You’ve been told the Noahide Laws are a universal moral standard—but what if much of that teaching is built on misunderstanding and tradition, not Scripture? In this teaching, we expose the truth behind the claims and reveal what Scripture has always preserved.
We dig deep so that you don’t have to accept doctrines at face value. You’ll discover why the Noahide Laws do not hold the authority often claimed, how they misrepresent God’s covenant with humanity, and why understanding this matters for everyone who want to walk in genuine biblical truth. This lesson equips you to separate man-made tradition from the Word of Yahweh, giving you clarity, confidence, and conviction in your faith.
Watch closely as we lay out the evidence, challenge assumptions, and bring a God Honest perspective to a teaching that has quietly influenced those who are uneducated on the subject for centuries. Come join us as we expose the God Honest Truth about the Noahide laws.
#NoahideLaws #SevenLawsOfNoah #SevenNoahideLaws #NoahideCode #GodHonestTruth
AI Reports
GHT Notes
Transcript
Teaching Introduction
My friend, is your faith based on modern ideas or a collection of religious tradition? Or is it based in the scripture of Yahweh? What’s referred to as the Noahide laws are often unknown or misunderstood. But never forget, Yahweh is not a god of confusion, nor is he a god of unequal weights and measures. In this teaching, we cut through tradition and expose a truth that many believers were never taught along with a warning about deception for all of mankind. Don’t look away. Keep watching and let scripture speak for itself. You can’t afford to miss a single second of this. So stay with us as we uncover the God-honest truth that religion has tried to obfuscate and bury.
Video Start
So this teaching is going to be all about the Noahide laws. What is referred to sometimes as the sheva mitzvot b’nei noach. And that’s big long Hebrew word for Noahide laws. If you don’t know what the Noahide laws are, that’s okay. We’re going to start from the beginning, tell you what it is, pick you from the ground up, and explain to you some of the history, where it comes from. Yeah, the ins and outs and a lot goes into this. Um, not to give away too much or too early, but uh yeah, definitely stay tuned. There’s a lot of information about to come down the pipe your way.
Have those notes ready. And for those of you who don’t know, we do have a whole bunch more notes on our website at godhonesttruth.com. Simply click on the post for this particular episode and there on that article post, you’ll be able to find the on demand video, the draw slides that you see here on your screen that you can go through at your own pace. You’ll also be able to find the uh research reports that we had compiled for this subject as well as the notes that we took personally for this subject we made available to you. And we’ll also have the transcript once that becomes available if that is of any benefit as well. It’s all there on our website at godhonesttruth.com. And the more convenient way is to go down below in the description and click on the convenient link that we posted for you down there. And that’ll take you directly to that same article post. And that link should be in the description whether you’re watching on a video platform or on an audio podcasting platform.
Outline
So let’s start with an outline just to let you know what we’re going to go over during this particular teaching. Number one, we’re going to start out with uh some terminology and introduce some new terminology and concepts to you. And for those of you who are just now getting into this subject of the Noahide laws, then we’re going to move into looking in the scriptures where the scriptures talk about the Noahide laws and the location of the Noahide laws in scripture. We’re going to look at the commands that are given to Noah and also the commands given to Adam. Then we’re going to look at some of the punishments that are prescribed by scripture in comparison with those prescribed by the Noahide laws and the interpretation that comes along with the Noahide laws. Then we’re going to look at whether or not scripture itself employs double standards or if there’s just one standard. So that’s definitely going to be interesting.
We’re going to look at some really interesting some really interesting uh historical information on the Noahide laws starting all the way back in the book of Jubilees up to the modern day. Then we’re going to go over some of my own personal closing thoughts and finally wrap up with a summary of everything that we learned during this particular teaching.
Introduction
So without any further ado, let’s go ahead and start with our introduction, clarify and introduce some new terms for you just so you know what we’re talking about when we go through this particular teaching. Number one, this is something that we went over during our Gentile teaching and that’s what the term Jew actually means. Number one, Jew can mean someone from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Judah, a Judahite as it’s sometimes called, or Yehudim in Hebrew. So that’s the first meaning behind the term Jew. The second meaning is someone from the southern kingdom of Judea. Uh a Judean. In other words, this is uh someone who is from the tribe of Judah, Benjamin or even Levi.
But most of the people that we look at in the Brit Hadasha who are referred to as Jews, they’re generally in the context of Judean. That’s the second meaning for Jew. The third meaning is someone of the Jewish faith, of the Jewish religion. And however, not all Jews are exactly alike, and we’ll go over some of those distinctions here in just about two or three slides, so stay tuned for that. But the term Jew can encompass one of three different meanings. Either someone from the tribe of Judah, someone from the southern kingdom of Judea, or someone from the faith or religion of Judaism. Now taking all this information into account then we can also go over some logic and some facts and have a clearer understanding of this teaching in general and also the scriptures as a whole. Number one the fact is that prophecy in the Tanakh the a.k.a. Old Testament foretold of the Messiah. The people in the Tanakh look forward to the Messiah’s day.
We see that when Yeshua is talking about Abraham who looked forward to his day, right? So the people in the Tanakh as well as the prophecies in the Tanakh were all pointing toward and talking about the Messiah. And finally, Yeshua is that prophesied Messiah. So we take all these facts into account, what does that logically or what is the logical conclusion of all of that? Well, number one, the people in the Tanakh were Messianic or Christian. They weren’t Jewish unless they were of the line of Judah or the southern kingdom of Judea. But there was no religion of Judaism in the Tanakh. The Tanakh itself, the actual scriptures are a set of Christian or Messianic scriptures.
And the religion of Judaism did not begin until the Judeans first started rejecting the true Messiah Yeshua. So this was about the you know first century of the common era the uh Judaism as we know of the religion is the main thing of it. We have the same set of scriptures a lot of times but the thing that separates them from us is that they reject the true Messiah. So they therefore are a split off or a splinter group from what was going on before the first century of the common era. Now this is something that we can also conclude knowing this sort of information. Number one, Adam was not a Jew. Noah was not a Jew. Abraham was not a Jew.
Abraham was actually referred to as the first Hebrew, not Jew, but Hebrew. Isaac was not a Jew. Jacob was not a Jew. Moses was not a Jew. He was actually from the tribe of Levi and on and on, etc., etc. Now, David, King David and King Solomon, they were Jews because they were of the tribe of Judah. King Saul was a Benjamite though, so therefore he was not a Jew. So, see how this all comes together and makes sense and things start getting a lot more clear.
Now, one thing that we mentioned earlier and this for this teaching, this is something you definitely have to keep in mind and understand is that not all Jews are the same and not all Jews believe the same things. And this is going to be especially relevant in this study of the Noahide laws. For those of you who don’t know, most of the time when people talk about the Jews of nowadays, they’re usually referring to Orthodox Judaism, but there are different sects or denominations, if you will, of Jews. Number one, you’ve got the Orthodox Jews, which everyone knows about, which came from the Pharisees that we read about in scripture. Once the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, after that there the priesthood kind of fell by the wayside because well obviously there’s no temple and it started moving into like synagogues and home uh congregations, stuff like that. And then you have the beginnings of the Orthodox Judaism, the rabbis and stuff like that, rabbinical Judaism. Now, a splinter group or something that came off of that is also something called conservative Judaism, which is very, very similar to the Orthodox, but they’ve got a little bit more uh lenient or progressive leaning, I guess you could say.
And then you got the reformed Jews, which are basically just Jew in name. They a lot of reforms, what I’ve come across, the research was that they will eat sometimes uh shellfish, pork, stuff like that. And it’s more like the scriptures and the uh things that came before them within Judaism are just good things to know but not really binding or anything to follow. So that’s reformed Jews. And then you’ve got a group called the Karaite Jews. Karaite Judaism. And the thing that really sets the Karaite Jews apart from the Orthodox Jews is that the Karaite Jews go by the scriptures, the Tanakh, and not by the oral law. So that’s something that we can agree with with the Karaites here. And this is something to keep in mind because when we talk about the Noahide laws, this is something that pertains to orthodox Judaism and not karaite Judaism.
So definitely keep that in mind and make that distinction when you’re studying and thinking about this that the Noahide laws pertain to orthodox Judaism not karaite Judaism. So keep that in mind. Now some other terms to keep in mind and know about. We’ve went over this before in previous teachings but this definitely bears repeating and remembering for this particular teaching. But the first thing I want you to remember and know is the term exegesis. and exegesis according to britannica.com quote exegesis the critical interpretation of the biblical text to discover its intended meaning end quote. So basically in a nutshell exegesis is looking at and studying the scriptures to draw out the meaning of what the scriptures are trying to teach. Pretty self-explanatory, right?
It’s pretty obvious uh common sense almost. I guess you could say that’s the way you want to do it. You want to perform exegesis and learn what scripture is trying to teach us. The opposite of that is a term called eisegesis. And eisegesis according to logos.com says here quote ex means to take out of while eis means into. So quite simply exegesis means digging into the text to pull out the meaning while its opposite eisegesis reads meaning into a text that isn’t there. End quote. So in a nutshell, eisegesis means to take your own interpretation, your own thoughts and ideas, and try to read it back into the text to make the text say what you want it to say.
And that’s wrong. We should not be doing that. We should allow the scriptures to change us. We should not be trying to change the scriptures. Now, there’s various ways you can try and change the scriptures by adding to it, by taking away from it, by ignoring it, by saying it doesn’t mean what it says it means, all sorts of things. But we should not perform eisegesis. We should instead do the right thing and perform exegesis and draw out the meaning and have scripture change us.
Now, let’s get into what the Noahide laws are. For those of you who are just coming into this subject, according to the universal Jewish Encyclopedia, quote, “According to the rabbinic interpretation of certain passages in Genesis, Adam, Noah, and his descendants, the whole human race were commanded by God to observe the following seven commandments by refraining from idolatry, adultery, and incest, bloodshed, blasphemy, robbery, social injustice, eating flesh cut from a living animal, And that’s the seven right there if you weren’t if you weren’t counting. But anyways, end quote.
And then according to the Jewish encyclopedia, quote, laws which were supposed by the rabbis to have been binding upon mankind at large even before the revelation at Sinai and which are still binding upon non-Jews. The term Noahide indicates the universality of these ordinances since the whole human race was supposed to be descended from the three sons of Noah who alone survived the flood. End quote.
So that’s some encyclopedia entries on what the Noahide laws are. Just to get down to brass tacks and list them out for you. Number one, we’ll go through these in order for as a list. Anyways, these are the Noahide laws. Number one, do not worship idols. Do not commit idolatry, things like that. Number two, do not blaspheme God. Number three, do not murder.
Number four, do not commit sexual immorality. Number five, do not steal. Number six, do not eat flesh taken from a living animal. Number seven, establish courts of justice. So, a lot of these sound really good and sound really common sense and uh sounds like a just your standard set of moral principles, right? But the thing to keep in mind is do these come from scripture and what is the overall implication of these laws and the concept behind all this? And that’s what we’re really going to get into as we keep going into this teaching.
And like I said, a lot of these make sense, but there’s one that’s always confused me when I study this subject, and that is number six, where it says, ‘Do not eat flesh taken from a living animal. And I’m not entirely sure why this they put this command in there because it it sounds to me like someone is just going down the road. They pass a cow pasture and they see a cow standing there grazing and they get hungry and they’re like, “Well, that cow doesn’t need all four legs and he goes up and snacks on one of the legs of the standing cow.” It makes no sense. But that’s just me. Take it as you will. Maybe someone can explain that further. But yeah, anyways, when you get into studying the subject and like we always say, take the information that we present to you and go further.
Research on your own, learn a lot more and share it with others. But when you get into researching this and you start doing it on your own, be aware of some alarmists that you might come across when you start looking at videos and various websites and stuff like that. These various teachers and videos and websites try to create panic and alarm over this particular subject. Now, is it something to be aware of? Yeah, I definitely think it’s something to be aware of and it’s definitely something to know. But is this the beginning of Armageddon? No, it’s not really.
It’s really not. And we’ll explain more as we go on, but just definitely be aware of what the alarmists are saying. Know your subject. Don’t just believe what people say. Do your research and know yourself what the subject is and what’s actually going on. That’s why we put up for you on the screen here the actual quotes and the references so you can go and look up those references for yourself to make sure we are telling you the truth. You can verify us and we want you to do that.
And a lot of people, they will just say something without telling you where it’s at, without showing you like we do here. And a lot of times you go looking for it and you can’t find it. And that’s just that doesn’t educate anyone. That just creates panic and it creates alarm. So definitely be aware of alarmists. And keep in mind there is a difference between the orthodox Jews who are in the realm of this whole Noahide law thing and then the karaite Jews who have nothing to do with the whole oral law part. So keep that in mind as well when you are on the watch for these alarmists that you might come across when you study this subject of the Noahide laws and make sure definitely in your studies to remember scripture.
In 1 Thessalonians 5 21, it tells us to test everything and hold fast what is good.
Ephesians 5:8-10. For you were once darkness but now you are light in the master. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the spirit is all goodness and righteousness and truth proving what is well pleasing to the master.
1 John 4:1-3. Beloved ones, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of Elohim, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of Elohim. Every spirit that confesses that Yeshua Messiah has come in the flesh is of Elohim. And every spirit that does not confess that Yeshua Messiah has come in the flesh is not of Elohim. And this is the spirit of the anti-messiah which you heard is coming and now is already in the world.
And finally, in Proverbs chapter 14 verse 15, the simple believes every word, but the clever one watches his step.
So definitely take these to heart. Remember these when you’re doing your studying and prove everything. Prove us what we’re saying here. Prove all this other stuff. We make it easy for you because we put it up on screen. We provide you the notes and stuff like that. But when you’re any teaching us or anyone else, make sure you prove and test everything that’s being said and reject the alarmist, reject the fear-mongering, but hold on to that which is good, that which is scriptural and not the stuff that goes against scripture.
Location in Scripture
So now, speaking of scripture, let’s go ahead and dive right into the word of Yahweh. And let’s start at looking for the Noahide laws and the location of the Noahide laws in scripture. So we went over the basic definition of what the Noahide laws are and we went over the list of the actual Noahide laws. So where do we find that in scripture? Well, start at the book of Genesis and start looking. And the Noahide laws are well, they’re nowhere commanded in scripture. They’re not in the Bible.
They’re not in the Tanakh. They’re not in the Masoretic text. They’re not in the Greek. They’re not in the Aramaic. They’re not in the wherever. They’re not there. They don’t come from scripture.
So, where do they come from? We’ll get into that in just a little bit. But the Noahide laws are nowhere commanded in scripture, and they’re not even mentioned in scripture. They’re nowhere listed in scripture either. They’re just not something that comes from scripture. However, lots of things are listed in scripture itself as you probably already know. So, not to insult your intelligence, but just to bring this back to memory.
Things that we are familiar with, but which are listed in scripture are things like the Ten Commandments. Obviously, here’s your references on screen. You can go look it up yourself. The dietary instructions, they are listed in scripture. The instructions for building the tabernacle, instructions for celebrating Pesach or Passover, celebrating Shavuot, celebrating Yom Teruah, celebrating Yom Kippurim, celebrating Sukkot, etc., etc., etc. When Yahweh himself wants us to know something, he wants us to follow something, he puts it in scripture and it’s listed out. The Noahide laws are not there.
So take that meaning for what you will.
Commands Given to Noah
But the Noahide laws just are not found in scripture. However, the Noahide laws are reportedly or purportedly if you want to put it that way. They are supposed to be commands that are given to the descendants of Noah. Given to Noah right after the flood. They’re also reportedly supposed to be given to Adam. But first, let’s look at the commands which are actually given to Noah and look for ourselves and see with our own eyes what it is that Noah is actually commanded right after the flood.
We look in Genesis chapter 9:1-7.
And Elohim blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase and fill the earth. and the fear of you and the dread of you is on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the heavens, on all that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hands they have been given. Every creeping creature that lives is food for you. I have given you all as I gave the green plants. But do not eat flesh with its life its blood. But only your blood for your lives I require. From the hand of every beast, I require it. And from the hand of man, from the hand of every man’s brother, I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood is shed. For in the image of Elohim, he has made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase, bring forth teemingly in the earth and increase in it.”
So look closely and correct me if I’m wrong. Let me know down in the comments or write me or whatever it is. But what I see here, there are three different commands that are given to Noah right after it gets done with the flood and the ark. Number one, be fruitful and increase. Fill the earth. I said there at the beginning of this passage and then down there at the end of this passage. So that’s number one.
Number two, do not eat flesh with life. I’m sorry. Do not eat flesh with its life is blood. So do not eat blood. Be fruitful and increase. Do not eat blood. And finally, number three says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood by man, his blood is shed.” So in other words, do not murder.
If you find any more commands given to Noah directly from scripture, let me know. Other than these three, but these are the three that I was able to get that were given to Noah that come directly out of the scriptures. Now, how does that compare to the Noahide laws, the set of laws supposedly named after Noah himself? Well, here on the left, if you’re watching on the screen, you have the three commands that were given to Noah that we just read from scripture. And on the right, you have the list of the Noahide laws that we read earlier. The command that we read from scripture, be fruitful and increase, that’s not one of the Noahide laws. Number two, do not murder.
That was a command given to Noah. That is one of the Noahide laws. So, we got one out of seven so far. And finally, number three, the third command that was given to Noah that we pulled directly from the scriptures using exegesis says, “Do not eat flesh with its life. It’s blood.” So, do not consume blood. Now, that is not one of the Noahide laws.
Maybe you could put it as do not eat flesh taken from a living animal, but that’s not really accurate either because even if the animal is not living, it can still have blood in the meat if you don’t do it correctly. So, I’m not really sure if that lines up or not. But yeah, Noah was only given three commands compared to the supposed seven Noahide laws. I mean, it’s it’s not even half the list. and they don’t match. The ones that are given to Noah that we find from scripture are don’t even match up with the listed seven Noahide laws. So some people who are pro-Noahide law may point and say well this is it’s called Noahide laws because it’s supposed to be incumbent on the sons of Noah and the descendants of Noah from Noah on including us.
everyone who came from Noah because everyone else in Noah’s time was killed off. Therefore, everyone today is obviously a descendant of Noah. Okay, well that makes sense. But where did the laws actually come from? Well, at that point, these proponents of the Noahide laws will then say, well, the seven Noahide laws come from the commands that were given to Adam back in the garden.
Commands Given to Adam
So let’s look at the commands that were given to Adam. And the passage where they derive these list of seven Noahide laws. It comes from the passage in Genesis 2:16-17. I’ll read that for you just to give you a refresher on what that says. But Genesis 2:16-17.
And Yahweh Elohim commanded the man, saying, “Eat of every tree of the garden, but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall certainly die.”
If you’re watching the video or you’re looking on the draw slides, down below this passage from scripture, we have the listing of the seven Noahide laws. I’m sorry, the six Noahide laws that are listed byes in the Mishnah Torah, but we’ll get into more of that later. Notice what it says here in Genesis 2:16-17. Let me read it one more time just just so we’re clear on what scripture actually says.
And Yahweh Elohim commanded the man saying, “Eat of every tree of the garden, but do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For the day for in the day that you eat of it, you shall certainly die.”
From just a plain straight reading of this, I get one command, maybe two. You okay, let’s go ahead and say two. Just be generous. The first command, eat of every tree of the garden. Second command, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That’s it. Personally, I would say it’s just one command.
But if you want to be generous, let’s say it’s two, a positive command and a negative command. So, how do they get seven Noahide laws from these two verses? this one little passage. They get seven those seven laws from this one little passage. All right, hang on. If you’re hopefully you’re watching on the screen because we have it color-coded here for you to show you where they get all of this. But in the Sanhedrin 56b and 1-10 that it explains where they get the seven Noahide laws from and how they get it from these two verses in Genesis says here in Sanhedrin 56b
quote the garra asked from where are these matters the Noahide mitzvot derived. Rabbi Yohanan says, “It is from that which the verse states, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it, for on the day that you eat from it, you shall die.” The verse is interpreted homiletically as follows. With regard to the term and commanded, these are the courts of judgment. With the regard to the term the Lord, this alludes to the blessing the name of God or not blasphemy. With regard to the term God, this alludes to idol worship. With regard to the man, this alludes to bloodshed. With regard to the term saying, this alludes to the forbidden sexual relations. And then with regard to the term of every tree of the garden, this alludes to the fact that the 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. And finally, with regard to the term, you may freely eat, it alludes to the fact that one may eat fruit, but not a limb from a living animal. End quote.
And I had to cut down what I considered the irrelevant parts from this passage in Sanhedrin 56b. But like always, I gave you the link. You can go look it up for yourself and read the entire text from sefaria.org or you can go to our notes and we’ve got the entire section right there for you to look at yourself. We just had to cut this down for the sake of fitting on the slide. But look at the gymnastics that go on here. From that, those two words and commanded. Those two words and commanded, they derive the Noahide law of establish courts of justice.
Okay. Going on with the term the Lord. In Hebrew, it’s Elohim or Elohim. with this term Elohim or the Lord. They say this alludes to blessing the name of God or not profaning blaspheming the name of God. I that oh my gosh I’m telling they really had to bend over backwards for this.
It’s it’s oh my gosh I don’t even know the words. Anyways be professional. that goes on where they conclude that in this particular passage where it’s got the phrase the man just those two words the man they get the Noahide law of do not murder then they go on with the single word that one little word that says saying again saying they take that to be the command of do not commit sexual immorality. And again, you can read this for yourself. Go read the entire section. Go look it up for yourself and read a version that we did not put up here for you. It’s going to say the exact same thing.
It’s all part of the Talmud that was written almost 2,000 years ago. It’s it’s crazy in my opinion how they get or derive seven laws from just these two verses and they derive a single law from one little word even and that’s why I went over in the beginning the terms exegesis and eisegesis because we went over exegesis when we read it ourselves and exegesis tells you do not eat of the tree of knowledge of or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but eat of every other tree in a garden. That’s exegesis. Eisegesis is taking your own concepts and reading it back into there. And that’s exactly what it comes across to me when I read their explanation of how they got the seven Noahide laws. When I read the Talmud here in Sanhedrin 56b, it’s an exercise in eisegesis trying to read their own presuppositions, their own doctrine back into the scripture to try and justify things they want to be true.
But if it doesn’t come from scripture, there’s a really good chance that it’s not true. But anyways, this is not the only thing that I find to be absurd when it comes to the subject of the Noahide laws.
Prescribed Punishments
We also got the prescribed punishments from this concept of the Noahide laws as well. Let’s look at some of those prescribed punishments as regards this particular subject. This comes from the Jewish Encyclopedia and
quote, “With but a few exceptions, the punishment meted out to a Noahide for the transgression of any of the seven laws is decapitation, the least painful of the four modes of execution of criminals. The many formalities of procedures essential when the accused is an Israelite need not be observed in the case of the Noahide. The latter may be convicted on the testimony of one witness, even on that of relatives, but not on that of a woman. He need have had no warning from the witnesses, and a single judge may pass sentence on him.” End quote.
Now, just to clarify, when it says Noahide, that means the Noahide, the person following the Noahide laws, or in a lot of interpretations, that means anyone who is not a Jew. And on the flip side here when it says Israelite, what they’re actually meaning is Jew. Like we said, not everyone’s a Jew. Abraham wasn’t a Jew. So, but there were a lot of people who were Israelites and it’s not but who were not Jews. So, understand that particular distinction.
This is what we’ll get into some more of this as we go on too. But the prescribed punishment according to those who adhere to the Noahide laws. Prescribed punishment for a Noahide, anyone who is not a Jew who breaks any of the Noahide laws, the prescribed punishment is decapitation. And notice the discrepancy in the justice as well. For anyone who is a non-Jew, they can be convicted on the testimony of one witness and one judge. That’s it. However, the requirements to be convicted if you are a Jew is going to be at least two, if not more witnesses and more than one judge.
So, there’s a complete discrepancy and double standard there when it comes to the Noahide laws when you compare those to what the scriptures actually say. So, let’s go ahead and look at those scriptures just to back up and prove what it is that we’re saying here. This comes from Deuteronomy 17:2-7.
When there is found in your midst any of your cities, in any of your cities, which Yahweh your Elohim has given you, a man or a woman, who does what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh your Elohim, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other mighty ones, and bowed down to them, or to the sun, or to the moon, or to any of the host of heavens, which I have not commanded, and it has been made known to you, and you have heard, and have searched diligently. Then see, if true, the matter is confirmed that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil matter, and you shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he that is to die be put to death. He is not put to death by the mouth of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death and the hand of all the people last. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Now did you notice the contradiction here and the contrast between what we saw with the Noahide laws and what we saw in actual scripture? And this is just one description in scripture about punishing wrongdoers and especially capital punishment. And the the vast majority of the time when capital punishment is prescribed in scripture, it is stoning. Never is it prescribed the the form of decapitation. We’ll go into that here in just a minute, too. But also notice here, I’ve highlighted this.
If you’re looking on your video, I’ve highlighted in green where it says a man or a woman. So when it’s talking about the person who is to be tried, the oh how you say the defendant as it were, does scripture itself make a distinction between Jew and non-Jew? Does it make a distinction between Israelite or non-Israelite? No, it is has the generic word for man or woman. It makes a distinction sort of between men and woman by listing them separately, but they’re still held to the same standard whether they’re a man or a woman in these cases. And I proved it by showing you the Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex here. And it’s got the word ish for man and isha for woman.
That’s the generic word for man and the generic word for woman. It does not have the word Israeli. It does not have the word for Hebrew. It does not have the word yehudim or Jew. It doesn’t even have the word goy for Gentile or those who are not of covenant. It doesn’t have any of that that the Noahide laws do. No, scripture just says plain old man or woman.
and the punishment and the requirements for punishment are all the same. Notice the contrast between what we read with the Noahide laws and what we read in scripture as far as convictions go as well. Here in scripture, it says, “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he that is to die be put to death.” So it doesn’t matter who it is. If it’s a man or a woman, if it’s a Jew, a Benjamite, a Levite, an Israelite, a whoever, it does not matter according to scripture. It has to be two or three witnesses. And then it specifically says, he is not put to death by the mouth of one witness.
Read that one more time. He is not put to death by the mouth of one witness. Remember what we just read when it comes to Noahide laws that those who are non-Jews, those who are quote unquote Noahides are convicted to death by one witness according to Noahide laws, but not scripture. So take that into account, put that in your notes and remember that when you’re studying this particular subject. And this is just one passage among many in scripture when it’s talking about capital punishment. And every single time when it comes to capital punishment, you are required to have multiple witnesses. We look at another passage.
This is comes from Numbers 35:30-31.
Whoever strikes a being, the murderer shall be executed by the mouth of witnesses, but one witness does not bear witness against someone to die and take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall certainly be put to death.
Once again, this is this is stands in stark contrast to the concept and the doctrine of the Noahide laws. It says whoever strikes a being. And what does whoever mean? It means whoever. There’s no distinction between Jew and Benjamite and Gentile and Israelite and or whatever. No, scripture says whoever. And I put that word down for there in the uh Hebrew text as well.
Kol. Kol. That means all or all whoever, whatever you want to translate that as. So yeah, it says whoever. No distinction. Also, it says the murderer shall be executed by the mouth of witnesses. Witnesses. Notice that is plural.
And this is a problem that mainstream churchianity and Orthodox Judaism has a problem with. The distinction between singular and plural words in scripture. Here this word is plural. That means more than one. So a person cannot be convicted of a capital punishment crime and suffer the penalty of capital punishment by being convicted by one witness. It takes multiple witnesses. Look at again at the Jewish encyclopedia about the Noahide laws.
It says here, quote, “The many formalities of procedure essential when the accused is an Israelite need not be observed in the case of the Noahide. The latter may be convicted on the testimony of one witness, even on that of relatives, but not on that of a woman. End quote.
See the contrast. Noahide laws and that whole doctrine says that a Noahide or someone who’s not a Jew can be convicted on just one witness. Capital punishment. It can be convicted on one witness. Contrast that with what actual scripture says. And scripture says it takes multiple witnesses, two or three witnesses in the case of capital punishment. There’s very stringent rules because life is important to scripture.
It takes multiple witnesses to confirm that a person needs to be prescribed the death penalty. So that’s one of the many contrast between the Noahide laws and scripture. But going on, we look at biblehub.com. This is were some of the um methods of execution that we’re going to look at now. But anyways, says here from biblehub.com,
quote, “Stoning was a method of execution intended to remove evil from the community and serve as a deterrent to others. It required the participation of the community, emphasizing collective responsibility in maintaining the holiness of the people.” End quote.
And notice what we read earlier that those the witnesses when they come against someone in a capital punishment trial that the witnesses are the first ones who throw the stones and then the rest of the community joins in in the stoning part. This is something that everyone takes participation in and there’s a purpose behind that too and that is you know definitely deterrence but get rid of evil and to know and understand and really deeply understand the things that will get you killed. In other words like a murder or kidnapping or etc etc. So yeah there’s a method and a purpose behind stoning. Contrast that with beheading or decapitation.
That takes just one person. Take someone with a big heavy sharp ax. Take one person pulling the rope on a guillotine, what have you. It completely goes against what scripture recommends for capital punishment. And it also goes against the the uh how should I say this? not perks, but um I guess you could say these the subtext and the things that go along with the stoning that help in the removal of evil and the uh oh gosh, the projection of righteousness, I guess you could say. But yeah, beheading or decapitation bypasses all that in in addition to contrasting and going against what scripture actually prescribes for such punishments.
And even some of the Noahide laws themselves, if someone breaks one of those, there are certain ones that do not require the death penalty according to scripture. So there’s that contradiction as well when it comes to the whole subject of the Noahide laws. But another method of death that is prescribed in scripture for punishment is the act of burning. And some people may not know this, but this is something that’s used in rare cases, but it is a prescribed method of capital punishment in scripture. We look in Leviticus 20:14.
And a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is wickedness. They are burned with fire, both he and they, that there be no wickedness in your midst.
And then from Leviticus 21:9.
And when the daughter of any priest profanes herself by whoring, she profanes her father. She is burned with fire.
So it’s a rare instance when scripture prescribes burning for capital punishment, but it actually does happen. And once again, this capital punishment, even though it’s burning, it still requires more than one witness to be convicted and burned alive, put to death by burning. So, it’s not even a roundabout way of justifying the Noahide laws that way because this still requires multiple witnesses. So, what about decapitation? Do we ever find that in scripture? Well, actually, we do.
There are a few instances where we see decapitation or beheading in scripture. We look in Deuteronomy 13:15.
Some men, sons of Belial, have gone out of your midst and led the inhabitants of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other mighty ones, mighty ones whom you have not known.” Then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently, and see if the matter is true and established that this abomination was done in your midst. You shall certainly strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, putting it under the ban, and all that is in it and its livestock with the edge of the sword.
That’s Deuteronomy 13:15. Now, here it does not actually say take off their heads. It says put them to the edge of the sword. So, that could be a variety of methods used, not just decapitation. It could be running through uh etc., etc. and just says to put them to the edge of the sword. And if you’re trying to take out an entire city like this, I seriously doubt you have time to just stop at each different person and say, “Okay, the rest of you wait. You bend over.
Let me take off your head. Okay, next. Come over. Bend over.” No, it’s not going to work that way. I mean, I’m truly everyone’s seen a Hollywood movie in their life. It’s going to be a lot more chaotic and rambunctious. you’re not going to have time to sit there and behead every single one of them if you’re going to go strike a city as it were.
Some you may do, but you know, most of the time you’re probably not. Now, a lot of people when they see this phrase by the edge of the sword, they take that to mean decapitation or beheading. Well, it could be, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ll just put it that way. But we do find didactic um instances and mentions of decapitation in scripture. For instance, the probably the most well-known one is when David kills Goliath and David goes up and cuts off Goliath’s head. We see the Philistines when they behead King Saul at the end of his life in the end of his reign.
We see that Saul’s son is beheaded. We see the sons of Ahab, they get beheaded. He there were multiple signs that got beheaded there. John the Baptist was beheaded in the Brit Hadasha the back in the time of Pharaoh when Joseph was in prison you know Pharaoh’s servant there got beheaded once he they came out of prison after um Joseph interpreted their dreams for him and only a few other instances as well but the vast majority of the time this is this beheading is done by people who are not among the righteous some are but some most of them aren’t and one thing is for sure is that scripture never prescribes beheading or decapitation as a punishment as a capital crime or I’m sorry as a method of serving out a capital crime sentence as we saw earlier most of the time it was either stoning in rare cases it was burning but never does the scripture say if you do this sin and you’re convicted by multiple witnesses then you are to be beheaded that’s not something the scripture says It’s plain and simple. So take that contrast between the Noahide laws and scripture as well.
Double Standards?
So is there a double standard in scripture? We’re starting to kind of see that with the Noahide laws where the requirements for conviction is different between uh under the Noahide laws, a requirement for conviction is different for a Jew than it is for a Noahide or a Gentile or whatever you want to say. But in scripture, is there a double standard there that we can point to to try and justify this double standard in the Noahide laws? Well, let’s look for ourselves real quick. Number one, Exodus 12:48-50.
And when a stranger sojourns with you, and shall perform the Pesach to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and perform it, and he shall be as a native of the land, but let no uncircumcised eat of it. There is one Torah for the native-born and for the stranger who sojourns among you. And all the children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moshe and Aharon. So they did.
Is there a standard in scripture for the Israelite and the non-Israelite? Nope. Not according to this passage. Let’s look up further. Numbers 15:14-16.
And when a stranger sojourns with you or whoever is among you throughout your generations and would make an offering made by fire, a sweet fragrance to Yahweh as you do, so he does. One law is for you of the assembly and for the stranger who sojourns with you. A law forever throughout your generations. As you are, so is the stranger before Yahweh. One Torah and one right ruling is for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.
So in this passage, is there a different standard for the Israelite and the non-Israelite? Nope. Still just one standard. Let’s look at another passage again just to look at this question of is there double standards in scripture. We look at Leviticus 24:19-22.
And when a man inflicts a blemish upon his neighbor, as he has done, so it is done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, as he inflicts a blemish upon him, so it is done to him. And he who strikes a beast repays it. And he who strikes a man to death is put to death. You are to have one right ruling for the stranger and for the native. For I am Yahweh your Elohim.
So once again, it says there is one right ruling. There is one Torah for both the native for both the Israelite and the sojourner those who are not native those who are there among you who are not an Israelite. So again even if you go with the uh interpretation that these are proselytes or converts as some do is still not making a distinction between one group and the other or one group and another like the Noahide laws do or the proponents of Noahide laws do. So now let’s look at one other thing too when it comes about this whole distinction between two different groups or a mixed or a double standard.
And let’s look at when the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Exodus from Egypt as we referenced here a little bit earlier. This comes from Exodus 12:37-38.
And the children of Israel set out from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot besides the little ones. And a mixed multitude went up with them, too. Also, flocks and herds, very much livestock.
So, here’s where I’ve noticed a lot of people, they go wrong. They think that the Torah only started at Sinai and the only people there were quote unquote the Jews. Right? But according to scripture, what’s it tells us? It tells us that when they came out of Egypt during the Exodus, it wasn’t just the Hebrews.
It wasn’t just the Israelites. It was a mixed multitude. There were non-native born there that came out with them who went with them through the wilderness to Sinai. And they were there, that mixed multitude was there at Sinai when they were given the ten commandments, when they were given the Torah. And that mixed multitude said, “Whatever you command, we will do.” It wasn’t just the Israelites. It was a mixed multitude.
So again, there is one Torah for all for the Israelite and for the non-Israelite as well. And we can read that time and time again throughout scripture. And it confirms it in scripture who was there at Sinai. It confirms it wasn’t just Israelites. It was a mixed multitude. So anyways, we looked at what the Noahide laws are. We looked at some encyclopedia entries about the Noahide laws.
We, you know, went through some scriptures and stuff concerning different aspects of the Noahide laws.
History
So now let’s get into some history when it comes to this concept of the Noahide laws. And let’s start out with a look at the book of Jubilees. A lot of people when I was doing this research and background into the Noahide laws, they say that you can find a proto Noahide law list in the book of Jubilees. Decide for yourself if you think this is a start of a Noahide laws or not. Anyways, look in Jubilees 7:20-21. Again, this comes from the book of Jubilees.
And in the 28th Jubilee, Noah began to enjoin upon his sons, 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 honor father and mother, and love their neighbor, and guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness, and all iniquity.
Now, I put down there, if you’re watching on the screen or you’re looking at these slides, I put the seven Noahide laws down below this particular passage just so you can compare the different uh the two here, the book of Jubilees and the Noahide laws. And the book of Jubilees, it has listed number one, observe righteousness. Number two, cover the shame of their flesh. Number three, bless their creator. Number four, honor father and mother.
Number five, love their neighbor. Number six, guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness from all iniquity. So just the number is a little bit different, but like I said, some people say this is a proto Noahide law list, a beginning of it. I don’t see it actually because there’s a lot of differences here. And there’s only two that I see that line up with the accepted list of Noahide laws as it comes from the Talmud. And the only two that line up from the book of Jubilees with the seven Noahide laws in the Talmud is the not blaspheming God or blessing their creator.
That’s a lot of times that’s used interchangeably and also the do not commit sexual immorality. And here it says in Jubilees, guard their souls from fornication. So that’s the two I see lining up. The rest of them is not even there. They don’t line up with each other. And the Noahide laws don’t even have honor father and mother.
It doesn’t I know that the Noahide laws are about observing righteousness. So you could say maybe the whole set of Noahide laws is about observing righteousness like Jubilees says, but you know it’s not anyways it’s not a listed commandment in the Noahide laws. That is the book of Jubilees. And where some people say that there is this proto Noahide law list. There is also another section that comes from the Brit Hadasha aka New Testament that some people allude to as being a uh almost influenced by the Noahide laws maybe. Anyways, this comes from Acts chapter 15:19-21.
This is the Jerusalem Council deciding what to do about new converts coming into the faith. And here it says in Acts 15:19-21, “Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the nations who are turning to Elohim, but that we write to them to abstain from the defilement of idols and from whoring and from what is strangled and from blood. For from ancient generations Moshe has in every city those proclaiming him being read in the congregations every Sabbath.”
So here definitely remember this passage when you’re going further in your study on the Noahide laws. Let’s look at the four commands that are listed here in Acts. Number one to abstain from the defilement of idols. Number two to abstain from whoring. Number three, to abstain from what is strangled and number four to abstain from blood.
Once again, this is a list of four compared to the seven Noahide laws. So there is a discrepancy there just from the outset. Also again, there’s only two that line up between these two particular concepts from Acts and the seven Noahide laws. The only two that line up that I can see is the not worshiping of idols. So the refraining from idolatry and the not committing sexual immorality or the whoring as it’s put in Acts. But the rest of this particular decision from the Jerusalem Council doesn’t say anything about eating of um a living animal, but you could say that is the eating of blood.
But again, I don’t I don’t really get that. have to that’s something we’d have to discuss with someone who is a proponent of the Noahide laws just to kind of hash that out. But there’s no establishment of courts of justice. There’s no stealing which is obviously we shouldn’t do anyways. But if you get further into this whole Noahide law thing, you’ll see that Maimonides and other people when they talk about Noahides and the Noahide laws, they say that the Noahides should not keep the Sabbath, which is another contradiction to scripture. But it’s also standing in contrast to this particular passage in Acts where it’s talking about these new converts.
They should do these four things starting out and then the implication is that they will go to the congregation on the Sabbath and learn from as it says here the words of Moshe or the Torah. So they start out with these four things and then they go to Sabbath, I’m sorry, they go to congregation every Sabbath while keeping the Sabbath and they learn more and progress in their faith. That’s what the Jerusalem Council has decided here. But when it comes to the proponents of the Noahide laws, they say that the Noahides cannot or should not and are not allowed to observe the Sabbath or even study Torah. So it stands in stark contradiction to what’s being said here in Acts. So I do not think this is coming, this passage in Acts is coming from the Noahide laws.
I don’t think the Noahide laws actually come into being until a little bit later, which we’ll get into in this next slide. But yeah, as far as the Noahide laws and as far as what I can tell, the first instance of the Noahide laws comes from I guess you call it the Talmud, but this comes from the Tosefta that was written about the end of the 2nd century, beginning of the 3rd century, whatnot, but this is from Tosefta Avodah Zarah 9.4. And again, I provided you the link and the text in the notes, so you can go look up look at it for yourself if you want to. But here in the Tosefta Avodah Zarah, it says,
“The sons of Noah were given seven commandments: courts, idolatry, blasphemy, forbidden sexual relations, bloodshed, theft, and consuming the limb of a living animal.”
And you can read the rest of it for yourself here. Um, but yeah, that’s where I find the first instance or the first mention of the Noahide laws themselves. It says here, “The sons of Noah were given seven commandments.” Now, again, this goes back to context. Are you saying the sons of Noah in context, meaning the whole of humanity, or are you talking about the sons of Noah as Shem, Ham, and Japheth?
Depends on the context. Most of the time when people the proponents of the Noahide laws when they say sons of Noah they mean it in the context of all humanity because obviously we’re all descendants of Noah. But that is the first mention I have found of the Noahide laws in history as it was codified and written down. Now in all fairness and full disclosure just because it was written down in the Talmud about the end of the second century doesn’t mean it did not exist beforehand. because there was a lot of things that I believe that are in the Talmud that existed before they were actually written down because they were part of the oral tradition or a part of the oral law and then eventually they were written down.
So just because it’s mentioned here doesn’t mean it did not exist before this just as a uh disclaimer and full disclosure and something for you to understand. Now we go on and we look also it’s written down and explained even further in other Talmudic creations such as we read earlier in the Sanhedrin especially Sanhedrin 56a and here it says
quote the sages taught in a baraita the descendants of Noah i.e all of humanity were commanded to observe seven mitzvot the mitzvah of establishing courts of judgment and the prohibition against blessing i.e cursing the name of God and the prohibition of idol worship and the prohibition against forbidden sexual relations and the prohibition of bloodshed and the prohibition of robbery and the prohibition against eating a limb from a living animal. End quote.
And this was written fifth century I think it was. I’ve got it in the notes. Go look in the notes if you want the exact one or you can look on Sefaria. That’s where I got the date from as well. But yeah, it continues on after the Tosefta in the Sanhedrin 56a and other places as well. But it doesn’t stop there.
It continues throughout history. This whole concept and doctrine of the Noahide laws continues throughout history on down to today. So as we go on further, this goes on into the end of the 12th century. And this comes from Maimonides who is greatly respected in Orthodox Judaism. And Maimonides wrote in his Mishneh Torah, especially the kings and wars, and he writes about the Noahide laws. And here he says
that for every Gentile who does not accept these commandments must be executed if he is under our undisputed authority. Moses was commanded by the Almighty to compel all the inhabitants of the world to accept the commandments given to Noah’s descendants. If one does not accept these commands, he should be executed. End quote.
And that is the straight from Maimonides what he is teaching and advising other orthodox Jews to do and about the Noahide laws itself. And once again, I have put the link there so you can go read it and look for yourself and know that I’m not just making this up. I’m not just telling you like some of those alarmists I warned you about at the beginning. This is out there for everyone to see. Everyone who has studied the Talmud or studied things from Maimonides and Rambam and um etc etc.
They already understand this. So you can see this for yourself and this is you know part of the history and the opinion of those or some of those who are proponents of the Noahide laws and it continues on past Maimonides as well. We look at I’m sorry got more Maimonides uh from Mishneh Torah. This is another section from his work on kings and wars.
Quote, “Anyone who accepts upon himself the fulfillment of these seven mitzvot and is precise in their observance is considered one of the pious among the Gentiles and will merit a share in the world to come.” This applies only when he accepts them and fulfills them because the holy one blessed be he commanded them in the Torah and informed us through Moses our teacher that Noah’s descendants had been commanded to fulfill them previously. However, if he fulfills them out of intellectual conviction, he is not a resident alien, nor of the pious among the Gentiles, nor of their wise men.” End quote.
Now, here is something that is not universally accepted among orthodox Jews, I think, or at least I didn’t see it universally accepted when I was doing my research. here says that those who do the Noahide laws if they do them they’re not counted as the pious among the Gentiles if they do the Noahide laws out of natural conviction in other words if they do them because they instinctively know that murder is wrong or they instinctively know that stealing is wrong and therefore that’s why they don’t do it then Maimonides doesn’t consider them as pious among the Gentiles no it’s the reason behind doing the Noahide laws that makes them the pious according to Maimonides and they have to do it for the reason because he says that God is the one who commanded the people to do it and if they that’s the reason they’re doing it then that’s what makes them the pious among the Gentiles now other teachers in Judaism disagree they say that even if they do it just because they instinctively know it to be a commandment or something they should do then they are considered pious and a Noahide etc etc. So it’s not a universal opinion amongst those within orthodox Judaism but also notice some other parts of this particular section from Maimonides as well says here from Maimonides that um Yahweh the where it says he references here the holy one that Yahweh commanded them in the Torah.
Now, we looked earlier and we do not see the seven Noahide laws or even the title or the concept of Noahide laws anywhere in scripture, let alone commanded by Yahweh. It is simply not there. So, that’s a contrast between what Maimonides are saying and what is actually in scripture. So, take that for what you will, but we just do not find that in scripture. And he also says that this is one of the ways that the Gentiles or those who are Noahides will merit a share in the world to come.
And the way we would put it is get to heaven. So yeah, but when it comes to the sages as they call them in orthodox Judaism and their opinion on the Noahides and why Noahides do what they do is not a universal opinion from what I was able to gather in the research. Well, let’s do one more quote from Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah from Kings and Wars number nine. And here Maimonides says,
quote, “A Noahide who transgresses these seven commands shall be executed by decapitation. A Noahide is executed on the basis of the testimony of one witness and the verdict of a single judge.” End quote.
And you can go on and read the rest of that quote in the notes or go look that up for yourself as well on Sefaria. But yeah, we’ve already looked at this and the methods of execution that are prescribed by scripture as well as the requirements for a conviction for a capital punishment as well. And as we saw what Maimonides is saying here stands in contrast to what we found in scripture. Now we go on and look and it’s it doesn’t end with Maimonides in the end of the 12th century. It continues on through history.
We look in the 1860s in the 19th century and here from wikipedia.org.
Quote, during the 1860s and in Western Europe, the idea of Noahism as a universal Judaic religion for non-Jews was developed by Elijah Benamozegh, an Italian Sephardic Orthodox rabbi and renowned Jewish kabbalist. End quote.
And again, I apologize if I butcher that name. I horrible at names sometimes. But yeah, it it started being uh thought of as a universal religion or a universal requirement for everyone who is a in other words non-Jewish. And it was before the 1860s, but yeah, it got really going in 1860s, but even more so as we look um on further in history, and we’ll get into in just a moment, in the mid to late 20th century. But yeah, also notice here it says that this particular rabbi was a Sephardic Orthodox rabbi and a renowned Jewish kabbalist.
A lot of what’s going on here is comes from the Kabbalah and is influenced by the Kabbalah. And for those of you who don’t know, Kabbalah is Jewish mysticism. Almost like the equivalent or to put it in an analogy, it’s like uh Gnostic Christianity almost. It’s about mysticism and stuff like that. That’s what Kabbalah is. And it this whole idea of Noahide laws and converting people to Noahidism is has a lot to do with Kabbalah proponents as well.
Now, as we go on past the 19th century and into the 20th century, this is going to be some people that you start to understand and start to remember that you probably heard their names before. But when we get into the late to mid, I’m sorry, the mid to late 20th century. Then we get into a gentleman named Menachem Mendel Schneerson. And this comes from wikipedia.org.
Quote, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, encouraged his followers on many occasions to preach the seven laws of Noah. Since the 1990s, Orthodox Jewish rabbis from Israel, most notably those affiliated to Chabad-Lubavitch and religious Zionist organizations, including the Temple Institute, have set up the modern Noahide movement. These Noahide organizations, led by religious Zionist and Orthodox Jewish rabbis, are aimed at non-Jews to proselytize among them and commit them to follow the Noahide laws. End quote.
So this Rabbi Schneerson or Menachem Mendel Schneerson really got it going in the mid to late 20th century especially with the whole uh Chabad-Lubavitch movement and organization and you can find these uh people these Chabad-Lubavitch people nowadays you can go to I believe it’s chabad.org and you can find them all throughout the world. They got congregations and buildings, synagogues, if you will, all throughout the world. I think there’s one here in western North Carolina that’s close by as well. But again, know that there are different sects or different denominations, if you will, of Judaism.
So, Orthodox Judaism, I’m sorry, Orthodox Jews are starkly different from Karaite Jews, etc., etc. So, don’t lump every Jew in with this whole Noahide law thing. It’s not the Karaites. It is the Orthodox Jews and the Kabbalist Jews like the Chabad-Lubavitch and Menachem Mendel Schneerson. All of this is Kabbalah and the Noahide laws as we know it nowadays especially is Kabbalah.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson really got this whole Noahide thing going and there’s a lot that pertains to him even up until today’s day and age even though he’s already passed. We go on and look at Meir Kahane and this is really going to open your eyes here. If you have never heard of this guy definitely pay attention to him and what he had to do with the Noahide laws in the whole Noahide movement. From wikipedia.org or
quote Meir David HaKohen Kahane was an Israeli Orthodox ordained rabbi, writer and ultra-nationalist politician. He was the founder of the Israeli political party Kach. Kahane was convicted of multiple acts of terrorism in the United States and in Israel. In 1968, he founded the Jewish Defense League. Several JDL members, including Kahane, were subsequently convicted of acts related to domestic terrorism. In 1971, he founded Kach, a political party that initially failed to gain any seats in the Knesset. In 1980, Kahane was arrested for the 62nd time since his immigration, and he was jailed for 6 months for planning armed attacks against Palestinians. End quote.
So, a little bit more about Meir Kahane is that he was actually born in the United States. He was born in New York and then immigrated to Israel, but he was an ordained rabbi. But he was also considered a terrorist and convicted on lots of different things. Even the organization that he instituted or founded was considered a domestic terrorist organization. And he even founded a political party that you’ll find out more information here in just a moment as well.
Remember that political organization? They founded the Kach Party. Well, this comes from wikipedia.org as well. And it says here,
quote, “The party has been banned by the Israeli government.” In 2004, the United States Department of State designated it a foreign terrorist organization and it was since removed in 2022, but it remains a specially designated global terrorist entity. The Otzma Yehudit party which was a subset of the Kach party and the Kahanist movement as a whole have been described as espousing Jewish supremacy and fascism. End quote.
That’s a little bit of background on this guy, what he was all about, a little bit of his history and stuff like that. So take that into account as we go into this next part here. Here, this comes from wikipedia.org as well as some other places as well, but it says,
quote, “Meir Kahane and Shlomo Carlebach organized one of the first Noahide conferences in the 1980s. In 1990, Kahane was the keynote speaker at the first international conference of the descendants of Noah, the first Noahide gathering in Fort Worth, Texas.” End quote.
So this guy who is been convicted of terrorism and plotting the death and assassination of Palestinians and being you know creating these organizations that were classified as terrorist organizations as you know form a political party that failed to gain traction and etc etc. That’s the kind of guy who they had as a keynote speaker at the first Noahide gathering in Fort Worth, Texas. So yeah, this guy is definitely associated with the Noahide movement. And here is a picture of the people who attended that first Noahide um convention there in Fort Worth, Texas.
This is an old one from 1990s. So, I can’t really make out the faces or tell you which one is Kahane. But if you look in our notes on our website, there is a video there where there’s a 9-minute segment where Kahane is speaking. And there’s not a lot to what he’s saying in the video. So, it’s it’s nothing groundbreaking or shocking, but you do kind of get a sense of his body language and how he speaks, stuff like that.
But I really can’t point out to you where he is in this picture, but he was the keynote speaker for the Noahide convention in 1990 in Fort Worth, Texas. This is kind of people that are involved in leading this Noahide movement along with the Kabbalist like Mendel Schneerson. So yeah, we just talked about Kahane, we talked about Rabbi Schneerson and these various people who were involved with the modern-day Noahide movement and whatnot, but the Chabad-Lubavitch, which Schneerson was a big part of, continues on even until this day. And according to Wikipedia.org, for
quote the Chabad-Lubavitch movement has been one of the most active in Noahide outreach believing that there is spiritual and societal value for non-Jews and at least simply acknowledging the Noahide laws. In 1982, Chabad-Lubavitch had a reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a US presidential proclamation that was uh by President Reagan in proclamation 4921 in 1989 and 1990. They had another reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a US presidential proclamation and that was by the George Bush one and that was proclamation 5956 in quote
and for your reference I’m not going to read it to you for sake of time but here is the proclamation from President Reagan. I’ve got the full proclamation in the notes as well. And you can always stop the video or go read the full proclamation in the notes. And here is the proclamation from President Bush, the first Bush. Anyways, and from 1990, I’m sorry, 1989 and 1990.
And again, I’m not going to read it. You can read the uh entire proclamation in the notes or go check that out for yourself from the link as well.
Closing Thoughts
But to start kind of winding down and closing this up, let’s look at some of my own personal closing thoughts here. And this is not scripture. This is not coming from the Talmud or from history or anything else. This is just my own personal thoughts I had as I was going through this particular study and putting this particular teaching together. Number one, throughout history, we saw that it’s generally the unrighteous who utilize racial, ethnic, religious, caste, or even class divisive systems.
It’s not always the unrighteous, but it’s generally the unrighteous. And here are some examples of such divisive systems that we have seen throughout history. We see the ancient Greek distinction between those who are Greek and those who are not Greek. We see the Romans um and the Roman citizenship hierarchy between those who are Romans and those who are not Romans. For instance, we see in the Brit Hadasha where Paul, the apostle Paul is appealing his conviction to the emperor and only a citizen could do that. The Spanish colonial caste system during the colonial period and is to be fair it wasn’t just the Spaniards.
It was pretty much anyone who was in the act or the business of colonization. We got the English, we got the Dutch, we’ve got the Spanish, we got the French, etc., etc. Anywhere they went to colonize somewhere, there was always the people who were colonizing. And then there was those who were already there, the natives, if you will, the indigenous. And there was always the greater group and the lesser group, the better group and the not so great group. Divisiveness like that.
You’ve also got the example of American slavery and the Jim Crow era. You got the caste system in India which goes along with a lot of their religious beliefs as well. You got the Nazi racial hierarchy as well which is obviously the low-hanging fruit in this particular example. You got the Japanese imperial racial ideology. And this is something I didn’t know until I started looking into a lot of World War II information and history is that the Japanese were especially during the time of World War II.
They were extremely racist and they were racist against Okinawans who they did not consider to be Japanese. They were racist against Chinese and Koreans and especially against Americans and etc etc. But there was always in the Japanese empire at this time there was the Japanese and those who were not Japanese and those who were not Japanese were considered second-class citizens, lesser people etc etc. So even Japanese had a racial divide and stuff like that too. Then you got the obviously the South African apartheid that happened down in South Africa.
So throughout history, you’ve got these examples of divisiveness that various cultures and people have done. And we’ve saw that it generally not good for society as a whole, for the world as a whole. And we can see that unfortunately with this whole Noahide movement, you’ve got within the Noahide doctrine, the group of Jews and then you got the group of non-Jews. And yeah, this it’s that two class system within the whole Noahide movement that is just something you do not get from scripture. Some more thoughts throughout scripture.
We see the theme of unity instead of division, especially in regards to the instructions. In other words, the Torah and following Yahweh. And we see that Yahweh does not like or does not appreciate and even hates diverse weights and measures. And yeah, a lot of times you could say that goes into business dealings, but it is a theme that goes throughout scripture that there is one Torah for the native and the sojourner, etc., etc. There’s this theme of unity.
How great and how blessed it is when brothers dwell together in unity. Scripture never uses the phrase sons of Noah or ben Noah. Look for yourself. If you find it, let me know. But I was not able to ever find that phrase sons of Noah to describe all of humanity or to describe anyone outside of Israel, outside of covenant with Israel, anything like that. But the phrase that it does use a lot of times and fairly frequently is the phrase son of Adam or sons of Adam.
Sometimes it’s translated as son of man. But in reality what it’s saying is sons of Adam, son of Adam. And it’s used for not only Yeshua but also some of the prophets back in the Tanakh as well. And if you’re just going to believe man’s word over scripture like the Noahide laws are, Noahide laws do not come from scripture. They’re just the words of man, the words of rabbis in the late second century.
If you’re just going to believe man’s word over scripture, you might as well just be Catholic because that’s the same thing the Catholics do. Let’s let’s call a horse a horse, you know? That’s it’s just the way it is. And do these Noahide laws build bridges or do they create walls? I get it.
And some people who are proponents of the Noahide laws want it to be or think of it as a way to build bridges and to bring people who are non-Jews into righteousness at least and at a very basic level even. But I don’t see that. I see it as creating walls. You’ve got again the two class division there between those who are Jews and those who are non-Jews. Even if they’re keeping the Noahide laws, they’re still considered second class, a lower class.
And we saw that with the discrepancy in the justice system where a Noahide is convicted only on one witness where a Jew has to have a much more stringent uh requirement or conviction process in order for them to be convicted of a capital punishment. And does the Noahide laws bring people closer to Yahweh or does it push them farther out? I would contend that it actually pushes people farther out because these Noahide laws, the doctrine of Noahide laws within that, like I said, I didn’t put it in there, but you can go look it up that the Noahides are forbidden and, you know, prevented from celebrating and keeping the Sabbath. So that pushes people away and out of you know relationship with Yahweh because Sabbath is a very wonderful thing that was given to us given to all of humanity not just one particular group. Also it’s said that those who are non-Jews including Noahides were not allowed to study Torah.
And studying and learning Torah is a way to come closer to Yahweh. And that’s what we saw in Acts 15. The intention was there is to start out with the four basic rules and then learn as you go. Learn the Torah, learn Moses as it puts there in that particular passage from Acts as you go on in your walk. But this doctrine of the Noahide laws, it’s no I, like I said, I in my opinion, I think it’s I would contend that the Noahide laws actually pushes people farther out and less in relationship to Yahweh.
And finally, if the Noahide laws are so important, if they’re so divine, then why don’t we find them in scripture? The things are important. They are put in scripture from Yahweh himself. But we only get the Noahide laws from rabbinic Judaism and they come from the oral Torah, not from the written Torah. To accept these laws as actual commands or as actually binding would be to place confidence, trust, and authority in the word of man since it was man who came up with these laws instead of Yahweh.
Especially a group who was repeatedly rebuked by Yeshua for transgressing the Torah for elevating their traditions over the commands of Yahweh, etc., etc. And hopefully you don’t need me to put those scriptures up for you because you you remember those from your reading of the Brit Hadasha where Yeshua is in many occasions coming against the Pharisees for putting their traditions over and above the commands of Yahweh. The Pharisees and these rabbis are a group that Yeshua referred to as a brood of vipers among other things. Now, it’s not to say that you can’t learn anything from the Talmud and you can’t learn anything from the rabbinic Jews, from the rabbis, stuff like that. There are things you can learn.
But like scripture says, test everything and only hold fast that which is good. Not everything wholesale. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, but test everything and only hold that which is good.
Summary
So, in summary, just to wrap up this particular draw, the term Jew can mean a descendant of the tribe of Judah, someone from the line of the southern kingdom of Judea, or someone of the Jewish faith. Only those of the orthodox Jewish tradition hold to the concept of Noahide laws. In other words, those who hold to the concept of oral law, the Karaites just go by the word of Yahweh. Karaites do not go by the oral law and do not hold to this concept of the Noahide laws.
So definitely keep that in mind and make that distinction when you’re doing the study and when you’re, you know, mulling all of this over in your mind. Exegesis means learning the meaning from the text. Eisegesis means reading your own meaning back into the text. The Noahide laws are found nowhere in scripture. Neither Noah nor Adam were commanded the Noahide laws.
The Noahide laws prescribe decapitation for punishment. But as we saw, the Torah does not prescribe decapitation for punishment. The Noahide laws create a situation of a double standard in contrast with the Torah teaching. The Noahide laws only first appear in the Tosefta Avodah Zarah about the end of the second century or the beginning of the 3rd century. Maimonides commented greatly on the Noahide laws near the end of the 12th century and we only read a few of the excerpts that he had in the Mishneh Torah regarding the Noahide laws.
Momentum for spreading the Noahide laws really started going near the end or the middle or the end of the 20th century in large part to Menachem Mendel Schneerson and the Chabad-Lubavitch organization. The Noahide movement has been supported by Jewish terrorists such as Meir Kahane. And just as a clarification, the Noahide movement is not only is not just run by people who are declared terrorist. In fact, I would say it’s actually a very small portion like Kahane that were actually considered terrorists who support the Noahide movement. Other people, the vast majority I would say in my opinion are non-terrorists, but they are kabbalist.
So definitely keep that in mind too. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has continued the Noahide movement since Menachem Mendel Schneerson and presidential proclamations by Ronald Reagan, George Bush and others have claimed that the Noahide laws are the bedrock of society including the American society. And in a nutshell, the Noahide laws do contrast and contradict and transgress the Torah by adding to the word of Yahweh and leading people astray in a way from a covenant relationship with our creator that would otherwise be found by studying and following the Torah. And that is just the God honest truth.
So, thank you for joining us for this particular study on the Noahide laws.
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But just know that in the notes there is a whole bunch more information than what we were able to provide for you in this particular teaching. So go check that out for even further information and to continue your own studies into this concept and this subject of the Noahide laws. Thank you for joining us for another production from God Honest Truth Ministries. We really do appreciate your time and hope that we have been of service to you. If you have any feedback then please reach out to us by writing to team at godhonesttruth.com and make sure to visit our website for more information on our social media links, audio bibles, teaching resources and so much more.
