penalty.<ref name="Jewishvirtuallibrary.org Capital Punishment">{{Cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03929.html |title=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=15 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402123158/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03929.html |archive-date=2 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> No record exists of a gentile having been put to death for violating the seven Noahide laws.<ref name="Novak 1983"/> 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 ].<ref name="Jewishvirtuallibrary.org Capital Punishment"/>
The 10th century ] lists thirty Noahide Commandments based on Ulla's Talmudic statement, though the text is problematic.<ref>Each surviving manuscript is defective between the seventeenth and nineteenth positions, cf. The Seven Laws of Noah by Rabbi Aaron Lictenstein, pp. 119</ref> He includes the prohibitions against suicide and false oaths, as well as the imperatives related to prayer, sacrifices and honoring one's parents.


According Sanhedrin 56a, for Noahides convicted of a capital crime, the only sanctioned method of execution is decapitation,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| title = Sanhedrin| publisher = Halakhah.com 56a| access-date = 25 February 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053238/http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| archive-date = 21 February 2015| url-status = live}}</ref> considered one of the lightest capital punishments.<ref>Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Judges, Laws of Sanhedrin, chapter 14, law 4</ref> 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 ] ({{Tanakhverse|Leviticus|24:16}}).<ref name="Amram-Kohler">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Kohler |first1=Kaufmann |last2=Amram |first2=David Werner |author1-link=Kaufmann Kohler |author2-link=David Werner Amram |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3354-blasphemy |title=Blasphemy |encyclopedia=] |publisher=] |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910144739/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3354-blasphemy |archive-date=10 September 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> Some Talmudic rabbis held that only those offences for which a Jew would be executed, are forbidden to gentiles.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| title = Sanhedrin| publisher = Halakhah.com 56b| access-date = 25 February 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053238/http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| archive-date = 21 February 2015| url-status = live}}</ref> The Talmudic rabbis discuss which offences and sub-offences are capital offences and which are merely forbidden.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| title = Sanhedrin| publisher = Halakhah.com 57a-b| access-date = 25 February 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053238/http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| archive-date = 21 February 2015| url-status = live}}</ref>
The contemporary Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein<!-- Do not wikilink, different Aaron Lichtenstein! --> counts 66 instructions{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} but Rabbi Harvey Falk has suggested that much work remains to be done in order to properly identify all of the Noahide Commandments, their divisions and subdivisions.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}


Maimonides states that anyone who does not accept the seven laws is to be executed, as God compelled the world to follow these laws.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |title=Mishneh Torah Shoftim, Laws of Kings and their wars: 8.13 |publisher=Halakhah.com |access-date=25 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053607/http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |archive-date=21 February 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> For the other prohibitions such as the grafting of trees and bestiality he holds that the sons of Noah are not to be executed.<ref name="Halakhah.com">{{cite web |url=http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |title=Mishneh Torah Shoftim, Laws of Kings and their wars: 10:8 |publisher=Halakhah.com |access-date=25 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053607/http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |archive-date=21 February 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Maimonides adds a universalism lacking from earlier Jewish sources.<ref name="Annual"/>{{rp|18}} The Talmud differs from Maimonides in that it considers the seven laws enforceable by Jewish authorities on non-Jews living within a Jewish nation.<ref name="Annual"/>{{rp|18}} ] 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 ] seems to agree with Nahmanides reasoning.<ref name="warAndPeace">{{cite book |title=War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4YpnaFxUrYC&pg=PA39 |editor1-first=Lawrence H. |editor1-last=Schiffman |editor2-first=Joel B. |editor2-last=Wolowelsky |publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc. |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-88125-945-2 |via=]}}</ref>{{rp|39}} According to some opinions, punishment is the same whether the individual transgresses with knowledge of the law or is ignorant of the law.<ref>Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 9a, commentary of Rashi</ref>
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 ] itself as renewed after the Flood. The prohibition against committing ] includes a prohibition against ].{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}


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.<ref>, pp. 73–76</ref> 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.<ref>Contemporary Halakhic Problems, Vol II, Part II, Chapter XVII Capital Punishment in the Noachide Code III. Rules of Evidence in the Noachide Code Contemporary halakhic problems, by J. David Bleich, 1977-2005</ref>
], in his ], interpreted the prohibition against homicide as including a prohibition against ].<ref>] ''Shoftim'', ''Laws of Kings and their wars'' 9:6</ref>


There is also some debate as to whether the ideal punishment for violation of these laws is the death penalty, or if it is up to the court's discretion to decide which punishment is most fitting. While a simple reading of the Talmud might suggest that the ideal punishment is the death penalty, a number of prominent commentators, including Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, have argued that it is up to the courts to decide.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-08-18 |title=Ask the Rabbi: Does Jewish law promote the death penalty? |url=https://www.jpost.com/not-just-news/ask-the-rabbi-does-jewish-law-promote-the-death-penalty-464426 |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=The Jerusalem Post|language=en}}</ref>
==Ger toshav (Resident alien)==

=== Subdivisions ===
Various ] have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. Maimonides', in his '']'', included the grafting of trees.<ref name="Halakhah.com"/> Like the Talmud, he interpreted the prohibition against homicide as including a ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |title=Mishneh Torah Shoftim, Laws of Kings and their wars: 9:6 |publisher=Halakhah.com |access-date=25 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053607/http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |archive-date=21 February 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf |title=Sanhedrin |publisher=Halakhah.com 57b |access-date=25 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053238/http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf |archive-date=21 February 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> ], a commentator on Maimonides, expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were also listed in the Talmud.<ref>Sanhedrin 56b.</ref>

The Talmudist ] wrote of 30 laws which the sons of Noah took upon themselves. He only lists three, namely the three that the gentiles follow: not to create a ] between males, not to sell ] or ] in the market and to respect the Torah. The rest of the laws are not listed.<ref>] 92a, and see Rashi.</ref> 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 ] which are subdivisions or extensions of the seven laws. One from the 16th-century work ''Asarah Maamarot'' by Rabbi ] and a second from the 10th century ] which was recently published from his Judeo-Arabic writings after having been found in the ].<ref>] edition of the Gaon's commentary to Genesis.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.noachide.org.uk/html/30_commandments.html |title=The Thirty Mitzvot of the Bnei Noach |publisher=noachide.org.uk |access-date=15 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141123212311/http://www.noachide.org.uk/html/30_commandments.html |archive-date=23 November 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> Rabbi ] 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.<ref>''Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess'' I, end Ch. 10</ref>

=== ''Ger toshav'' (resident alien) ===
{{Main|Ger toshav}} {{Main|Ger toshav}}


During ], a gentile living in the ] who did not want to convert to Judaism but accepted the Seven Laws of Noah as binding upon himself was granted the legal status of ''ger toshav'' ({{langx|he|גר תושב}}, ''ger'': "foreigner" or "alien" + ''toshav'': "resident", lit. "]").<ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Bromiley 1986">{{cite book |last=Bromiley |first=Geoffrey W. |author-link=Geoffrey W. Bromiley |title=The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia |year=1986 |edition=Fully Revised |page=1010 |volume=3 |publisher=] |location=] |isbn=0-8028-3783-2 |quote=In rabbinic literature the ''ger toshab'' was a Gentile who observed the Noachian commandments but was not considered a convert to Judaism because he did not agree to circumcision. some scholars have made the mistake of calling the ''ger toshab'' a "proselyte" or "semiproselyte." But the ''ger toshab'' was really a resident alien in Israel. Some scholars have claimed that the term "]" (''yir᾿ei Elohim''/''Shamayim'') was used in rabbinic literature to denote Gentiles who were on the fringe of the synagogue. They were not converts to Judaism, although they were attracted to the Jewish religion and observed part of the law.}}</ref><ref name="Bleich 1995">{{cite book |last=Bleich |first=J. David |author-link=J. David Bleich |year=1995 |title=Contemporary Halakhic Problems |volume=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IOqQrPlc9ggC&pg=PA161 |location=New York City |publisher=] (]) |page=161 |isbn=0-88125-474-6 |quote=], ''Yevamot'' 48b, maintains that a resident alien (''ger toshav'') is obliged to observe '']''. 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 ]. Indeed, ], ''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 ]. |via=]}}</ref><ref name="JE2">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Jacobs |first1=Joseph |author1-link=Joseph Jacobs |last2=Hirsch |first2=Emil G. |author2-link=Emil G. Hirsch |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12391-proselyte#anchor4 |title=Proselyte: Semi-Converts |encyclopedia=] |year=1906 |publisher=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531104704/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12391-proselyte |archive-date=31 May 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020 |quote=In order to find a precedent the rabbis went so far as to assume that ]s of this order were recognized in ], applying to them the term "toshab" ("sojourner," "aborigine," referring to the ]; see Maimonides' explanation in "Yad," Issure Biah, xiv. 7; see Grätz, l.c. p. 15), in connection with "ger" (see Ex. xxv. 47, where the better reading would be "we-toshab"). Another name for one of this class was "proselyte of the gate" ("ger ha-sha'ar," that is, one under Jewish civil jurisdiction; comp. Deut. v. 14, xiv. 21, referring to the stranger who had legal claims upon the generosity and protection of his Jewish neighbors). In order to be recognized as one of these the neophyte had publicly to assume, before three "ḥaberim," or men of authority, the solemn obligation not to worship idols, an obligation which involved the recognition of the seven Noachian injunctions as binding ('Ab. Zarah 64b; "Yad," Issure Biah, xiv. 7). ... The more rigorous seem to have been inclined to insist upon such converts observing the entire Law, with the exception of the reservations and modifications explicitly made in their behalf. The more lenient were ready to accord them full equality with Jews as soon as they had solemnly forsworn idolatry. The "via media" was taken by those that regarded public adherence to the seven Noachian precepts as the indispensable prerequisite (Gerim iii.; 'Ab. Zarah 64b; Yer. Yeb. 8d; Grätz, l.c. pp. 19–20). The outward sign of this adherence to Judaism was the observance of the Sabbath (Grätz, l.c. pp. 20 et seq.; but comp. Ker. 8b).}}</ref> A ''ger toshav'' is therefore commonly deemed a "Righteous Gentile" ({{langx|he|חסיד אומות העולם|link=no}}, ''Chassid Umot ha-Olam'': "Pious People of the World"),<ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="ET1"/><ref name="Sefaria"/> and is assured of a place in the ].<ref name="myjewishlearning.com"/><ref name="JE1"/><ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="ET1"/><ref name="Sefaria"/>
In earlier times, a Gentile living in the ] who accepted the ''Seven laws'' in front of a rabbinical court was known as a '']'' (literally Stranger/Resident) or "Resident Alien". Jewish law recognizes a Biblical obligation to help a Ger toshav in time of need (as opposed to the rabbinic obligation help all Gentiles who live among Jews). The regulations regarding Jewish-Gentile relations are modified in the case of a Ger toshav.<ref name="ET_GT">Encyclopedia Talmudit, Hebrew edition, 5739/1979, entry Ger Toshav</ref>


The rabbinic regulations regarding Jewish-gentile relations are modified in the case of a ''ger toshav''.<ref name="ET1"/> The accepted halakhic opinion is that the ''ger toshav'' must accept the seven Noahide laws in the presence of three ''haberim'' (men of authority),<ref name="JE2"/> or, according to the ], before a '']'' (Jewish rabbinical court).<ref name="ET1"/> 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 ] are also greater when the gentile is a ''ger toshav''.<ref name="ET1"/>
] only allows the official acceptance of a Ger Toshav as a resident in the Land of Israel during a time when the ] (''yovel'') is in effect. There is discussion in the sources as to whether some of the laws that apply to a Ger Toshav may be applied to some modern Gentiles, particularly Muslims.<ref name="ET_GT"/>


According to the ] and professor ]'s study on ] (1991), a ''ger toshav'' could be a transitional stage on the way to becoming a "righteous alien" ({{langx|he|גר צדק|link=no}}, '']''), i.e. a full ].<ref name="Kellner1991">{{cite book |last=Kellner |first=Menachem |author-link=Menachem Kellner |year=1991 |title=Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish people |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBWiRKhun4oC&pg=PA44 |location=] |publisher=] |series=SUNY Series in Jewish Philosophy |page=44 |isbn=0-7914-0691-1 |quote=against my reading of Maimonides is strengthened by the fact that Maimonides himself says that the ''ger toshav'' is accepted only during the time that the Jubilee is practiced. The Jubilee year is no longer practiced in this dispensation . Second, it is entirely reasonable to assume that Maimonides thought that the messianic conversion of the Gentiles would be a process that occurred in stages and that some or all Gentiles would go through the status of ''ger toshav'' on their way to the status of full convert, ''ger tzedek''. But this question aside, there are substantial reasons why it is very unlikely that Maimonides foresaw a messianic era in which the Gentiles would become only semi-converts (''ger toshav'') and not full converts (''ger tzedek''). Put simply, semi-converts are not separate from the Jews but equal to them; their status is in every way inferior and subordinate to that of the Jews. They are separate and ''un''equal. |via=]}}</ref> He conjectures that, according to Maimonides, only a full ''ger tzedek'' would be found during the Messianic era.<ref name="Kellner1991"/> Furthermore, Kellner criticizes the assumption within ] that there is an "ontological divide between Jews and Gentiles",<ref name="Kellner2016">{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishideas.org/article/orthodoxy-and-gentile-problem |title=Orthodoxy and "The Gentile Problem" |last=Kellner |first=Menachem |author-link=Menachem Kellner |date=Spring 2016 |website=] |publisher=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801013545/https://www.jewishideas.org/article/orthodoxy-and-gentile-problem |archive-date=1 August 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref> which he believes is contrary to what Maimonides thought and the ] teaches,<ref name="Kellner2016"/> stating that "Gentiles as well as Jews are fully ] in the image of God".<ref name="Kellner2016"/>
A Ger Toshav should not be confused with a ], who is a person who prefers to proceed to total ], a procedure that is traditionally only allowed to take place after much thought and deliberation over converting.


According to ], an American scholar of ancient Judaism and early Christianity serving as the ] of ] in Classical Judaica at ], the ''gerim'' were not necessarily Gentile converts in the ], whether in the modern or rabbinic sense.<ref name="Hayes 2002"/> Nonetheless, they were granted many rights and privileges when they lived in the ].<ref name="Hayes 2002"/> For example, they could offer sacrifices, actively participate in Israelite politics, keep their distinct ethnic identity for many generations, inherit tribal allotments, etc.<ref name="Hayes 2002">{{cite book |author-last=Hayes |author-first=Christine |author-link=Christine Hayes |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGZ0_PUBLVcC&pg=PA19 |chapter=Part I: Gentile Impurities in Biblical and Second Temple Sources — Chapter 2: Gentile Impurity in the Bible |title=Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities: Intermarriage and Conversion from the Bible to the Talmud |year=2002 |location=] |publisher=] |pages=19–44 |doi=10.1093/0195151208.003.0002 |isbn=9780199834273 |lccn=2001051154}}</ref>
==Punishment==


=== Maimonides' view and his critics ===
The Talmud laid down the statutory punishment for transgressing any one of the Seven Laws of Noah (but not other parts of the Noahide code) as capital punishment <ref>Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Judges, Laws of Kings, chapters 9 and 10,</ref> by decapitation, which is considered one of the lightest<ref>Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Judges, Laws of Sanhedrin, chapter 14, law 4</ref> of the four modes of execution of criminals. According to some opinions, punishment is the same whether the individual transgresses with knowledge of the law or is ignorant of the law.<ref>Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 9a, commentary of Rashi</ref>
During the ], the ] Jewish philosopher and ] ] (1135–1204) wrote in the ] legal code ''Mishneh Torah'' that gentiles must perform exclusively the Seven Laws of Noah and refrain from ] or performing any ], including resting on the ].<ref>{{cite book |first=Moses |last=Maimonides |author-link=Maimonides |year=2012 |chapter-url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.10?lang=bi |chapter=Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars) |title=] |page=10:9 |translator-last=Brauner |translator-first=Reuven |publisher=] |access-date=10 August 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref name="JVL"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Moses |last=Maimonides |author-link=Maimonides |year=2012 |chapter-url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.10?lang=bi |chapter=Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars) |title=] |page=10:10 |translator-last=Brauner |translator-first=Reuven |publisher=] |access-date=10 August 2020}}</ref> According to Maimonides, teaching non-Jews to follow the Seven Laws of Noah is incumbent on all Jews, a commandment in and of itself.<ref name="Kress">{{cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-modern-noahide-movement/ |title=The Modern Noahide Movement |last=Kress |first=Michael |date=2018 |website=My Jewish Learning |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> Nevertheless, the majority of ] 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.<ref name="Kress"/>


Maimonides held that gentiles may have a part in the ] just by observing the Seven Laws of Noah and accepting them as ].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Sefaria"/><ref name="JVL"/><ref name="Lemler 2011">{{cite journal |last=Lemler |first=David |date=December 2011 |title=Noachisme et philosophie: Destin d'un thème talmudique de Maïmonide à Cohen en passant par Spinoza |editor-last=Grieu |editor-first=Étienne |journal=Archives de Philosophie: Recherches et documentation |publisher=Centre Sèvres |location=Paris |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=629–646 |language=fr |doi=10.3917/aphi.744.0629 |doi-access=free |eissn=1769-681X |issn=0003-9632 |via=]}}</ref> According to Maimonides, such non-Jews achieve the status of ''Chassid Umot Ha-Olam'' ("Pious People of the World"),<ref name="Sefaria"/> and are different from those which solely keep the Noahide laws out of moral/ethical ]ing alone.<ref name="Sefaria"/> He wrote in ''Hilkhot M'lakhim'':"<ref name="Sefaria"/>
==Modern Times==
===Modern views===


{{Blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |title=TRANSLATION OF THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE RAMBAM'S MISHNEH TORAH |first=Reuven |last=Brauner |publisher=Halakhah.com |year=2012 |access-date=26 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111015524/http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |archive-date=11 November 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}
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 mankind 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.


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".<ref name="Sefaria"/> 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.<ref name="Sefaria"/><ref name="m1"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UY2GAAAAQBAJ&q=Maimonides+laws+of+kings+wise+men&pg=PA253 |title=Maimonides: Life and Thought |first=Moshe |last=Halbertal |publisher=] |page=253 |year=2013 |access-date=26 May 2014 |isbn=978-1-4008-4847-8 |via=]}}</ref>
===Chabad views: A Shulchan Aruch for Gentiles===


The 15th-century Sephardic Orthodox rabbi ], one of the early ] and author of the '']'', rejected Maimonides' denial of the access to the World to Come to the gentiles who obey the Noahide laws guided only by their reason as ] and unfounded, asserting that there is not any justification to uphold such a view in the Talmud.<ref name="Lemler 2011"/> The 17th-century Sephardic philosopher ] read Maimonides as using "nor"{{clarify |date=May 2023}}, and accused him of being narrow and particularistic.<ref name="Lemler 2011"/> Other Jewish philosophers influenced by Spinoza, such as ] and ], also have formulated more inclusive and universal interpretations of the Seven Laws of Noah.<ref name="Lemler 2011"/><ref name="m1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OISKHHuUIkC&q=nor+of+%27the+pious+among+the+gentiles%2C%27+nor+of+their+wise+men&pg=PA179 |title=Maimonides |first=T. M. |last=Rudavsky |publisher=] |pages=178–179 |year=2009 |access-date=26 May 2014 |isbn=978-1-4443-1802-9 |via=]}}</ref>
After the late Rebbe of ] Lubavitch, Rabbi ], started his ] in the 1980s, the number of Gentiles willing to keep the Seven Laws of Noah as described in the Torah increases continuously. {{Citation needed|date=August 2011}} A codification of the exact obligations of the Gentiles in the spirit of the classical ] was needed. In 2005 the scholar Rabbi Moshe Weiner of Jerusalem accepted to produce an in-depth codification of the Noahide precepts.<ref>''The Divine Code'', R. Moshe Weiner, Ed. Dr. Michael Schulman Ph.D., Vol, I., p. 21, 2008, publ. Ask Noah International</ref> The work is called ], (The Book of Seven Divine Commandments) published 2008/ 2009. As it is approved by both Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi ] and Rabbi ], as well as other ]- and non-Hasidic halachic authorities like Rabbi ], Rabbi ] and Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet, it can claim an authoritative character and is referred as a "]"<ref>''Letter of Blessing'' (for ''Sefer Sheva Mitzvoth HaShem'') , R. Yonah Metzger, Chief Rabbi of Israel, p.1.</ref> for Gentiles at many places.


], one of the leading exponents of the ] (''Haskalah''), strongly disagreed with Maimonides' opinion, and instead contended that gentiles which observe the Noahide laws out of ethical, moral, or philosophical ]ing, without believing in the Jewish monotheistic conception of God, retained the status of "Righteous Gentiles" and would still achieve ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kogan |first=Michael S. |year=2008 |chapter=Three Jewish Theologians of Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aE8SDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |title=Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity |location=New York City |publisher=] |pages=77–80 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112597.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-19-511259-7 |s2cid=170858477 |via=]}}</ref> According to ], Maimonides' position has its source in his adoption of ]'s skeptical attitude towards the ability of reason to arrive at moral truths,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schwarzschild |first=Steven S. |author-link=Steven Schwarzschild |date=July 1962 |title=Do Noachite Have to Believe in Revelation? (Continued) |journal=] |volume=53 |issue=1 |location=] |publisher=] |pages=44–45 |doi=10.2307/1453421 |jstor=1453421 |quote=the basic philosophical reason which compelled Maimonides to take this restrictive position toward the Noachides was the fact that he had learned from his teacher Aristotle and was ready also for religious reasons to believe that ethics are not a purely rational, philosophic or scientific discipline. Only the barest outline of general ethical principles can be defined by logical methods. The substance of the matter which resides in its details can be obtained only through positive statutes, traditions, or divine commands, none of which are produced by conscious, rational processes}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schwarzschild |first=Steven S. |author-link=Steven Schwarzschild |date=July 1962 |title=Do Noachite Have to Believe in Revelation? (Continued) |journal=] |volume=53 |issue=1 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=] |pages=46–47 |doi=10.2307/1453421 |jstor=1453421}}</ref>
==Public endorsement of Noahide Laws==
=== United States Congress ===
The Seven Laws of Noah were recognized by the ] in the preamble to the 1991 bill that established ] in honor of the birthday of ] ], the leader of the ] movement:
{{quote |Whereas Congress recognizes the historical tradition of ethical values and principles which are the basis of civilized society and upon which our great Nation was founded; Whereas these ethical values and principles have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization, when they were known as the Seven Noahide Laws.<ref>, 102nd Congress of the United States of America, March 5, 1991.</ref>}}


A novel understanding of Maimonides' position in the 20th century, advanced by the Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi ], 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.<ref>''Iggerot HaReiyah'' 1:89, quoted in , p.35</ref>
===Israeli Druze===
In January 2004, the spiritual leader of the ] community in ], ], signed a declaration calling on all non-Jews in Israel to observe the Noahide Laws as laid down in the ] and expounded upon in Jewish tradition. The mayor of the ] city of ] (Shfaram), where Muslim, Christian and Druze communities live side by side, also signed the document. The declaration includes the commitment to make a better, more humane world based on the Seven Noahide Commandments and the values they represent commanded by the Creator to all mankind through Moses on ].


===Modern Noahide movement===
Support for the spread of the Seven Noahide Commandments by the Druze leaders reflects the Biblical narrative itself. The Druze community reveres the non-Jewish father-in-law of Moses, ], whom Arabs call ]. According to the Biblical narrative, Jethro joined and assisted the Jewish people in the desert during the ], accepted monotheism, but ultimately rejoined his own people. In fact, the tomb of Jethro in ] is the most important religious site for the Druze community.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.arutzsheva.com/news.php3?id=56379 |title=Druze Religious Leader Commits to Noachide "Seven Laws" |date=2004-01-18 |accessdate=2009-06-02}}</ref>
{{Main|Noahidism}}
{{Further|Jewish fundamentalism|Religious Zionism}}


] encouraged ] on many occasions to preach the Seven Laws of Noah,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Kress"/> devoting some of his addresses to the subtleties of this code.<ref name=lk_26_yisro3/><ref name=lk_4_vaeschonon/><ref name=lk_35>{{cite book |last=Schneerson |first=Menachem Mendel |author-link=Menachem Mendel Schneerson |year=1987 |title=] |volume=35 |page=97 |trans-title=Collected Talks |language=yi |location=] |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-8266-5781-7}}</ref> Since the 1990s,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/> ] rabbis from Israel, most notably those affiliated to Chabad-Lubavitch and ] organizations,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany">{{cite news |last=Ilany |first=Ofri |title=The Messianic Zionist Religion Whose Believers Worship Judaism (But Can't Practice It) |work=] |location=] |date=12 September 2018 |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-the-messianic-zionist-religion-that-wants-to-recruit-7-billion-members-1.6455144 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200209223631/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-the-messianic-zionist-religion-that-wants-to-recruit-7-billion-members-1.6455144 |archive-date=9 February 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> including ],<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> have set up a modern Noahide movement.<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> These Noahide organizations, led by religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis, are aimed at non-Jews to ] among them and commit them to follow the Noahide laws.<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> These religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis that guide the modern Noahide movement, who are often affiliated with the ] movement,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> are accused of expounding a ] and ] ] which consists in the belief that the Jewish people are God's chosen nation and racially superior to non-Jews,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> and mentor Noahides because they believe that the Messianic era will begin with the ] on the ] in ] to re-institute the ] along with the practice of ], and the establishment of a Jewish ] in Israel, supported by communities of Noahides.<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> In 1990, ] was the keynote speaker at the First International Conference of the Descendants of Noah, the first Noahide gathering, in ].<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> After the ] that same year, The Temple Institute, which advocates rebuilding the Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, started to promote the Noahide laws as well.<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Ilany"/>
==Christianity and the Noahide Laws==
] vary. Most ] incorporate the ], the ], and ], however some believe in the complete ]. The only Noahide law that is not part of the ] is the prohibition against eating the flesh of an animal while it is still alive (number 6 above). By many interpretations, ] and the ] make clear that the Jewish ] as a whole are not binding on gentile Christians, though the ] which is still observed by the ] includes some food restrictions.<ref>]'s notes: "We further see that, at the time of the ] ], the rule of the ] with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the ], indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies still show. ] also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the sixty-third ], expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command. What the Latin Church, however, thought on this subject about the year 400, is shown by ] in his work ], where he states that the Apostles had given this command in order 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, ] (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 ], 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 ] is proof that even Ecumenical canons may be of only temporary utility and may be repealed by disuse, like other laws."</ref>


===Public recognition===
The 18th-century Rabbi ] proposed that Jesus, and Paul after him, intended to convert the Gentiles to the Noahide laws while allowing the Jews to follow full ].<ref>: "R. Emden (), in a remarkable apology for Christianity contained in his appendix to "Seder 'Olam" (pp. 32b–34b, Hamburg, 1752), gives it as his opinion that the original intention of Jesus, and especially of Paul, was to convert only the Gentiles to the seven moral laws of Noah and to let the Jews follow the ]; this explains the apparent contradictions in the New Testament regarding the ] and the ]."</ref>
In the 1980s, ] urged his followers to actively engage in activities to inform non-Jews about the Noahide laws, which had not been done in previous generations.<ref name="Kress"/><ref name="Tabletmag">{{cite magazine |last=Strauss |first=Ilana E. |date=26 January 2016 |title=The Gentiles Who Act Like Jews: Who are these non-Jews practicing Orthodox Judaism? |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/the-gentiles-who-act-like-jews |magazine=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026025031/https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/196588/the-gentiles-who-act-like-jews |archive-date=26 October 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> The 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.<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Kress"/><ref name="Tabletmag"/>


In 1982, Chabad-Lubavitch had a reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a ]: the "Proclamation 4921",<ref name="ucsb.edu1">{{cite web |last1=Woolley |first1=John |last2=Peters |first2=Gerhard |title=Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States: 1981–1989 – Proclamation 4921—National Day of Reflection |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-4921-national-day-reflection |date=3 April 1982 |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=] |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> signed by the then-U.S. President ].<ref name="ucsb.edu1"/> The ], recalling House Joint Resolution 447 and in celebration of Schneerson's 80th birthday, proclaimed 4 April 1982, as a "National Day of Reflection".<ref name="ucsb.edu1"/>
==See also==

In 1989 and 1990, Chabad-Lubavitch had another reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 5956",<ref name="ucsb.edu2">{{cite web |last1=Woolley |first1=John |last2=Peters |first2=Gerhard |title=George Bush, 41st President of the United States: 1989–1993 – Proclamation 5956—Education Day, U.S.A., 1989 and 1990 |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-5956-education-day-usa-1989-and-1990 |date=14 April 1989 |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=] |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> signed by then-U.S. President ].<ref name="ucsb.edu2"/> The ], 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."<ref name="ucsb.edu2"/>

In January 2004, the spiritual leader of the ], Sheikh ], met with a representative of Chabad-Lubavitch to sign a declaration calling on all non-Jews in Israel to observe the Noahide laws; the mayor of the ] of ] (Shfaram) – where Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities live side-by-side – also signed the document.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=18 January 2004 |title=Druze Religious Leader commits to Noachide "Seven Laws" |url=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/56379 |work=] |location=] |access-date=1 November 2020}}</ref>

In March 2016, the ] ], ], declared during a sermon that Jewish law requires that only non-Jews who follow the Noahide laws are allowed to live in Israel:<ref name="Sharon 2016">{{cite news |last=Sharon |first=Jeremy |date=28 March 2016 |title=Non-Jews in Israel must keep Noahide laws, chief rabbi says |url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Non-Jews-are-forbidden-by-Jewish-law-to-live-in-Israel-chief-rabbi-says-449395 |work=] |location=Jerusalem |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328213855/http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Non-Jews-are-forbidden-by-Jewish-law-to-live-in-Israel-chief-rabbi-says-449395 |archive-date=28 March 2016 |url-status=live |access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Israel.pdf |title=Israel 2016 International Religious Freedom Report: Israel and the Occupied Territories |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2019 |website=State.gov |publisher=]-] |access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref> "According to Jewish law, it's forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noahide laws, If the non-Jew is unwilling to accept these laws, then we can send him to ], ... When there will be full, true redemption, we will do this."<ref name="Sharon 2016"/> Yosef further added: "non-Jews shouldn't live in the land of Israel. ... If our hand were firm, if we had the power to rule, then non-Jews must not live in Israel. But, our hand is not firm. Who, otherwise be the servants? Who will be our helpers? This is why we leave them in Israel."<ref name="ADL 2016">{{cite web |last1=Greenblatt |first1=Jonathan |author1-link=Jonathan Greenblatt |last2=Nuriel |first2=Carole |url=https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-israeli-chief-rabbi-statement-against-non-jews-living-in-israel-is-shocking |title=ADL: Israeli Chief Rabbi Statement Against Non-Jews Living in Israel is Shocking and Unacceptable |date=28 March 2016 |website=Adl.org |location=New York City |publisher=] |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20170314123513/https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-israeli-chief-rabbi-statement-against-non-jews-living-in-israel-is-shocking |archive-date=14 March 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref> Yosef's sermon sparked outrage in Israel and was fiercely criticized by several human rights associations, ] and ];<ref name="Sharon 2016"/> ], ]'s CEO and national director, and Carole Nuriel, Anti-Defamation League's Israel Office acting director, issued a strong denunciation of Yosef's sermon:<ref name="Sharon 2016"/><ref name="ADL 2016"/>

{{Blockquote|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.<br/> 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.<br/> We call upon the Chief Rabbi to retract his statements and apologize for any offense caused by his comments.<ref name="ADL 2016"/>}}

=== 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.<ref name="JE3">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Eisenstein |first1=Judah D. |author1-link=Julius Eisenstein |last2=Hirsch |first2=Emil G. |author2-link=Emil G. Hirsch |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6585-gentile#anchor21 |title=Gentile: Gentiles May Not Be Taught the Torah |encyclopedia=] |publisher=] |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118024556/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6585-gentile |archive-date=18 January 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| title = Sanhedrin| publisher = Halakhah.com 59a-b| access-date = 25 February 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150221053238/http://halakhah.com/pdf/nezikin/Sanhedrin.pdf| archive-date = 21 February 2015| url-status = live}}</ref>

Noahide law differs radically from ] for gentiles (''Jus Gentium''), if only because the latter was enforceable judicial policy. Rabbinic Judaism has never adjudicated any cases under the Noahide laws,<ref name="Novak 1983"/> and Jewish scholars disagree about whether the Noahide laws are a functional part of the '']'' (Jewish law).<ref>{{cite book |last=Bleich |first=J. David |author-link=J. David Bleich |year=1997 |chapter=Tikkun Olam: Jewish Obligations to Non-Jewish Society |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6by4AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |editor1-last=Shatz |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Waxman |editor2-first=Chaim I. |editor3-last=Diament |editor3-first=Nathan J. |title=Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law |location=] |publisher=] Inc. |pages=61–102 |isbn=978-0-765-75951-1 |via=]}}</ref>

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 ], who uses the term ''Son of Noah'' to refer to a gentile who keeps the seven laws, but is not a '']''.<ref name="ET1"/>

== Early Christianity ==
{{Main|Christian views on the Old Covenant|Council of Jerusalem|Historical background of the New Testament|Salvation in Christianity|Split of early Christianity and Judaism}}
{{Further|Anti-Judaism in early Christianity|Apostolic Age|Dual-covenant theology|New Perspective on Paul|Paul the Apostle and Judaism|Supersessionism}}
], whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of ] {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|15:20|NRSV}}: "but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by ] and from ] and from whatever has been strangled and from ]." (])]]

In the ], the ] recorded in ] is commonly seen as a parallel to the Seven Laws of Noah, and thus be a commonality rather than a differential.<ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bockmuehl |first=Markus |date=January 1995 |title=The Noachide Commandments and New Testament Ethics: with Special Reference to Acts 15 and Pauline Halakhah |journal=] |location=] |publisher=] |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=72–101 |issn=0035-0907 |jstor=44076024}}</ref><ref name="Fitzmyer 1998">{{cite book |last=Fitzmyer |first=Joseph A. |author-link=Joseph Fitzmyer |year=1998 |title=The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary |location=] |publisher=] |series=] |volume=31 |page=Chapter V |isbn=9780300139822}}</ref> Some modern scholars dispute the connection between Acts 15 and the seven Noahide laws.<ref name="Fitzmyer 1998"/> The Apostolic Decree is still observed by the ] and includes some ].<ref>]'s {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220220146/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.viii.v.iv.ii.html |date=20 December 2016 }} notes: "We further see that, at the time of the ], the rule of the ] with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the ], indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies still show. ] also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the 63rd ], expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command. What the Latin Church may have thought on this subject around 400 is suggested by ] in his work ], 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, ] (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 ], 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 ] is proof that even Ecumenical canons may be of only temporary utility and may be repealed by disuse, like other laws."</ref>

The '']'' article on ] states:
{{Blockquote|According to {{Bibleverse||Acts|13|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|14|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|17|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|18|NRSV}} , Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the proselytes of the gate 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 ] to admit the gentiles into the Church only as proselytes of the gate, that is, after their acceptance of the Noachian laws ({{Bibleverse||Acts|15:1–31|NRSV}})".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kohler |first=Kaufmann |author-link=Kaufmann Kohler |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13232-saul-of-tarsus#anchor10 |title=Saul of Tarsus: His Missionary Travels |encyclopedia=] |publisher=] |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218134014/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13232-saul-of-tarsus |archive-date=18 February 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref>}}

The article on the ] states:
{{Blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kohler |first=Kaufmann |author-link=Kaufmann Kohler |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11498-new-testament#anchor19 |title=New Testament: Spirit of Jewish Proselytism in Christianity |encyclopedia=] |publisher=] |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106214558/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11498-new-testament |archive-date=6 January 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref>}}

The 18th-century rabbi ] 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 ].<ref name="JE3"/>

== See also ==
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==References== == References ==
{{Reflist|2}} {{Reflist}}


==Further reading== == Further reading ==
* {{cite journal |last=Adler |first=Elchanan |date=Fall 2002 |title=The Sabbath Observing Gentile: Halakhic, Hashkafic, and Liturgical Perspectives |url=https://traditiononline.org/the-sabbath-observing-gentile-halakhic-hashkafic-and-liturgical-perspectives/ |journal=] |publisher=] |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=14–45 |jstor=23262836 |access-date=7 November 2020}}
* Barre Elisheva. "Torah for Gentiles - the Messianic and Political Implications of the Bnei Noah Laws", 2008, ISBN 978-965-91329-0-4
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Berlin |editor1-first=Meyer |editor2-last=Zevin |editor2-first=Shlomo Yosef |editor2-link=Shlomo Yosef Zevin |title=BEN NOAH |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lkLnwuXpbl4C&pg=PA360 |encyclopedia=]: A Digest of Halachic Literature and Jewish Law from the Tannaitic Period to the Present Time, Alphabetically Arranged |volume=IV |year=1992 |orig-year=1969 |publisher=Yad Harav Herzog (Emet) |location=Jerusalem |pages=360–380 |isbn=0873067142 |via=]}}
*]. "Judaism and ]" in ''Jewish law annual'', vol. VII 5–42
* {{cite book |last=Bleich |first=J. David |author-link=J. David Bleich |year=1988 |chapter=Judaism and Natural Law |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJMnC8LQMu8C&pg=PA5 |editor-last=Hecht |editor-first=Neils S. |title=Jewish Law Annual |location=] |publisher=] |volume=7 |pages=5–42 |isbn=9783718604807 |via=]}}
*Bleich, J. David. "Tikkun Olam: Jewish Obligations to Non-Jewish Society" in: ''Tikkun olam: social responsibility in Jewish thought and law''. Edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman and Nathan J. Diament. Northvale, N.J.: ], 1997. ISBN 0-7657-5951-9.
* {{cite book |last=Bleich |first=J. David |author-link=J. David Bleich |year=1997 |chapter=Tikkun Olam: Jewish Obligations to Non-Jewish Society |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6by4AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |editor1-last=Shatz |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Waxman |editor2-first=Chaim I. |editor3-last=Diament |editor3-first=Nathan J. |title=Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law |location=] |publisher=] Inc. |pages=61–102 |isbn=978-0-765-75951-1 |via=]}}
*Broyde, Michael J. "The Obligation of Jews to Seek Observance of Noahide Laws by Gentiles: A Theoretical Review" in ''Tikkun olam: social responsibility in Jewish thought and law''. Edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman and Nathan J. Diament. Northvale, N.J. : Jason Aronson, 1997. ISBN 0-7657-5951-9.
* {{cite book |last=van Houten |first=Christiana |year=2009 |orig-year=1991 |title=The Alien in Israelite Law: A Study of the Changing Legal Status of Strangers in Ancient Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NRgmWnZ2MqsC |location=] |publisher=] |series=The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies |volume=107 |isbn=978-1-85075-317-9 |via=]}}
* Cecil, Alan W. "The Noahide Code: A Guide to the Perplexed Christian." (Aventura: Academy of Shem Press, 2006). ISBN 0-9779885-0-3.
* {{cite book |last=Kiel |first=Yishai |year=2015 |chapter=Noahide Law and the Inclusiveness of Sexual Ethics: Between Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9pc0CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 |editor-last=Porat |editor-first=Benjamin |title=Jewish Law Annual |location=] |publisher=] |volume=21 |pages=59–109 |isbn=978-0-415-74269-6 |via=]}}
* Cohen, Yakov Dovid. "Divine Image " Insights into the Laws of Noah, published by The Institute of Noahide Code 2006 ISBN 1-4243-10008 online www.Noahide.org
* {{cite book |last=Lichtenstein |first=Aaron |author-link=Aaron Lichtenstein |year=1986 |orig-year=1981 |title=The Seven Laws of Noah |location=New York City |publisher=] Press |edition=2nd |isbn=9781602803671}}
*Cowen, Shimon Dovid. "Perspectives on the Noahide Laws - Universal ethics". The Institute of Judaism and Civilization (3rd edition) 2008 ISBN 0 9585933 8 8 www.ijc.com.au
* {{cite book |last=Novak |first=David |author-link=David Novak |year=2011 |orig-year=1983 |title=The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism: An Historical and Constructive Study of the Noahide Laws |location=] |publisher=] |series=Littman Library of Jewish Civilization |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1rmj9w |isbn=9781786949820}}
*Clorfene C and Rogalsky Y. ''The Path of the Righteous Gentile: An Introduction to the Seven Laws of the Children of Noah''. Targum Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87306-433-X. .
* {{cite book |last=Rakover |first=Nahum |author-link=Nahum Rakover |year=1998 |title=Law and the Noahides: Law as a Universal Value |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Library of Jewish Law |oclc=41386366}}
*Lichtenstein, Aaron. "The Seven Laws of Noah". New York: The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press and Z. Berman Books, 2d ed. 1986. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 80-69121.
* {{cite book |last=Solomon |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Solomon (rabbi) |year=1991 |title=Judaism and World Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M-auCwAAQBAJ |location=New York City |publisher=] |series=Library of Philosophy and Religion |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-12069-7 |isbn=978-0-312-06863-9 |via=]}}
*]. ''The image of the non-Jew in Judaism: an historical and constructive study of the Noahide Laws''. New York : E. Mellen Press, 1983.
* {{cite journal |last=Wasserman |first=Mira Beth |date=2019 |title=Noahide Law, Animal Ethics, and Talmudic Narrative |editor1-last=Crane |editor1-first=Jonathan K. |editor2-last=Filler |editor2-first=Emily |journal=] |location=] |publisher=] |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=40–67 |doi=10.5325/jjewiethi.5.1.0040 |s2cid=201391432 |eissn=2334-1785 |issn=2334-1777 |lccn=2014201591 |oclc=1082217204}}
*Novak, David. ''Natural law in Judaism''. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998.
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Zevin |editor-first=Shlomo Yosef |editor-link=Shlomo Yosef Zevin |title="Ger Toshav", Section 1 |encyclopedia=] |year=1979 |publisher=Yad Harav Herzog (Emet) |location=Jerusalem |edition=4th |language=he}}
*Rakover, Nahum. ''Law and the Noahides: law as a universal value''. Jerusalem: Library of Jewish Law, 1998.
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Zuesse |first=Evan M. |year=2006 |title=Tolerance in Judaism: Medieval and Modern Sources |editor1-last=Neusner |editor1-first=Jacob |editor1-link=Jacob Neusner |editor2-last=Avery-Peck |editor2-first=Alan J. |editor3-last=Green |editor3-first=William Scott |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Judaism |volume=IV |location=] |publisher=] |doi=10.1163/1872-9029_EJ_COM_0187 |pages=2688–2713 |isbn=9789004141001}}
*Michael Dallen. The Rainbow Covenant: Torah and the Seven Universal Laws ISBN 0-9719388-2-2 Library of Congress Control Number 2003102494


==External links== == External links ==
* {{cite web |url=https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Israel.pdf |title=Israel 2016 International Religious Freedom Report: Israel and the Occupied Territories |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2019 |website=State.gov |publisher=]-] |access-date=7 November 2020}}
*
* {{cite web |url=https://wrldrels.org/2017/10/08/the-bnei-noah-children-of-noah/ |title=The Bnei Noah (Children of Noah) |last=Feldman |first=Rachel Z. |date=8 October 2017 |website=World Religions and Spirituality Project |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200121162034/https://wrldrels.org/2017/10/08/the-bnei-noah-children-of-noah/ |archive-date=21 January 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=7 November 2020}}
*
* {{cite web |url=https://www.jewishideas.org/article/orthodoxy-and-gentile-problem |title=Orthodoxy and "The Gentile Problem" |last=Kellner |first=Menachem |author-link=Menachem Kellner |date=Spring 2016 |website=] |publisher=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801013545/https://www.jewishideas.org/article/orthodoxy-and-gentile-problem |archive-date=1 August 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=7 November 2020}}
*
* {{cite encyclopedia |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9679-laws-noachian |title=Noachian Laws |last1=Singer |first1=Isidore |author1-link=Isidore Singer |last2=Greenstone |first2=Julius H. |encyclopedia=] |publisher=] |year=1906 |access-date=7 November 2020}}
*
* {{cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-noahide-laws/ |title=The Noahide Laws |last=Spitzer |first=Jeffrey |website=My Jewish Learning |access-date=7 November 2020}}
*
*


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Latest revision as of 04:53, 28 November 2024

Universal moral laws in Judaism For the Jewish new religious movement, see Noahidism.
This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. Please help summarize the quotations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote or excerpts to Wikisource. (February 2022)

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.

In Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah (Hebrew: שבע מצוות בני נח, Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach), otherwise referred to as the Noahide Laws or the Noachian Laws (from the Hebrew pronunciation of "Noah"), are a set of universal moral laws which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a covenant with Noah and with the "sons of Noah"—that is, all of humanity.

The Seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions against worshipping idols, cursing God, murder, adultery and sexual immorality, theft, eating flesh torn from a living animal, as well as the obligation to establish courts of justice.

According to Jewish law, non-Jews (gentiles) are not obligated to convert to Judaism, but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba), the final reward of the righteous. 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").

List

The seven Noahide laws as traditionally enumerated in the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 56a-b and Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9:4, are the following:

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

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

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 Genesis flood narrative, a deluge covered the whole world on account of violent corruption on the earth, killing every surface-dwelling creature except Noah, his wife, his sons, their wives, and the animals taken aboard the Ark. According to the biblical narrative, all modern humans are descendants of Noah, thus the name Noahide Laws refers to the laws that apply to all of humanity. After the Flood, God sealed a covenant with Noah with the following admonitions as written in Genesis 9:4–6:

  • Flesh of a living animal: "However, flesh with its life-blood , you shall not eat." (9:4)
  • Murder and courts: "Furthermore, I will demand your blood, for your lives, I shall demand it 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, may include a substantially different list of six commandments at verses 7:20–25: (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.

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 Encyclopedia Talmudit, edited by Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, states that after the giving of the Torah, the Jewish people were no longer included in the category of the sons of Noah. Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot M'lakhim 9:1) indicates that the seven commandments are also part of the Torah, and 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. 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.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, published and spoke about the Seven Laws of Noah many times. According to Schneerson's view, based on a detailed reading of Maimonides' Hilkhot M'lakhim, the Talmud, and the Hebrew Bible, the seven laws originally given to Noah were given yet again, through Moses at Sinai, and it's exclusively through the giving of the Torah that the seven laws derive their current force. What has changed with the giving of the Torah is that now, it is the duty of the Jewish people to bring the rest of the world to fulfill the Seven Laws of Noah.

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, which wrote them down in the Tosefta.

According to Adam J. Silverstein, professor of Middle Eastern studies and Islamic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jewish theologians started to rethink the relevance and applicability of the Seven Laws of Noah during the Middle Ages, primarily due to the precarious living conditions of the Jewish people under the Medieval Christian kingdoms and the Islamic world (see 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. 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.

David Novak, professor of Jewish theology and ethics at the University of Toronto, presents a range of theories regarding the sources from which the Seven Laws of Noah originated, including the Hebrew Bible itself, Hittite laws, the Maccabean period, and the Roman period. 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".

Judaism

Talmud

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

The Talmudic sages expanded the concept of universal morality within the Noahide laws and added several other laws beyond the seven listed in the Talmud and Tosefta which are attributed to different rabbis, such as prohibitions against committing incest, cruelty to animals, pairing animals of different species, grafting trees of different kinds, castration, emasculation, homosexuality, pederasty, and sorcery among others, with some of the sages, such as Ulla, going so far as to make a list of 30 laws. The Talmud expands the scope of the seven laws to cover about 100 of the 613 mitzvot.

Punishment

Main article: Capital and corporal punishment in Judaism

In practice, Jewish law makes it very difficult to apply the death penalty. No record exists of a gentile having been put to death for violating the seven Noahide laws. 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.

According Sanhedrin 56a, for Noahides convicted of a capital crime, the only sanctioned method of execution is decapitation, considered one of the lightest capital punishments. 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). Some Talmudic rabbis held that only those offences for which a Jew would be executed, are forbidden to gentiles. The Talmudic rabbis discuss which offences and sub-offences are capital offences and which are merely forbidden.

Maimonides states that anyone who does not accept the seven laws is to be executed, as God compelled the world to follow these laws. For the other prohibitions such as the grafting of trees and bestiality he holds that the sons of Noah are not to be executed. Maimonides adds a universalism lacking from earlier Jewish sources. The Talmud differs from Maimonides in that it considers the seven laws enforceable by Jewish authorities on non-Jews living within a Jewish nation. 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. According to some opinions, punishment is the same whether the individual transgresses with knowledge of the law or is ignorant of the law.

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. 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.

There is also some debate as to whether the ideal punishment for violation of these laws is the death penalty, or if it is up to the court's discretion to decide which punishment is most fitting. While a simple reading of the Talmud might suggest that the ideal punishment is the death penalty, a number of prominent commentators, including Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, have argued that it is up to the courts to decide.

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. Like the Talmud, he interpreted the prohibition against homicide as including a prohibition against abortion. 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.

The Talmudist Ulla wrote of 30 laws which the sons of Noah took upon themselves. He only lists three, namely the three that the gentiles follow: not to create a Ketubah between males, not to sell carrion or human flesh in the market and to respect the Torah. The rest of the laws are not listed. 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. 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.

Ger toshav (resident alien)

Main article: Ger toshav

During biblical times, a gentile living in the Land of Israel who did not want to convert to Judaism but accepted the Seven Laws of Noah as binding upon himself was granted the legal status of ger toshav (Hebrew: גר תושב, ger: "foreigner" or "alien" + toshav: "resident", lit. "resident alien"). A ger toshav is therefore commonly deemed a "Righteous Gentile" (Hebrew: חסיד אומות העולם, Chassid Umot ha-Olam: "Pious People of the World"), and is assured of a place in the World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba).

The rabbinic regulations regarding Jewish-gentile relations are modified in the case of a ger toshav. The accepted halakhic opinion is that the ger toshav must accept the seven Noahide laws in the presence of three haberim (men of authority), or, according to the rabbinic tradition, before a beth din (Jewish rabbinical court). 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.

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. He conjectures that, according to Maimonides, only a full ger tzedek would be found during the Messianic era. Furthermore, Kellner criticizes the assumption within Orthodox Judaism that there is an "ontological divide between Jews and Gentiles", which he believes is contrary to what Maimonides thought and the Torah teaches, stating that "Gentiles as well as Jews are fully created in the image of God".

According to Christine Hayes, an American scholar of ancient Judaism and early Christianity serving as the Sterling Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica at Yale University, the gerim were not necessarily Gentile converts in the Hebrew Bible, whether in the modern or rabbinic sense. Nonetheless, they were granted many rights and privileges when they lived in the Land of Israel. For example, they could offer sacrifices, actively participate in Israelite politics, keep their distinct ethnic identity for many generations, inherit tribal allotments, etc.

Maimonides' view and his critics

During the Golden Age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula, 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. 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. According to Maimonides, teaching non-Jews to follow the Seven Laws of Noah is incumbent on all Jews, a commandment in and of itself. 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.

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. According to Maimonides, such non-Jews achieve the status of Chassid Umot Ha-Olam ("Pious People of the World"), and are different from those which solely keep the Noahide laws out of moral/ethical reasoning alone. He wrote in Hilkhot M'lakhim:"

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.

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". 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.

The 15th-century Sephardic Orthodox rabbi Yosef Caro, one of the early Acharonim and author of the Shulchan Aruch, rejected Maimonides' denial of the access to the World to Come to the gentiles who obey the Noahide laws guided only by their reason as anti-rationalistic and unfounded, asserting that there is not any justification to uphold such a view in the Talmud. The 17th-century Sephardic philosopher Baruch Spinoza read Maimonides as using "nor", and accused him of being narrow and particularistic. 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.

Moses Mendelssohn, one of the leading exponents of the Jewish enlightenment (Haskalah), strongly disagreed with Maimonides' opinion, and instead contended that gentiles which observe the Noahide laws out of ethical, moral, or philosophical reasoning, without believing in the Jewish monotheistic conception of God, retained the status of "Righteous Gentiles" and would still achieve salvation. 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, 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.

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.

Modern Noahide movement

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

Menachem Mendel Schneerson encouraged his followers on many occasions to preach the Seven Laws of Noah, devoting some of his addresses to the subtleties of this code. Since the 1990s, Orthodox Jewish rabbis from Israel, most notably those affiliated to Chabad-Lubavitch and religious Zionist organizations, including The Temple Institute, have set up a modern Noahide movement. These Noahide organizations, led by religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis, are aimed at non-Jews to proselytize among them and commit them to follow the Noahide laws. These religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis that guide the modern Noahide movement, who are often affiliated with the Third Temple movement, are accused of expounding a racist and supremacist ideology which consists in the belief that the Jewish people are God's chosen nation and racially superior to non-Jews, and mentor Noahides because they believe that the Messianic era will begin with the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to re-institute the Jewish priesthood along with the practice of ritual sacrifices, and the establishment of a Jewish theocracy in Israel, supported by communities of Noahides. In 1990, Meir Kahane was the keynote speaker at the First International Conference of the Descendants of Noah, the first Noahide gathering, in Fort Worth, Texas. After the assassination of Meir Kahane that same year, The Temple Institute, which advocates rebuilding the Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, started to promote the Noahide laws as well.

Public recognition

In the 1980s, rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson urged his followers to actively engage in activities to inform non-Jews about the Noahide laws, which had not been done in previous generations. The 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.

In 1982, Chabad-Lubavitch had a reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. Presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 4921", signed by the then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan. 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".

In 1989 and 1990, Chabad-Lubavitch had another reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 5956", signed by then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush. 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."

In January 2004, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafak Tarif, met with a representative of Chabad-Lubavitch to sign a declaration calling on all non-Jews in Israel to observe the Noahide laws; the mayor of the Arab city of Shefa-'Amr (Shfaram) – where Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities live side-by-side – also signed the document.

In March 2016, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef, declared during a sermon that Jewish law requires that only non-Jews who follow the Noahide laws are allowed to live in Israel: "According to Jewish law, it's forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noahide laws, If the non-Jew is unwilling to accept these laws, then we can send him to Saudi Arabia, ... When there will be full, true redemption, we will do this." Yosef further added: "non-Jews shouldn't live in the land of Israel. ... If our hand were firm, if we had the power to rule, then non-Jews must not live in Israel. But, our hand is not firm. Who, otherwise be the servants? Who will be our helpers? This is why we leave them in Israel." Yosef's sermon sparked outrage in Israel and was fiercely criticized by several human rights associations, NGOs and members of the Knesset; 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:

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.

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.

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, and Jewish scholars disagree about whether the Noahide laws are a functional part of the Halakha (Jewish law).

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.

Early Christianity

Main articles: Christian views on the Old Covenant, Council of Jerusalem, Historical background of the New Testament, Salvation in Christianity, and Split of early Christianity and Judaism Further information: Anti-Judaism in early Christianity, Apostolic Age, Dual-covenant theology, New Perspective on Paul, Paul the Apostle and Judaism, and Supersessionism
James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:20: "but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood." (NRSV)

In the history of Christianity, 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. Some modern scholars dispute the connection between Acts 15 and the seven Noahide laws. The Apostolic Decree is still observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and includes some food restrictions.

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 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)".

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.

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.

See also

References

  1. Segal, Alan F. (1993). "Conversion and Universalism: Opposites that Attract". In McLean, Bradley H. (ed.). Origins and Method: Towards a New Understanding of Judaism and Christianity. Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement Series. Vol. 86. Bloomsbury and Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 9780567495570. Furthermore, the sign of the Noahide covenant, the rainbow, is available to all humanity to symbolize God's promise of safety. And it is completely outside of the special covenant with Abraham and his descendants. The covenant with Noah is expanded to the entire primeval period, encompassing all the revealed commandments preceding Sinai.
  2. ^ "Noahide Laws". Encyclopædia Britannica. Edinburgh: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 14 January 2008. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2020. Noahide Laws, also called Noachian Laws, a Jewish Talmudic designation for seven biblical laws given to Adam and to Noah before the revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai and consequently binding on all mankind.
    Beginning with Genesis 2:16, the Babylonian Talmud listed the first six commandments as prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and robbery and the positive command to establish courts of justice (with all that this implies). After the Flood a seventh commandment, given to Noah, forbade the eating of flesh cut from a living animal (Genesis 9:4). Though the number of laws was later increased to 30 with the addition of prohibitions against castration, sorcery, and other practices, the "seven laws", with minor variations, retained their original status as authoritative commandments and as the source of other laws. As basic statutes safeguarding monotheism and guaranteeing proper ethical conduct in society, these laws provided a legal framework for alien residents in Jewish territory. Maimonides thus regarded anyone who observed these laws as one "assured of a portion in the world to come."
  3. ^ Vana, Liliane (May 2013). Trigano, Shmuel (ed.). "Les lois noaẖides: Une mini-Torah pré-sinaïtique pour l'humanité et pour Israël" [The Noahid Laws: A Pre-Sinaitic Mini-Torah for Humanity and for Israel]. Pardés: Études et culture juives (in French). 52 (2). Paris: Éditions in Press: 211–236. doi:10.3917/parde.052.0211. eISSN 2271-1880. ISBN 978-2-84835-260-2. ISSN 0295-5652 – via Cairn.info.
  4. Novak, David (1992) . "The Doctrine of the Noahide Laws". Jewish-Christian Dialogue: A Jewish Justification. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 26–41. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195072730.003.0002. ISBN 9780195072730 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Spitzer, Jeffrey (2018). "The Noahide Laws". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  6. ^ Singer, Isidore; Greenstone, Julius H. (1906). "Noachian Laws". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  7. ^ Berlin, Meyer; Zevin, Shlomo Yosef, eds. (1992) . "BEN NOAH". Encyclopedia Talmudica: A Digest of Halachic Literature and Jewish Law from the Tannaitic Period to the Present Time, Alphabetically Arranged. Vol. IV. Jerusalem: Yad Harav Herzog (Emet). pp. 360–380. ISBN 0873067142 – via Google Books.
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  9. Compare Genesis 9:4–6.
  10. ^ Reiner, Gary (2011) . "Ha-Me'iri's Theory of Religious Toleration". In Laursen, John Christian; Nederman, Cary J. (eds.). Beyond the Persecuting Society: Religious Toleration Before the Enlightenment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 86–87. doi:10.9783/9780812205862.71. ISBN 978-0-8122-0586-2 – via Google Books.
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  13. ^ Zevin, Shlomo Yosef, ed. (1979). ""Ger Toshav", Section 1". Encyclopedia Talmudit (in Hebrew) (4th ed.). Jerusalem: Yad Harav Herzog (Emet).
  14. ^ Maimonides, Moses (2012). "Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars)". Mishneh Torah. Translated by Brauner, Reuven. Sefaria. p. 8:11–14. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  15. For a discussion of whether the rabbinic conception of the Noahide prohibition of idolatry mirrors the Torah's prohibition of idolatry or has more leeway, see Klein, Reuven Chaim (2022). "World Religions and the Noahide Prohibition of Idolatry" (PDF). Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society. 79: 109–167. doi:10.17613/h2nz-ep07..
  16. ^ "Jewish Concepts: The Seven Noachide Laws". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). 2021 . Archived from the original on 10 February 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2021. Except for the seventh law, all are negative commands, and the last itself is usually interpreted as commanding the enforcement of the others. They are derived exegetically from divine demands addressed to Adam and Noah, the progenitors of all mankind, and are thus regarded as universal. Noachides may also freely choose to practice certain other Jewish commandments and Maimonides held that Noachides must not only accept these seven laws on their own merit, but must also accept them as divinely revealed. Even though the Talmud and Maimonides stipulate that a non-Jew who violated the Noachide laws was liable to capital punishment, contemporary authorities have expressed the view that this is only the maximal punishment. According to this view, there is a difference between Noachide law and halakhah. According to halakhah, when a Jew was liable for capital punishment it was a mandatory punishment, provided that all conditions had been met, whereas in Noachide law death is the maximal punishment, to be enforced only in exceptional cases. In view of the strict monotheism of Islam, Muslims were considered as Noachides whereas the status of Christians was a matter of debate. Since the late Middle Ages, Christianity too has come to be regarded as Noachide, on the ground that Trinitarianism is not forbidden to non-Jews.
  17. Rabbinical authorities disputed whether there were only one or several commandments given to Adam: see Sanhedrin 56a/b Archived 6 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  18. "Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9:4". www.sefaria.org.
  19. Rambo, Lewis Ray; Farhadian, Charles E., eds. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion. Oxford University Press. p. 591. ISBN 978-0-19-533852-2 – via Google Books.
  20. Genesis 9:4–6
  21. VanderKam, James C. (2001). The Book of Jubilees. Guides to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp. 17–21. ISBN 1-85075-767-4 – via Google Books.
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  25. ^ Kogan, Michael S. (2008). "Three Jewish Theologians of Christianity". Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity. New York City: Oxford University Press. pp. 73–76. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112597.003.0003. ISBN 978-0-19-511259-7. S2CID 170858477 – via Google Books.
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  27. ^ Novak, David (2011) . The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism: An Historical and Constructive Study of the Noahide Laws. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Toronto: Liverpool University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1rmj9w. ISBN 9781786949820.
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  31. Sanhedrin 56a/b Archived 6 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine, quoting Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9:4; see also Rashi on Genesis 9:4
  32. Chullin 92a-b
  33. ^ Grishaver, Joel Lurie; Kelman, Stuart, eds. (1996). Learn Torah With 1994–1995 Torah Annual: A Collection of the Year's Best Torah. Torah Aura Productions. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-881283-13-3 – via Google Books.
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  36. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Judges, Laws of Sanhedrin, chapter 14, law 4
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  39. "Sanhedrin" (PDF). Halakhah.com 57a-b. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
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  41. ^ "Mishneh Torah Shoftim, Laws of Kings and their wars: 10:8" (PDF). Halakhah.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
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  43. Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 9a, commentary of Rashi
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  51. Mossad HaRav Kook edition of the Gaon's commentary to Genesis.
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  53. Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess I, end Ch. 10
  54. Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1986). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Vol. 3 (Fully Revised ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans. p. 1010. ISBN 0-8028-3783-2. In rabbinic literature the ger toshab was a Gentile who observed the Noachian commandments but was not considered a convert to Judaism because he did not agree to circumcision. some scholars have made the mistake of calling the ger toshab a "proselyte" or "semiproselyte." But the ger toshab was really a resident alien in Israel. Some scholars have claimed that the term "those who fear God" (yir᾿ei Elohim/Shamayim) was used in rabbinic literature to denote Gentiles who were on the fringe of the synagogue. They were not converts to Judaism, although they were attracted to the Jewish religion and observed part of the law.
  55. Bleich, J. David (1995). Contemporary Halakhic Problems. Vol. 4. New York City: KTAV Publishing House (Yeshiva University Press). p. 161. 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.
  56. ^ Jacobs, Joseph; Hirsch, Emil G. (1906). "Proselyte: Semi-Converts". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 31 May 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2020. In order to find a precedent the rabbis went so far as to assume that proselytes of this order were recognized in Biblical law, applying to them the term "toshab" ("sojourner," "aborigine," referring to the Canaanites; see Maimonides' explanation in "Yad," Issure Biah, xiv. 7; see Grätz, l.c. p. 15), in connection with "ger" (see Ex. xxv. 47, where the better reading would be "we-toshab"). Another name for one of this class was "proselyte of the gate" ("ger ha-sha'ar," that is, one under Jewish civil jurisdiction; comp. Deut. v. 14, xiv. 21, referring to the stranger who had legal claims upon the generosity and protection of his Jewish neighbors). In order to be recognized as one of these the neophyte had publicly to assume, before three "ḥaberim," or men of authority, the solemn obligation not to worship idols, an obligation which involved the recognition of the seven Noachian injunctions as binding ('Ab. Zarah 64b; "Yad," Issure Biah, xiv. 7). ... The more rigorous seem to have been inclined to insist upon such converts observing the entire Law, with the exception of the reservations and modifications explicitly made in their behalf. The more lenient were ready to accord them full equality with Jews as soon as they had solemnly forsworn idolatry. The "via media" was taken by those that regarded public adherence to the seven Noachian precepts as the indispensable prerequisite (Gerim iii.; 'Ab. Zarah 64b; Yer. Yeb. 8d; Grätz, l.c. pp. 19–20). The outward sign of this adherence to Judaism was the observance of the Sabbath (Grätz, l.c. pp. 20 et seq.; but comp. Ker. 8b).
  57. ^ Kellner, Menachem (1991). Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish people. SUNY Series in Jewish Philosophy. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-7914-0691-1 – via Google Books. against my reading of Maimonides is strengthened by the fact that Maimonides himself says that the ger toshav is accepted only during the time that the Jubilee is practiced. The Jubilee year is no longer practiced in this dispensation . Second, it is entirely reasonable to assume that Maimonides thought that the messianic conversion of the Gentiles would be a process that occurred in stages and that some or all Gentiles would go through the status of ger toshav on their way to the status of full convert, ger tzedek. But this question aside, there are substantial reasons why it is very unlikely that Maimonides foresaw a messianic era in which the Gentiles would become only semi-converts (ger toshav) and not full converts (ger tzedek). Put simply, semi-converts are not separate from the Jews but equal to them; their status is in every way inferior and subordinate to that of the Jews. They are separate and unequal.
  58. ^ Kellner, Menachem (Spring 2016). "Orthodoxy and "The Gentile Problem"". Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Marc D. Angel. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  59. ^ Hayes, Christine (2002). "Part I: Gentile Impurities in Biblical and Second Temple Sources — Chapter 2: Gentile Impurity in the Bible". Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities: Intermarriage and Conversion from the Bible to the Talmud. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 19–44. doi:10.1093/0195151208.003.0002. ISBN 9780199834273. LCCN 2001051154.
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  68. Schwarzschild, Steven S. (July 1962). "Do Noachite Have to Believe in Revelation? (Continued)". Jewish Quarterly Review. 53 (1). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 46–47. doi:10.2307/1453421. JSTOR 1453421.
  69. Iggerot HaReiyah 1:89, quoted in Law and the Noahides, p.35
  70. Schneerson, Menachem Mendel (1987). Likkutei Sichot [Collected Talks] (in Yiddish). Vol. 35. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8266-5781-7.
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  75. "Druze Religious Leader commits to Noachide "Seven Laws"". Arutz Sheva. Beit El. 18 January 2004. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
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  81. Bleich, J. David (1997). "Tikkun Olam: Jewish Obligations to Non-Jewish Society". In Shatz, David; Waxman, Chaim I.; Diament, Nathan J. (eds.). Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc. pp. 61–102. ISBN 978-0-765-75951-1 – via Google Books.
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  83. ^ Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (1998). The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries. Vol. 31. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. Chapter V. ISBN 9780300139822.
  84. Karl Josef von Hefele's commentary on canon II of Gangra Archived 20 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine notes: "We further see that, at the time of the Synod of Gangra, the rule of the Apostolic Synod with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the Greeks, indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies still show. Balsamon also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the 63rd Apostolic Canon, expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command. What the Latin Church may have thought on this subject around 400 is suggested by St. Augustine in his work 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."
  85. Kohler, Kaufmann (1906). "Saul of Tarsus: His Missionary Travels". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  86. Kohler, Kaufmann (1906). "New Testament: Spirit of Jewish Proselytism in Christianity". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2020.

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