In Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah (, 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 consist of 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" (, Chassiddei Umot ha-Olam: "Pious People of the World").
List The Seven Laws of Noah as traditionally enumerated in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a-b) and Tosefta (Avodah Zarah 9:4), are the following: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 .
Not to worship idols. Not to curse God. Not to commit murder. Not to commit adultery or sexual immorality. Not to steal. Not to eat flesh torn from a living animal. To establish courts of justice.
According to the Talmud, the seven Noahide laws were given first to Adam and subsequently to Noah. The Tannaitic and Amoraitic rabbinic sages (1st–6th centuries AD) 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:
Origins Hebrew Bible The universal morality of the Noahide covenant for Gentiles (non-Jews) was already affirmed in the Torah and was subsequently highlighted in the Book of Genesis (e.g., relating to Melchizedek in ), the Book of Job, and the Book of Jonah (showing that God would be known and his call for repentance responded to even by the evil Ninevites, making them acceptable to God), showing that God directly related to every person regardless of their culture or religion, and would save all "Righteous Gentiles" who conformed to the Seven Laws of Noah.
Book of Jubilees The Book of Jubilees, generally dated to the 1st century BCE, includes 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.
Samaritanism In the Samaritan Pentateuch and tradition there is no record of Noahide Laws as in rabbinical literature.
People who are not in the Samaritan community or seeking to practice the tenets of Samaritanism are considered foreigners. The Torah is not binding nor applicable to them, unless a potential convert decides or is in the process of joining the community, in which he/she must partake of the Paschal lamb and live with them for at least three years following all communal and ceremonial laws to be fully integrated which includes being circumcised if male.
Instead of seeking converts, they consider themselves to be a source of blessing to all the families of the nations by keeping their covenant and guarding the Torah on Mount Gerizim, the chosen and blessed place given by the God of Israel to them as enumerated many times in their book of Genesis and Deuteronomy, and expounded upon by Samaritan commentaries.Genesis 12:3, Genesis 18:18, Genesis 22:18, Genesis 28:14, Deuteronomy 11:29, Deuteronomy 27:4 (SP version), Deuteronomy 28:3-14."But ... waxed fat (Deut. xxxii. 15)—the praiseworthy one.227 So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do (Deut. xv. 18); And if you obey the voice of the Lord your God (Deut. xxviii. 1); And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord (Deut. xxviii. 10) and you will be a blessing." ~ Memar Marqah 4:10
List According to the Torah/Pentateuch (Genesis 9:4-7), three laws are explicitly stated for Noah and his descendants (non-Abrahamic peoples) for the fundamental moral code considered expected and virtuous though not enforceable nor envisioned as a messianic end of days establishment of an Israelite or 'Noahide' global court but rather considered divinely sanctioned are the following:
"You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood..." (Do not eat blood from a live animal)~Genesis 9:4 "And I will require your lifeblood. From every living human, I will require it..." (Seeking justice for murder victims)~Genesis 9:5 "Be fruitful and multiply, and populate abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein..." (Pro-creation)~Genesis 9:7
Commentary and tradition In the book of Memar Marqah, a homiletic tractate, it is mentioned regarding the day of vengeance and recompense in its full weight and responsibility as being applicable only to the sons of Israel."These statements do not apply to other men, only to us...The oath of the True One applies to us." ~Memar Marqah 4:12 All other nations and peoples are subject to their own moral laws, codes, cultures and fates as Marqah the Samaritan sage and priest pointed out in his works expounding on the Israelite Samaritan Torah."...but all the peoples of the world are without law or commandment; therefore they are guided by the stars."
~Memar Marqah (The Teaching of Marqah), Edited and translated by: John Mcdonald, Volume II: The Translation"...Not all peoples will be questioned about a deed, for they have not been called holy people, nor firstborn, nor heritage, nor priests, nor holy, nor specially select, nor have they heard the voice of the living God."
~Memar Marqah (The Teaching of Marqah), Edited and translated by: John Mcdonald, Volume II: The Translation
Other references in the Torah scripture and Samaritan teachings which suggest and prove Israelite ancestral particularism is in regards to inheritance, cultures, and social structures; and the celestial bodies and heavenly hostsTsedaka, Benyamim (26 April 2013). The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version. Eerdmans. p. 482. .Tsedaka, Benyamim (26 April 2013). The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version. Eerdmans. p. 415-416. .Deuteronomy 32:8, 4:19 which can be read as the nations who are non-Israelites being 'allotted' other natural forces and/or spiritual powers and beings outside of the covenant, the Israelite Samaritan traditional cosmology regarding angels, humans, and "Sheedem" the gods of other religions appears evident to back this conclusion.Tsedaka, Benyamim (26 April 2013). The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version. Eerdmans. p. 3-6. .~Deuteronomy 32:17
Modern analysis Rabbinical The Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin 105a named and excluded certain specific Jewish and non-Jewish groups of the distant past from salvation, but thereby implied, as explicitly stated there, that all other non-Jews of past or present could be righteous and would be saved as they were, without Gentiles needing to undergo conversion to Judaism. Following Moses Maimonides' assessment of Islam as a non-idolatrous religion, many medieval Jewish authorities treated Muslims as subject to and in conformity with the Noahide laws, despite Islam's perceived errors and cruelties towards the Jews. The 13th–14th-century Catalan rabbi Menachem ben Solomon Ha-Meiri went further, extending a similar non-idolatrous status to contemporary Christianity.
The Talmud has accounts illustrating how far God's lovingkindness and mercies might extend, giving ultimate salvation even to persons who had led notoriously evil lives. Some said that if those persons had done only one truly selfless, kind and good deed in their entire lives God, would accept them for the sake of that precious act into Paradise, either immediately at death (if their death was the result of an extraordinarily generous, self-sacrificing, or courageous deed) or after they had atoned for their sins in Purgatory. So it is evident that full observance of the Noahide covenant itself was not always obligatory for salvation after all, even if it remained the chief guide to lives of spiritual loftiness and nobility.
This led the 18th-century Italian Jewish Kabbalist and rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto to emphasize and explain at length that God would end up accepting all humanity, good and evil alike, into the World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba)—the evil ones, however, would of course need to purify themselves in Purgatory first, but there will be no eternal punishment for them.
Yosef Albo writes in Sefer ha-Ikkarim that Noachian and Mosaic law differed in detail but agreed generally. Mosaic law existed in Israel, while the other nations had Noachian law, which came down to geographical and national/ancestral diversity. The other nations attained happiness via Noachian law due to its divinity, but not as much as Israelites via the Torah. He posits that there could be two divine laws existing simultaneously among different nations, through which people can attain different levels of happiness. According to Albo, "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."
During the 1860s in Western Europe, a resurgence of Noahide faith as the universal moral religion for Gentiles (non-Jews) was developed by the 19th-century Italian Jewish Kabbalist and rabbi Elijah Benamozegh. Between the years 1920s–1930s, French writer adopted the Seven Laws of Noah at the suggestion of his teacher Elijah Benamozegh. Afterwards, Pallière spread Benamozegh's doctrine in Europe and never formally converted to Judaism.
Modern historians argue that Benamozegh's role in the debate on Jewish universalism in the history of Jewish philosophy was focused on the Noahide laws for Gentiles as the means subservient to the shift of Jewish ethics from particularism to universalism, although the arguments that he used to support his universalistic viewpoint were neither original nor unheard in the history of this debate. According to Clémence Boulouque, Carl and Bernice Witten Associate Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York, Benamozegh ignored the ethnocentric biases contained in the Noahide laws, whereas some contemporary right-wing Jewish political movements have embraced them.
The Encyclopedia Talmudit, edited by the 20th-century Belarusian Hasidic 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 Melakhim 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 Melakhim 9:1) considered the dietary law to have been given to Noah.