by Ms Rebecca
In response to a question from a friend of Scholar Ministries…The Noahide Laws – Salvation for Gentiles?
The Noahide Laws are an ancient moral code recorded in Talmud which comments on Mishnah which comments on Torah. There are some lovely nuggets of wisdom in Talmud with a good bit of crazy stuff thrown in, but my brief answer to the question presented by Dr. Heiser is…nope! These laws which are peppered throughout today’s Scriptures are good, but do not provide salvation. Salvation can only be found in trusting Jesus/Yeshua.
The Noahide Laws are scattered throughout the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament or the original covenant) and, in part, in the New Testament (B’rit Chadashah), but they are not sufficient for salvation in my mind. Here is a listing of the Noahide Laws found in the Babylonian Talmud and the Tosefta followed by where they can be found in today’s compilation of scripture, the Bible.
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Babylonian Talmud (commentary on Mishnah and Gemara) (not sure if also exists in the Jerusalem Talmud, an earlier compilation of the oral law):
- Not to worship idols.
- Not to curse God.
- To establish courts of justice.
- Not to commit murder.
- Not to commit adultery, bestiality, or sexual immorality.
- Not to steal.
- Not to eat flesh torn from a living animal.
Tosefta (Jewish oral law from the same period as the Mishnah):
- concerning adjudication (dinim)
- concerning idolatry (avodah zarah)
- concerning blasphemy (qilelat ha-shem)
- concerning sexual immorality (gilui arayot)
- concerning bloodshed (shefikhut damim)
- concerning robbery (gezel)
- concerning a limb torn from a living animal (ever min ha-hay)
Old Testament (Torah and the Writings):
Genesis 9:1 God blessed Noach and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will be upon every wild animal, every bird in the air, every creature populating the ground, and all the fish in the sea; they have been handed over to you. 3 Every moving thing that lives will be food for you; just as I gave you green plants before, so now I give you everything — (Noahide Law #7) 4 only flesh with its life, which is its blood, you are not to eat. 5 I will certainly demand an accounting for the blood of your lives: I will demand it from every animal and from every human being. I will demand from every human being an accounting for the life of his fellow human being. (Noahide Law #1 and #5) 6 Whoever sheds human blood, by a human being will his own blood be shed; for God made human beings in his image. 7 And you people, be fruitful, multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply on it.”
Genesis 20:1 Then God said all these words:
א 2 “I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.
ב 3 “You are to have no other gods before me. 4 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline. (Noahide Law #2) 5 You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.
(Noahide Law #2 or #3) ג 7 “You are not to use lightly the name of Adonai your God, because Adonai will not leave unpunished someone who uses his name lightly. (marital reference, not so much a foul language reference)
ד 8 “Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God …
12 “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land which Adonai your God is giving you.
ו 13 (Noahide Law #1 and #5) “Do not murder.
ז (14) (Noahide Law #4) “Do not commit adultery.
ח (15) (Noahide Law #1 and #6) “Do not steal.
ט (16) “Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.
י 14 (17) “Do not covet your neighbor’s house; do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
(Noahide Law #7) Lev. 7: 26 You are not to eat any kind of blood, whether from birds or animals, in any of your homes. 27 Whoever eats any blood will be cut off from his people.’”(also Gen. 9:4, Deut. 12:23-24)
New Testament (B’rit Chadashah):
Acts 15:19 “Therefore, my opinion is that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Goyim (people now use the word ‘gentiles’) who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things polluted by idols, (Noahide Law #4) from fornication, from what is strangled and (Noahide Law #7) from blood. 21 For from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat (Sabbath).”
Salvation through Noahide laws…no.
Mark 16:16 Whoever trusts and is immersed will be saved; whoever does not trust will be condemned.
John 3:17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved.
Acts 4:11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[a] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”
Acts 16:31 They said, “Trust in the Lord Yeshua, and you will be saved — you and your household!”
