Are The Seven Noachide Laws Written In The Torah?
In the post titled Gentiles and Jews, we described how the distinction between Gentiles and Jews came into existence and why. In this post we establish the veracity of the Noachide Laws, describe them, and show where they are mentioned in the Torah.The first question that's on everybody mind is "How do we know that the Noahide Laws are legitimate and not human fabrications?"
The first point that needs to be made clear is that the Oral Law was Divinely revealed as well as the Written Law. Very briefly put, the way that the majority of the commandments are written in the Torah makes it virtually impossible to know how to observe them; the Torah presents many of them in a completely ambiguous fashion and omits many or all necessary details. One who seeks to observe them will find that he has to supply contextual information for himself. This is typically accomplished by creating interpretations usually based on extra-Biblical academic studies combined with his own anecdotal information.
In short, whether one wishes to observe either the Mosaic or the Noachide laws, reliance on the Oral Law is critical. Technically speaking there is no need for the Written Torah to refer to the oral details, perhaps out of mercy for us, God made actual references to the Noahide Laws in the Written Law.
What Are The Seven Noachide Laws?
The Seven Noahide Laws are:- Do not deny God: Genesis 2:16. See Noachide Law 1.
- Do not blaspheme God: Leviticus 24:15. See Noachide Law 2.
- Do not murder: Genesis 9:6. See Noachide Law 3.
- Do not engage in incestuous, adulterous or homosexual relationships: Genesis 2:24. See Noachide Law 4.
- Do not steal: Genesis 2:16, Genesis 21:25. See Noachide Law 5.
- Do not eat of a live animal: Genesis 9:4. See Noachide Law 6.
- Establish courts/legal system to ensure law obedience: Genesis 9:6. See Noachide Law 7.
1. Do Not Deny God
Genesis 2:16 says, "And the Lord God commanded man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat." The Name Elokim is one of the Divine Names for the One God. According to AskNoah.org, "But the same word is used in the non-holy plural sense to refer to physical or conceptual idolatries (other “gods”), as in the verse “You shall not have the gods of others in My presence.” (Exodus 20:3). Therefore, Genesis 2:16 implies that people are permitted to serve only Elokim, "...the One Who commands mankind..." but no idols.
2. Do Not Blaspheme God
According to Leviticus 24:15, "And to the children of Israel, you shall speak, saying: Any man who blasphemes his God shall bear his sin." The Hebrew for "any man" is written "ish ish," which literally means "a man, a man." The Oral Law explains that such textual anomalies indicate an embedded message, in this the reference to any man, i.e., whether Jew or Gentile.
Further, Leviticus 24:10-16 indicates that violating this commandment is a capital offense. The root prohibition is found in Exodus 22:27.
3. Do Not Murder
The verse above covers five of the six sexual unions forbidden by God to Gentiles, as follows:
- Therefore, a man shall leave his father: the prohibition against union with his father’s wife.
- ...and his mother: the prohibition against union with his mother.
- ...and cleave to his wife: the prohibition against union with another man's wife.
- ...and they shall become one flesh: the prohibition against union with another man, or with an animal.
The sixth prohibited sexual union for a Gentile is to have relations with his maternal sister according to Genesis 20:12: And also, indeed, she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.
According to AskNoah.org, "Note that Abraham said this to appease Abimelech. It was actually only figuratively true in his case, since Sarah was the daughter of Abraham’s brother. They had the same paternal grandfather, whom people often referred to as “father”.) It was also universally accepted that father-daughter relations would be prohibited, as evidenced by the disgrace of Lot after he had relations with his two daughters, following G-d’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:29-36, and Rashi’s explanation of Genesis 20:1). Relations between females are likewise an abomination to G-d. This is one of the subjects of the verse Leviticus 18:3, which speaks against the immoral practices of the ancient Egyptians and Canaanites, and which Leviticus 18:30 refers to as “abominable traditions.” About these the Midrash specifies: 'A man would marry a man, a woman would marry a woman, and a woman would be married to two men.'"
5. Do Not Steal
According to AskNoah.org, "The prohibition of theft is contained within the permission which God granted to Adam and Hava (Eve) in Genesis 2:16 to eat from the trees of the garden. This implies that if the permission had not been granted, they would have been forbidden to do so, since the property did not belong to them. This Noahide commandment is cited explicitly by Abraham in Genesis 21:25:And Abraham contended with Abimelech about the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had forcibly seized.
6. Do Not Eat The Limb of a Living Animal
Before leaving the Ark, Noah and his family were permitted only to consume plant life and vegetation; once leaving God permitted them to consume meat, and hence added the commandment in Genesis 9:4: But, flesh with its soul, its blood, you shall not eat.
7. Establish Courts of Justice
The Torah says, "Whoever sheds the blood of man through man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man." (Genesis 9:6) This commandment is the obligation to judge and penalize a murderer.
According to AskNoah.org, "This is explained as follows by the Talmudic Sages: “Whoever sheds the blood of man” (referring to the murderer), 'among man' (i.e., he is to be prosecuted in a court by a man who is qualified to testify as a witness), “his blood shall be shed” (if convicted, he is liable to capital punishment by the court). The Noahide Code commanded through Moses at Mount Sinai specifies that Gentiles are similarly obligated to bring transgressors of the other Noahide commandments to justice in a court of law."
References to the Oral Law and Noachide Law in the Torah
Interestingly enough, the Written Torah includes references to the oral details pertaining to the following:
- The Oral Law in general - Exodus 18:13-22, Leviticus 26:46, Deuteronomy 17:8-11
- Mosaic laws - Jeremiah 17:19-24, Nechemiah 13:15-17, Isaiah 56:2, 58:13-14
- Noachide laws - I Kings 8:41-43
6 comments:
This is a new idea, and interesting twist, you saying that the Jews were grafted into the covenant with the gentiles, as the gentile covenant came first. Far from Christians being grafted into the covenant at Siani, I always thought Christians considered theirs a "new covenant"? so in that way separate.
But either way you view it, the bottom line is any relationship with God would be by nature covenantal, whether the person is Jewish or gentile. We as humans cannot have relationships with other humans that have at least implied expectation (that they won't harm us, steal from us, that they are generally trustworthy). And the closer and more intimate the relationship, the more covenantal it becomes. So it would follow a relationship with God would follow a similar nature. Ultimately, marriage would be the human relationship that would resemble the relationship with God and his people.
The Noahide laws are great, and establish a basic premise on laws that promotes basic human flourishing. I know there are Noahide communities, but these guidelines aren't something a gentile can embrace and find a fulfilling spiritual life, as they are so lacking because they are almost completely about what not to do.
Hello Anonymous Commenter,
I first want to thank you for your insight. Second, I spoke about this with my Rabbi in length and realized that I made a mistake in my writing. I made it seem like there is a relationship between the covenant God made with the Gentiles and the Seven Noahide Laws, but that was an error on my part.
Based on the verses, there is no reference to anything the Gentiles need to do to uphold this covenant – it is simply an eternal promise with no conditions. See Genesis 9:9-17.
In direct response to your comment, the Seven Noahide Laws are not a part of this covenant. Instead, they are seven commandments that are binding upon Gentiles, but are not associated with the promise to never destroy the world again by a flood. Further, the verses referring to this covenant extends its protection to all animal life forms (And with every living creature that is with you, among the fowl, among the cattle, and among all the beasts of the earth with you, of all those who came out of the ark, of all the living creatures of the earth, [Genesis 9:10]) and we know that animals are not charged with these commandments. This just means that the observance of the Seven Noahide Laws is permanent and binding, but not covenantal. This does not mean that Gentiles don’t have a relationship with God, it just means that their relationship is not covenantal.
This doesn’t mean that the covenant with the Jews is conditional based on Jewish observance. See Jeremiah 33:23-25. What it means is that entering into the covenant required their consent.
Hey OrthodoxJew. I'm going to start posting again, but first, I "drafted" all my posts and will slowly repost them. The anonymous poster is right. The seven laws are not very spiritual and are actually designed to not be that way; at least at first.
Bnei Noach become more spiritual by becoming what is called a "ger toshav". The ger toshav is someone who accepts the sheva mitzvot/seven laws openly in front of 3 scholarly Jews. Once that happens, or he at least has the same spirit about him, he can study as much Torah as he wants and do just about anything he wants to without being obnoxious about it. If the ger toshav wants to do all 613 mitzvot, he can and he should come before an orthodox beit din and be sworn in as a ger tzedek.
Up until that point, the ger toshav should strive to do whatever his heart desires as long as he doesn't break the sheva mitzvot.
There is a ton of freedom and spirituality to be found in this. The ger toshav can study Chassidus, Kabbalah according to his soul level, Mishneh Torah, Parshas, etc. Anything he wants. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more or for a good starting place.
HaKiruv! Thanks for this awesome comment. I was expecting something good, but this helps clarify it a lot. I realize I have to do more learning on this topic. What sources of information do you use to learn about this topic?
Oh, and I forgot to mention that gerim toshavim are not received today, but they still exist. Gerim toshavim therefore can't expect things that gerim would normally get from the halachah. Rambam, Hilchot Melachem CH 8-10 talks about most of this in detail and also about ger toshavim in other places, such as Hilchot Issurei Bi'ah 13-14
Thanks, I'll look up those sources.
Yaniv...
Post a Comment