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The Seven Commands to Noah
by Maurice G. Bowler
Who knows anything about the "Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah"? Why, most Jews who have learned something about their faith will know about the seven commands; but do they need to know about them? Oh no, they need to know about the 613 commandments which are binding on Jews. Who does need to know about the "Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah", then? Why, the Gentiles of course, because their response to these commands according to the Tosefta Sanhedrin 13:2 and Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer p.121, will decide their eternal destiny. As Rabbi Dr. Epstein quotes in his book, Judaism, on p.145, "The pious of the nations of the world who observe the seven Noachic precepts will inherit the world to come as Israel". What are these commands? Rabbi Epstein quotes them as abstention from:
- 1. Idolatry
- 2. Blasphemy
- 3. Incest
- 4. Murder
- 5. Theft
- 6. The eating of a limb torn from a living animal, and
- 7. They must administer justice
Here, then, is some supremely important information for 3,000 millions of the world's population. According to what we have read, it is absolutely vital for the non-Jewish population of the world to know about the requirements of the one trye God (Yahweh), because their lives and their eternal destiny depend on their meeting these requirements. But have you ever met a non-Jew who knew about the seven commands to Noah? Perhaps you have met one or two in a lifetime who could recite these commands, but how did they find out about them? Did some Jewish friend take them aside and tell them what they needed to know or did they find out for themselves? If the latter is more likely, as it certainly is, we are faced with a problem. What have those who know without needing to know done for those who need to know but don't know? Any reasonably informed Jew could answer this question with a really devastating argument. He could say, "Don't you realise that the British and Foreign Bible Society alone has distributed over 700 million copies of the Bible which contain this teaching you are talking about and all of this Scripture teaching is basically Jewish?" But surely this and most of the other Bible Societies are Christian and so are the people in India and Africa and elsewhere who are teaching about the one true God (Yahweh) to the cannibals and pagans and idolaters of the world? "What is they are?", says our friend. Haven't you heard what Disraeli (a former British Prime Minister who was Jewish) said, that it was Jesus (Yahshua) who hung the law of Moses in every pagan temple and Jesus (Yahshua) was a Jew and so were all His first followers - it was the Jews who provided the teaching about the one true God (Yahweh) and it was the Jews who brought this knowledge originally to the Gentile world. How else could they have got to know about the God of the Jews unless the Jews themselves had told them?"
Who can answer such an argument? The proof is therefor all to see in the New Testament itself. All the churches named after St.Peter, St.Paul, St.Mary, and St.James, commemorate people known to their friends and families as Cephas, Shaul, Miriam, and Ya'acov. But if we have solved one problem haven't we raised another one? These people who go all over the world to tell people about the teachings of Moses and the prophets also tell them about the teachings of Jesus (Yahshua). "So," says our friend, "they teach them how to love their neighbour, to help the sick and hungry, they talk about the Good Samaritan and tell them that Jesus (Yahshua) said, 'Salvation is of the Jews' and that he went to the synagogue and that he recited the Shema 'Hear O Israel' - why shouldn't they teach them all this? If Jesus (Yahshua) was able to put over Jewish teaching in a way that Gentiles understood then who is complaining? The trouble is that too many of the Gentiles don't practice the teaching - they don't listen to what their own teacher is telling them!"
But was Jesus (Yahshua) the teacher of the Gentiles? Perhaps He spoke to fewer Gentiles in His lifetime than some Jews now speak to in a day. He was born and died in the Jewish homeland and only travelled out of it as a refugee, once as a child and later for short periods as a victim of religious persecution. He said that he was sent to the people of Israel. He even claimed to be the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God (Yahweh). If He was making false claims in these respects He would be the last person in the world who ought to teach Gentiles because He would be a blasphemer, but we saw in the second of the commands to Noah that blasphemy was one of the things forbidden to the Gentiles. Can what is good come from an evil source? Can the teaching and influence which still comes from Jesus be good for Gentiles but bad for Jews? This would be possible is there were two Gods but as there is only one God, any truth about God which helps one group of people is equally true for all people because it is the same God that all people need to know.
If Jesus (Yahshua) was in the wrong 1,900 years ago then He is wrong now and Christians for nineteen centuries have been deceived and Jews are under a moral obligation to share with them the Jewish antidote to the error thet have been taught. But if Jesus (Yahshua) is in the right now for any group of people then He was in the righ 1,900 years ago, and His accusers then and His detractors now are in the wrong. Jewish people are still faced with the dilemma which has faced every thoughtful student of the life of Jesus (Yahshua). If He was not what He claimed to be then He was not a good man. But if He of all people, was not a good man then the world has never yet seen a good man, Jew or Gentile.
This page was created on 13 June 1999
Updated on 13 June 1999
Copyright © 1999-2007 NCCG - All Rights Reserved
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