THE SEVEN LAWS OF NOAH - A Betrothal

by James Trimm

Israel and the Nations A fundamental truth that one must understand is the clear distinction between Israel and the nations (goyim). Now in the book of Numbers we read concerning Israel: From the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him: Behold it is a people (AM) that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations (GOYIM) (Num. 23:9) In fact one major difference between these two Hebrew words for people/nation is that AM can refer to Israel but GOY refers to the OTHER nations. GOY is the word which can also be translated Gentile. So from this passage we see that there are two logical categories: Am-Yisrael (the People of Israel) also known as the Assembly of Israel and the GOYIM (Gentiles). The Assembly of Israel are not to be like other nations: For you are a set-apart people unto YHWH your Elohim: YHWH your Elohim has chosen you to be his own treasure, out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. (Deut. 7:6; 14:2) As the Psalmist says: For Yah has chosen Yaakov unto Himself, and Yisrael for His own treasure. (Ps. 135:4) The Assembly of Israel are a nation of priests to the Gentiles (Ex. 19:6; 1Pt. 1:1; 2:5, 9). This may come as a shock to you, but the Torah was given only to Israel and not to the goyim: For what nation is there so great, who has Elohim so nigh unto them, as YHWH our Elohim is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Torah, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life: but teach them your sons, and your sons' sons; (Deut. 4:7-9)

19: He shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20: He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise you YHWH. (Ps. 147:19-20)

The First Step: Seven Laws Now when Israel failed to keep the Torah, YHWH chastised Israel not only for not keeping the Torah, but for failing to even keep the judgments of the nations: Therefore thus says Adonai YHWH; Because you multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations (goyim) that are round about you; (Ezek. 5:7) So it seems that YHWH has a set of laws for the nations (goyim), something short of the Torah, expressing at least a minimum level of righteousness. Traditionally in Judaism this minimum standard of righteousness consists of what is known as the Seven Laws of Noah. These are seven basic laws that are said to have been given to the Sons of Noah as part of the Noachedic Covenant and are drawn from Genesis chapters 1-9. These Seven Laws of Noah are listed out in the Talmud in b.Sanhedrin 56a, however the lists which have been circulated in English have been badly translated. They translate literally in English as follows: 1. Judges/Justice 2. Blessing the Name 3. [Against] Idolatry (literally Idolatrous Seed a common idiom for Idolatry) 4. [Against] Uncovering Nakedness (idiom for sexual immorality) 5. [Against] Shedding Blood (idiom for murder) 6. [Against] Theft 7. [Against] Limb of Living [Animal] In every list I have seen published in English, the second law has been mistranslated as Against Blasphemy creating six negative commands and one positive command. In fact the second command is Blessing the Name a positive command. This also means that Rabbinic Judaism does not even keep the minimum standard of the Noachide Law, because they not only do not bless the Name, they do not even speak it. Each of these basic laws is drawn from Genesis 1-9 as follows: 1. Judges/Justice (Gen. 3:8-19; 6:5) 2. Blessing the Name (Gen. 3:1; 9:6) 3. [Against] Idolatry (literally Idolatrous Seed a common idiom for Idolatry) (Gen. 3:5)

4. [Against] Uncovering Nakedness (idiom for sexual immorality) (Gen. 6:1-14; 9:1, 7) 5. [Against] Shedding Blood (idiom for murder) (Gen. 4:1-24; 9:5-6) 6. [Against] Theft (Gen. 2:17; 3:6) 7. [Against] Limb of Living [Animal] [and Blood] (Gen. 9:1-4) Now in Acts 15 the Jerusalem Council makes a ruling as to a minimum standard for goyim coming into Nazarene Judaism. The question put to the Council was do goyim have to be circumcised to be saved. Circumcision is the means through which a non-Jew (goy) is initiated into the Assembly of Israel. This is because all members of the "Assembly of Israel" must eat the Passover (Ex. 12:47) and no uncircumcised man may eat the Passover (Ex. 12:48). If all members of the Assembly of Israel must eat the Passover and if no uncircumcised men may eat the Passover then all male members of the Assembly of Israel must be circumcised. Therefore all male members of the Assembly of Israel are circumcised. Once a man is circumcised he has become part of the Assembly of Israel and is thus obligated to keep the whole Torah. every son of man that is circumcised is a debtor to do all the Torah. (Gal. 5:3) Up until that point he, as a Son of Noah, is obligated to keep to the conditions of the Noachedic Covenant. Thus the Jerusalem council ruled concerning these goyim: that they should separate themselves from the uncleanness of that which is sacrificed [to idols] and from sexual immorality, and from that which is strangled and from blood. (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25) Most people do not know that the very authoritative Western Type text of these passages added an additional commandment (which may have never before been translated into English): and that which is undesirable to yourself, do not do to others. (Acts 15:20b, 29b; 21:25b Western Text) (For detailed and documented information on why the Western Text is so authoritative and often expresses most correctly the original Hebrew and Aramaic, see my book The Hebrew and Aramaic Origin of the New Testament at http://www.lulu.com/nazarene) (By the way this fifth precept is essentially identical to one given in the apocryphal Book of Tobit 4:15 which Hillel quoted as a sum of the Torah in b.Shabbat 31a and is a negative form of Yeshuas own summary of the Torah (Mt. 7:12)) These five precepts are actually a summary of the Seven Laws of Noah. They were not intended to be an exhaustive list. Instead we are told that a greater burden should not be

placed upon [goyim] (Acts 15:28) so that any lesser burden might be. In other words these five points were defining only the outer limits of the Seven Laws of Noah. No one was questioning whether or not gentiles (goyim) could steal or murder, for example, so there was no need to include them in the list. That does not mean, however, that goyim may steal and murder. We may examine the Seven Laws of Noah and the Five Precepts of Acts 15 together as follows: 1. Justice That which is hateful to yourself, do not do to others. 2. Blessing the Name (not included in Acts 15 because it is assumed that goyim following YHWH will bless the Name and not be permitted to curse the Name.) 3. Against Idolatry This law is clarified so as to even exclude partaking of that which is sacrificed [to idols]. 4. Against Sexual Immorality Abstain from Sexual Immorality 5. Against Shedding Blood (not included in Acts 15 because it is assumed goyim should not murder*.) 6. Against Theft (not included in Acts 15 because it is assumed that goyim should not steal.) 7. Against Eating the Limb of a Living Animal and Blood ({abstain]from that which is strangled and from blood*.)

Not the Final Step Now for many in Rabbinic Judaism, in the Bnai Noach movement and of the One Faith Two Expression theology prevalent in some Messianic circles, teach the Noachide Covenent as an end game, a goal in and of itself. This was never intended to be the case. In Acts 15 we read of the goyim in question that it was presupposed that they would be going to a synagogue on Sabbath and being taught the Torah of Moses (Acts 15:21). Yeshua commissioned his Talmidim as follows: Go you therefore, and teach all the Goyim, and immerse them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Ruach HaKodesh. and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you, and here I am with you all the days, to the end of the world. (Matt. 28:19-20) Water immersion is a ritual which is tied to and follows circumcision in a conversion to Judaism. Yehsua was instructing his Jewish Talmidim (disciples) to make converts of the goyim and to teach the goyim to observe all that Yeshua had commanded his Jewish talmidim to observe (all 613 commandments of the Torah). Yochanan writes to us concerning Messiah

He who says, I am in him, out to conduct himself according to his conduct. (1Jn. 2:6) Messiah was a Jew, he kept the whole Torah, not just the Seven Laws of Noah.

Get Ready to Get Married The Assembly of Israel is set apart from the nations because YHWH has chosen Israel as His bride. The allegory of YHWH as bridegroom and Israel as his bride is found throughout Scripture. (Rev. 19:7 for example). It has long been recognized that following this allegory, the Torah is our Ketuvah (marriage contract) and the Sabbath is the token or sign of our marriage. In ancient times something of value was given to the bride by the bridegroom as a sign of their marriage, in modern times this is the wedding ring. The Sabbath is the token and sign of Israels marriage to YHWH and the circumcision is the consummation of the marriage. But in ancient times the Jewish wedding ceremony was preceded by a betrothal ceremony. The betrothal preceded the wedding, usually by a year or so, though in modern Jewish weddings the betrothal is performed seconds before the actual wedding as a combined ceremony, The betrothal was roughly equivalent to our engagement but was much more binding. A betrothal required a Bill of Divorcement to get out of, but it was not consummated. It was therefore a binding covenant, but it did not have all of the provisions of the actual Ketuvah entered into at the wedding itself. Now following the Scriptural allegory above, the Noachedic Covenant is the betrothal, and as such is a binding covenant. As such it puts one in a covenant relationship with Elohim thus making one saved (I have explained the Blood Covenant and salvation in my book Nazarene Theology http://www.lulu.com/nazarene and will explain in a future blog article). It is important to note that a betrothal is never an end itself. No one should get betrothed unless they honestly plan to get married. In fact for a woman to be betrothed to a bridegroom when she has absolutely no intention of moving forward with a marriage would be an act of fraud upon her bridegroom. People who are new to Torah are always asking us where do I begin, well now we have a good starting place, the Seven Laws of Noah. But it is important to stress that this is only a first step as you go to synagogue on the Sabbath and hear the Torah of Moshe taught, as you work your way toward taking that step of accepting the Ketuvah (Torah) upon yourself and becoming the bride (The Assembly of Israel) by consummating the marriage (circumcision). As such a person studies with us they should be encourages to implement more and more commandments in their life until they feel ready to take that final step into the Assembly of Israel. For some that process may happen all at once (as it does in the modern Jewish wedding) and for others it must take time. But we must not discourage them, but only encourage them and give them a starting point.