Noahides according to the Ancient Rabbis

Genesis 9 recounts that after the flood, God issued a set of commandments to Noah and his progeny. The Talmud claims that the laws were first given to Adam, although the rabbis disagree about how many laws Adam received. Traditionally, however, seven commandments are enumerated, and these seven commandments, referred to as the Noahide laws, are meant to apply to all of humankind. The Tosefta lists all the laws, which include prohibitions against idol worship, blasphemy, sexual immorality, bloodshed, theft, and eating flesh from a living animal, as well as the admonition to establish courts of justice. Because of their intent, the Noahide laws resemble a Jewish form of “natural law,” although they lack the defining features of Greek and Roman natural law. Unlike natural law, they are not universal in scope because they apply differently to Israelites and non-Israelites. They also differ in that they are positivistic commandments promulgated by a divine lawgiver rather than rationally derived principles. There is even disagreement over their content and number. (See “Palestinian Rabbinic Depictions of Arabs: Robber Ishmaelites” for a related text from Sifre Deuteronomy 343 that offers a narrative account of God’s imposition and subsequent revocation of the commandments in response to the failure of the nations to observe them.)