The Seven Laws of Noah are a set of imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of laws for the “children of Noah” – that is, all of humanity.
Accordingly, any non-Jew who adheres to these laws because they were given by Moses is regarded as a righteous gentile, and is assured of a place in the world to come (Hebrew: עולם הבא Olam Haba), the final reward of the righteous.
The seven Noahide laws as traditionally enumerated are:
1. Do not deny God.
2. Do not blaspheme God.
3. Do not murder.
4. Do not engage in incest, adultery, pederasty or bestiality, as well as homosexual relations.
5. Do not steal.
6. Do not eat of a live animal.
7. Establish courts to ensure obedience to the law.
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 Noah’s Ark. According to this, all modern humans are descendants of Noah, thus the name Noahide Laws in reference to laws that apply to all of humanity. After the flood, God sealed a covenant with Noah with the following admonitions (Genesis 9):
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)
The Book of Jubilees, generally dated to the 2nd century BCE, may include an early reference to Noahide Law 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.
According to Acts, 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 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 (Acts 15:1–31)”.
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 Apostolic Decree of the Council of Jerusalem resolved this early Christian dispute by commending that gentiles obey Noahide law (Acts 15:19–21) rather than to live under the same dictates as Torah-observant Jews and be circumcised (cf.Acts 15:5, Acts 15:24).
The earliest complete rabbinic version of the seven laws can be found in the Tosefta where they are listed as follows.
Seven commandments were commanded of the sons of Noah:
1. concerning adjudication (denim)
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 (ha-gezel)
7. concerning a limb torn from a living animal (eber min ha-hayy)
The Noachide Laws apply to all humanity through humankind’s descent from one paternal ancestor, the head of the only family to survive The Flood, who in Hebrew tradition is called Noah. In Judaism, בני נח B’nei Noah (Hebrew, “Descendants of Noah”, “Children of Noah”) refers to all of humankind. 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”.
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