And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Genesis 2:16 (KJV)
This one verse is the basis for the Noahide laws; a set of seven laws that Rabbinic Judaism has established for all nations to follow. But for the Jewish nation, 613 commandments were given in the Written Torah along with thousands of others found in the Oral Torah. At least, that is what they claim. This teaching however, is only found in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a), not in the Bible.
The seven laws for every nation appear like this:
- the positive injunction to set up courts that justly enforce social laws
- the prohibition of blasphemy, i.e. intolerance of worshipping the one God of the universe
- the prohibition of idolatry
- the prohibitions of grave sexual immorality, such as incest and adultery
- the prohibition of murder
- the prohibition of theft
- the prohibition of eating the limb of a live animal, which is a paradigm for cruelty
While many of these laws are recognizable from the Bible, there is no direct reference to these seven being the laws dictated to the Gentile nations. In fact, quite the opposite occurs in the Torah itself.
One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
Exodus 12:49
Including verses Leviticus 24:22 and Numbers 15:16.
As history attests, the earliest application of the Noahide Law theology is found in the 2nd century during the Talmudic period. The effort of this endeavor can be explained thusly:
Jewish law grants all non-Jews who accept these laws of civilization social and theological rights everywhere, as well as residency rights in a Jewish religious polity. As a result, the talmudic tradition split the gentile world into two sub-categories: immoral persons who reject the Noahide commandments and to whom tolerance is generally not extended, and gentiles who accept the laws of the Noahide covenant who are regarded positively, whom Jews are obligated to protect and sustain.
It is purely a fabrication of men to establish the Noahide laws as a grouping of these seven commandments for the Gentile nations. To do so, there needed to be support from the text itself, especially if these were going to gain any sort of traction. So the rabbis set out to use Genesis 2:16 as the verse to do just that. Genesis 2:16 was given to Adam, and Adam, having no affiliation, is representative of all mankind. Below is how it breaks down, which can also be found in Sanhedrin 56a-b.
Establish courts
Found in the text, “and…commanded,” these are the courts of judgment.
Prohibition of blasphemy
Found in the text, “the Lord,” this alludes to blessing the name of God; and so it states in another verse: “And he who blasphemes the name of the Lord…shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16).
Prohibition of idolatry
Found in the text, “God,” this alludes to idol worship; and so it states: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2).
Prohibition of sexual immorality
Found in the text, “saying,” this alludes to forbidden sexual relations; and so it states: “Saying, if a man sends his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s…will that land not be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers” (Jeremiah 3:1).
Prohibition of murder
Found in the text, “the man,” this alludes to bloodshed; and so it states: “One who sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed” (Genesis 9:6).
Prohibition of theft
Found in the text, “of every tree of the garden,” alludes to the fact that one may partake only of items that are permitted to him, as they belong to him, and he may not partake of stolen items.
Prohibition of eating the limb of a live animal
Found in the text, “you may freely eat,” alludes to the fact that one may eat fruit, but not a limb from a living animal.
Quite the mental hurdle to get to this conclusion, isn’t it? In fact, it is so much a mental leap that not all rabbis came to this agreement. Many rabbis questioned this line of thinking altogether. Nevertheless, it became a point of teaching to further promote the separation of Gentiles and the Jewish people. In the end, God Himself stresses something very different in Deuteronomy 4:1-8.
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