Israel and Humanity - The Seven Commandments

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NINTH CHAPTER

The precepts of Noachism or Universal Religion

I.

The seven commandments.

§ 1.

We confess studied as a whole content of the law intended, according to Judaism, the Gentile world as a whole. Let's see what we call the core precepts Noachides that was often mistaken for the act itself, then they are in reality the principal leaders of the status of humanity as it follows of the foregoing.

The oldest Baraita lists them as follows: "Our doctors have said that seven commandments were imposed on the son of Noah: the first requires them to have judges and the six others forbid them: 1 <super> th </super > sacrilege, 2 <super> th </super> polytheism, 3 <super> th </super> incest; 4 <super> th </super> homicide; 5 <super> th </super > flight; <super> 6 th </super> the use of a member of the animal alive. "

Another Baraita change this nomenclature by replacing the first two precepts prohibiting castration and the crossing of different races or grafting of trees. It is surprising at first glance to see that second text, which no longer refers to the need for a judiciary, seems to admit the possibility of the existence of a human society without courts loaded administer justice. But we can see, we repeat, this list of commandments, a classification method and if you think you can omit the administration of justice is that it must be considered side the purely instrumental Noachism and as an inevitable consequence of the existence of this law.

We'll spare the reader the reasons by which the Rabbis have tried to link the seven precepts to the text of Genesis, which tells the authorization given by God to Adam to eat all the fruit trees Paradise except that of the knowledge of good and evil. They have no serious exegetical and belong to any conventional system which, even in the eyes of the doctors did not really probative force, but at least the taste of the time for niceties Smart was to facilitate the teaching of oral teachings in the Bible sparing benchmarks and hyphens between Scripture and Tradition. What was harder to understand is that these subtleties have been overlooked questionable evidence much more interesting than it could draw in Genesis itself, if not all laws Noachides, at least for several of them.

The concept of one God, for example, involving his exclusive worship and obedience to his will, the result of the revelation of God and His commandments. The story of the creation of woman and the institution of marriage made in terms so solemn has a foundation strong enough to ban the unions defended by the fourth commandment Noachide and rabbis have not failed to infer also the prohibition of adultery and vices against nature "ref > Sanhedrin , 57 b. </Ref>. The story of the punishment of murderous Cain Abel enough shows that homicide is a crime punishable by law and that the convicted person is then made the most explicit in the covenant established with Noah . The defense of the flight there in embryo in the distinction drawn by God, the sovereign master of heaven on earth, between what is at the disposal of Adam and what he forbids . As for the commandment regarding the use of animal life, we read in words in the law given to Noah after the flood and that the doctors have also interpreted . Thus the entire contents of the Noachism can easily deduce, from the story of Adam and Eve, or the covenant with Noah and his descendants, without no need to use puns exegetical for linking to biblical doctrines.

§ 2.

As mentioned above the covenant with Noah, he will not need to say a few words of the precepts contained in it and its relationship with the law later called Noachide.

We first find the duty of procreation missing in the list of seven commandments can be because they are purely negative and positive precepts, as we have said, have not been considered. It is also possible that the divine order on this has been interpreted as a blessing, in the opinion of some commentators that we have already alluded, it moreover affects the form, either because it s 'accords with the nature of things, either because the Jewish ideas of virtue and prosperity on the one hand and those of guilt and unhappiness of the other commonly expressed by the same words. But the character quite prohibitive commandments Noachides enough, we repeat, to explain the omission in question. However, if any positive precept of the institution of the judiciary has been indicated, it is precisely because it is necessary to hold the power entrusted to punish transgressions.

Besides the duty of procreation, we note again in this chapter of Genesis the law relating to food and allow humanity to the new use of any animal whatever, contrary to the instructions originally given to Adam " ref> Ibid, 3. </Ref>. The difference seems deliberately emphasized by the expression Bible itself, as having said: "Every moving thing that lives will be food," the text adds: "I give you all this as the green herb, that is to say, of course the same way that the plants were formerly only allowed Adam. The terms so general and solemn form of this passage are reminiscent of the famous Peter's vision in which a large sheet with all quadrupeds, reptiles and birds was submitted to the apostle while a voice told him: " Arise, Peter, kill and eat ... What God has cleansed, do not look like stained ". We know that the early Christians claimed refuse under Peter for thinking of abolishing the distinction the law of Moses was made between clean beasts and unclean animals. We will observe, as for us, that Judaism has not waited until now to stop any such prohibition with respect humanity, from which it was never even uttered no. The freedom on this point is as comprehensive as Noachides restrictions leveled against Israel are explicit and the coexistence of two different laws demonstrates that it would also make sense to bring all men to distinctions of this nature to claim that achieving progress in abolishing the same dietary laws for the Israelites. In his conception of the religious status of humanity, Judaism has always taught, in fact, about the foods allowed, a spiritual freedom as complete as that which the apostle Peter was much later and it maintains a symbolic vision, on behalf of Israel only, a strict regulation on clean and unclean animals, it must be for reasons of a special order. The only obligation to the Gentile, namely the death of the animal he wants to use , enough to legally punish those freedoms they enjoy for the rest.

The verse of this same passage of Genesis, according to which God has asked the man to the life of man , is capable of being interpreted so broadly that the Talmud could rightly see the condemnation of suicide . If God, according the biblical phrase, request account "the blood of our souls, that is to say, any attack against human life, it is clear that condemns the suicide itself. If it was here that the killing itself, in which suicide can be considered in addition, it is not clear why the sentence would be re-formulated in general terms at the end of that verse: "And I require the life of man to man, the man who is his brother How can we doubt, moreover, that suicide is condemned, when we see that the criminal who has incurred the death penalty and who is therefore the indirect cause of his death, is held responsible for the loss of his own life and called to account before God, as evidenced by the imposition of hands which he was subject before being led to execution.

What is certainly worthy of attention is the phrase that ends this precious document of ancient Noachism, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His image ". Should we see in these last words a sort of justification for capital punishment reserved for the homicide, by his crime, would hurt the image of God? Are they not rather the recognition of the right which man has to substitute for God to exercise jurisdiction over his fellows, with this resemblance to the deity who gives the intuition of moral truth, the knowledge of good and truth? If we compare this verse so many others in which justice is described as a divine thing and show us serving God among those who administer , and even in them, according to the literal translation, if one adds that the condemned man is regarded as consecrated to the Deity , one might even say as a victim token that has been seen in implementing a human sacrifice, finally, if one considers the relationships that link all these facts and their common features, we ' not hesitate to recognize that the second interpretation is plausible. And that can not accuse us of carrying in ancient Hebrew ideas of all modern, as East theologies, that of Egypt as that of India, and Plato - well, that certainly drew from earlier sources, know the theory of man made in the likeness of God.

These are the relationships between the terms of the covenant with Noah and his descendant and content of the law known Noachide we will consider in particular the various commands.