Seven Laws of Noah

In Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah (Hebrew: שבע מצוות בני נח‎, Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach), otherwise referred to as the Noahide Laws[1][2] or the Noachian Laws[1][3] (from the Hebrew pronunciation of "Noah"), are a set of imperatives which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of universal moral laws for the "sons of Noah" – that is, all of humanity.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

For the Jewish new religious movement, see Noahidism.
The rainbow is the unofficial symbol of Noahidism, recalling the Genesis flood narrative in which a rainbow appears to Noah after the Flood, indicating that God would not flood the Earth and destroy all life again.

According to the 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.[2][3][4][5][7][8][9] The non-Jews that choose to follow the Seven Laws of Noah are regarded as "Righteous Gentiles" (Hebrew: חסיד אומות העולם‎, Chassid Umot ha-Olam: "Pious People of the World").[2][3][5][7][8][9]

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.[1][2][3][4][5][10][11]

The Seven Laws

The seven Noahide laws as traditionally enumerated in the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 56a-b and Tosefta Avodah Zarah 8:4,[2][4][10][11] are the following:[1][2][3][4][5]

  1. Not to worship idols.
  2. Not to curse God.
  3. Not to commit murder.
  4. Not to commit adultery, bestiality, 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.[1][4][12] However, the rabbis disagreed on precisely which laws were given to Adam.[3][4] Six of the seven laws were exegetically derived from passages in the Book of Genesis,[1][3][4][12][13] with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.[3][4]

The earliest complete rabbinic version of the seven Noahide laws can be found in the Tosefta:[14][15]

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, killing every surface-dwelling creature except Noah, his wife, his sons, and 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 is referred to the laws that apply to all of humanity. After the Flood, God sealed a covenant with Noah with the following admonitions (Genesis 9:4–6):

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

Book of Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees, generally dated to the 2nd century BCE,[16] may include an early reference to the seven Noahide laws at verses 7:20–28:

And in the twenty-eighth jubilee 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 righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to bless their Creator, and honour father and mother, and love their neighbour, and guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity. For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth ... For whoso sheddeth man's blood, and whoso eateth the blood of any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth.[17][18]

Rabbinical views

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; however, 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.[4] 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.[4]

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.[19] 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.[20]

Academic and secular analysis

According to Michael S. Kogan, professor of Philosophy and Religious studies at Montclair State University, the Seven Laws of Noah aren't explicitly mentioned in the Torah but were exegetically extrapolated from the Book of Genesis by 2nd-century rabbis,[21] which wrote them down in the Tosefta.[21]

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.[22] 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".[23]

Judaism

Talmud

According to the Talmud, the Noahide laws apply to all of humanity.[4][12] In Judaism, the term B'nei Noach (Hebrew: בני נח‎, "Sons of Noah")[9] refers to all mankind.[4] The Talmud also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come".[24] Any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as one of the righteous among the gentiles.[12] According to the Talmud, the seven laws were given first to Adam and subsequently to Noah.[1][4][12] However, the rabbis disagreed on precisely which laws were given to Adam.[3][4] Six of the seven laws were exegetically derived from passages in the Book of Genesis,[1][3][4][12] with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.[1][3][4][12]

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,[1][3][4] 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,[1][3][4][12][25][26] with Ulla going so far as to make a list of 30 laws.[27] The Talmud expands the scope of the seven laws to cover about 100 of the 613 mitzvot.[28]

Punishment
Main article: Capital and corporal punishment in Judaism

In practice, Jewish law makes it very difficult to apply the death penalty.[29] No record exists of a gentile having been put to death for violating the seven Noahide laws.[22] 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.[29]

The Talmud lists the punishment for blaspheming the Ineffable Name of God as death.[30] The sons of Noah are to be executed by decapitation for most crimes,[31] considered one of the lightest capital punishments,[32] 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).[30] Some Talmudic rabbis held that only those offences for which a Jew would be executed, are forbidden to gentiles.[33] The Talmudic rabbis discuss which offences and sub-offences are capital offences and which are merely forbidden.[34]

Maimonides states that anyone who does not accept the seven laws is to be executed, as God compelled the world to follow these laws.[35] However, for the other prohibitions such as the grafting of trees and bestiality he holds that the sons of Noah are not to be executed.[36] Maimonides adds a universalism lacking from earlier Jewish sources.[28]: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.[28]:18 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.[37]:39 According to some opinions, punishment is the same whether the individual transgresses with knowledge of the law or is ignorant of the law.[38]

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.[39]

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.[36] Like the Talmud, he interpreted the prohibition against homicide as including a prohibition against abortion.[40][41] 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.[42]

The Talmudist Ulla said that here are 30 laws which the sons of Noah took upon themselves. However, 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.[43] 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.[44][45] 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.[46]

Ger toshav (resident alien)
Main article: Ger toshav

During biblical times, a gentile living in the Land of Israel who didn't 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").[3][47][48][49] A ger toshav is therefore commonly deemed a "Righteous Gentile" (Hebrew: חסיד אומות העולם‎, Chassid Umot ha-Olam: "Pious People of the World"),[2][3][5][7][8][9] and is assured of a place in the World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba).[2][3][5][7][8][9]

The rabbinic regulations regarding Jewish-gentile relations are modified in the case of a ger toshav.[8] The accepted halakhic opinion is that the ger toshav must accept the seven Noahide laws in the presence of three haberim (men of authority),[49] or, according to the rabbinic tradition, before a beth din (Jewish rabbinical court).[8] 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.[8]

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.[50] He conjectures that, according to Maimonides, only a full ger tzedek would be found during the Messianic era.[50] Furthermore, Kellner criticizes the assumption within Orthodox Judaism that there is an "ontological divide between Jews and Gentiles",[51] which he believes is contrary to what Maimonides thought and the Torah teaches,[51] stating that "Gentiles as well as Jews are fully created in the image of God".[51]

Maimonides' view

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;[52] however, Maimonides 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.[12][53] According to Maimonides, teaching non-Jews to follow the Seven Laws of Noah is incumbent on all Jews, a commandment in and of itself.[23] 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.[23]

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.[1][9][12] Such non-Jews achieve the status of Chassid Umot Ha-Olam ("Pious People of the World"),[9] and are different from those which only keep the seven laws out of moral/ethical reasoning alone.[9] He wrote in Hilkhot M'lakhim:"[9]

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.[54]

Some later editions of the Mishneh Torah differ by one letter and read "Nor one of their wise men". The latter reading is narrower. Baruch Spinoza read Maimonides as using "nor", and accused him of being narrow and particularistic. Other Jewish philosophers, such as Hermann Cohen and Moses Mendelssohn, have used more inclusive interpretations of the passage by Maimonides.[55] In either reading, Maimonides appears to exclude philosophical Noahides from being "Righteous Gentiles".[9] 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.[9][55][56]

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.[57] 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,[58] 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.[59]

A novel understanding of Maimonides' position, advanced by 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.[60]

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,[5][23] devoting some of his addresses to the subtleties of this code.[19][20][61] Since the 1990s,[5][7] Orthodox Jewish rabbis from Israel, most notably those affiliated to Chabad-Lubavitch and religious Zionist organizations,[5][7][62] including The Temple Institute,[5][7][62] have set up a modern Noahide movement.[5][7][62] These Noahide organizations, led by religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis, are aimed at non-Jews in order to proselytize among them and commit them to follow the Noahide laws.[5][7][62] However, these religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis that guide the modern Noahide movement, who are often affiliated with the Third Temple movement,[5][7][62] expound 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,[5][7][62] 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.[5][7][62] 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.[5][7][62] After the assassination of Meir Kahane that same year, The Temple Institute, which advocates to rebuild the Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, started to promote the Noahide laws as well.[5][62]

Public recognition

In the 1980s, 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.[23][63] 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.[5][7][23][63]

In 1982, Chabad-Lubavitch had a reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. Presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 4921",[64] signed by the then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan.[64] The United States Congress, recalling House Joint Resolution 447 and in celebration of Schneerson's 80th birthday, proclaimed April 4, 1982, as a "National Day of Reflection."[64]

In 1989 and 1990, Chabad-Lubavitch had another reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. Presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 5956",[65] signed by then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush.[65] The United States Congress, recalling House Joint Resolution 173 and in celebration of Schneerson's 87th birthday, proclaimed April 16, 1989, and April 6, 1990, as "Education Day, U.S.A.".[65]

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.[66]

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:[67][68] “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.”[67] 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."[69] Yosef’s sermon sparked outrage in Israel and was fiercely criticized by several human rights associations, NGOs and members of the Knesset;[67] 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:[67][69]

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.[69]

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.[70][71]

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,[22] Jewish scholars disagree about whether the Noahide laws are a functional part of the Halakha (Jewish law).[72]

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.[8]

To various modern theologians, the Noahide laws represent the inclusive nature of Judaism because they affirm the equality of Jews and non-Jews. To other intellectuals, these seven laws represent natural law which is accessible to all through intellect and does not require revelation. According to Robert Eisen, the second stream of thought ignores how a non-Jew could access these laws without the Jewish revelations. To Eisen, these set of laws impose a Jewish understanding of morality upon non-Jews. To Eisen, the Noahide laws represent more of a barrier between Jews and non-Jews, because non-Jews are forbidden to observe Jewish laws.

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 [gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood." (NRSV)

The Apostolic Decree recorded in Acts 15 is commonly seen as a parallel to the Seven Laws of Noah.[73] However, modern scholars dispute the connection between Acts 15 and the Noahide laws,[73] the content of the Noahide laws, the historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles, and the nature of biblical law in Christianity. The Apostolic Decree is still observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and includes some food restrictions.[74]

The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Paul of Tarsus states:

According to Acts 13, 14, 17, 18 [...], Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the proselytes of the gate [e.g., Exodus 20:9] and the Jews met; and only because he failed to win the Jews to his views, encountering strong opposition and persecution from them, did he turn to the gentile world after he had agreed at a council with the apostles at Jerusalem to admit the gentiles into the Church only as proselytes of the gate, that is, after their acceptance of the Noachian laws (Acts 15:1–31)".[75]

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.[76]

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.[70]

See also

References
  1. Editors (14 January 2008). "Noahide Laws". Encyclopædia Britannica. Edinburgh: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 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.”    CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  2. Spitzer, Jeffrey (2018). "The Noahide Laws". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  3. Singer, Isidore; Greenstone, Julius H. (1906). "Noachian Laws". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  4. Berlin, Meyer; Zevin, Shlomo Yosef, eds. (1992) [1969]. "BEN NOAH". Encyclopedia Talmudica: A Digest of Halachic Literature and Jewish Law from the Tannaitic Period to the Present Time, Alphabetically Arranged. IV. Jerusalem: Yad Harav Herzog (Emet). pp. 360–380. ISBN 0873067142.
  5. Feldman, Rachel Z. (8 October 2017). "The Bnei Noah (Children of Noah)". World Religions and Spirituality Project. Archived from the original on 21 January 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  6. Compare Genesis 9:4–6.
  7. Feldman, Rachel Z. (August 2018). "The Children of Noah: Has Messianic Zionism Created a New World Religion?" (PDF). Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. Berkeley: University of California Press. 22 (1): 115–128. doi:10.1525/nr.2018.22.1.115. Retrieved 7 November 2020 – via Project MUSE.
  8. Zevin, Shlomo Yosef, ed. (1979). ""Ger Toshav", Section 1". Encyclopedia Talmudit (in Hebrew) (4th ed.). Jerusalem: Yad Harav Herzog (Emet).
  9. Moses Maimonides (2012). "Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars)". Mishneh Torah. Translated by Brauner, Reuven. Sefaria. p. 8:11-14. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  10. Reiner, Gary (2011) [1997]. "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.
  11. Berkowitz, Beth (2017). "Approaches to Foreign Law in Biblical Israel and Classical Judaism through the Medieval Period". In Hayes, Christine (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 147–149. ISBN 978-1-107-03615-4. LCCN 2016028972.
  12. "Jewish Concepts: The Seven Noachide Laws". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). 2020 [2017]. Archived from the original on 10 February 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  13. Rabbinical authorities disputed whether there were only one or several commandments given to Adam: see Sanhedrin 56a/b Archived 2017-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
  14. Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9:4
  15. Lewis Ray Rambo; Charles E. Farhadian, eds. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion. Oxford University Press. p. 591. ISBN 978-0-19-533852-2.
  16. 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.
  17. Jubilees at wesley.nnu.edu Archived 2010-08-28 at the Wayback Machine, This is R. H. Charles' 1913 translation from the Koine Greek, but Jubilees is also extant in Geʽez and multiple Aramaic and Hebrew ancient texts found at Qumran, which are still being examined.
  18. Kohler, Kaufmann; Toy, Crawford Howell (1906). "Book of Jubilees: The Noachian Laws". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  19. Schneerson, Menachem Mendel (1985). Likkutei Sichot [Collected Talks] (in Yiddish). 26. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. pp. 132–144. ISBN 978-0-8266-5749-7.
  20. Schneerson, Menachem Mendel (1979). Likkutei Sichot [Collected Talks] (in Yiddish). 4. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. p. 1094. ISBN 978-0-8266-5722-0.
  21. Kogan, Michael S. (2008). "Three Jewish Theologians of Christianity". Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 73–76. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112597.003.0003. ISBN 978-0-19-511259-7. S2CID 170858477.
  22. Novak, David (2011) [1983]. 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.
  23. Kress, Michael (2018). "The Modern Noahide Movement". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  24. Sanhedrin 105a
  25. Goodman, Martin (2007). "Identity and Authority in Ancient Judaism". Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. 66. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 30–32. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004153097.i-275.7. ISBN 978-90-04-15309-7. ISSN 1871-6636.
  26. Sanhedrin 56a/b Archived 2017-11-06 at the Wayback Machine, quoting Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9:4; see also Rashi on Genesis 9:4
  27. Chullin 92a-b
  28. 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.
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  31. "Sanhedrin" (PDF). Halakhah.com 56a. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  32. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Judges, Laws of Sanhedrin, chapter 14, law 4
  33. "Sanhedrin" (PDF). Halakhah.com 56b. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  34. "Sanhedrin" (PDF). Halakhah.com 57a-b. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  35. "Mishneh Torah Shoftim, Laws of Kings and their wars: 8.13" (PDF). Halakhah.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  36. "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.
  37. Lawrence H. Schiffman; Joel B. Wolowelsky, eds. (2007). War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. ISBN 978-0-88125-945-2.
  38. Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 9a, commentary of Rashi
  39. Law and the Noahides, pp. 73-76
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  41. "Sanhedrin" (PDF). Halakhah.com 57b. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  42. Sanhedrin 56b.
  43. Chullin 92a, and see Rashi.
  44. Mossad HaRav Kook edition of the Gaon's commentary to Genesis.
  45. "The Thirty Mitzvot of the Bnei Noach". noachide.org.uk. Archived from the original on 23 November 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  46. Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess I, end Ch. 10
  47. Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1986). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. 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.
  48. Bleich, J. David (1995). Contemporary Halakhic Problems. 4. New York: KTAV Publishing House (Yeshiva University Press). p. 161. ISBN 0-88125-474-6. 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.
  49. 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).
  50. 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. 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.
  51. 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.
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  53. Moses Maimonides (2012). "Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars)". Mishneh Torah. Translated by Brauner, Reuven. Sefaria. p. 10:10. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
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  56. Moshe Halbertal (2013). Maimonides: Life and Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-4008-4847-8. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  57. Kogan, Michael S. (2008). "Three Jewish Theologians of Christianity". Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 77–80. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112597.003.0003. ISBN 978-0-19-511259-7. S2CID 170858477.
  58. Schwarzschild, Steven S. (July 1962). "Do Noachite Have to Believe in Revelation? (Continued)". Jewish Quarterly Review. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 53 (1): 44–45. doi:10.2307/1453421. JSTOR 1453421. 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
  59. Schwarzschild, Steven S. (July 1962). "Do Noachite Have to Believe in Revelation? (Continued)". Jewish Quarterly Review. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 53 (1): 46–47. doi:10.2307/1453421. JSTOR 1453421.
  60. Iggerot HaReiyah 1:89, quoted in Law and the Noahides, p.35
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  73. Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (1998). The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries. 31. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. Chapter V. ISBN 9780300139822.
  74. Karl Josef von Hefele's commentary on canon II of Gangra Archived 2016-12-20 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 sixty-third Apostolic Canon, 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 St. Augustine in his work Contra Faustum, 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, 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."
  75. 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.
  76. 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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