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From: hedrick@topaz.ARPA (Chuck Hedrick)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Noachic laws (disagreeing with Rosen)
Message-ID: <216@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 02:17:54 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.216
Posted: Fri Jan 11 02:17:54 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Jan-85 07:06:37 EST
References: <463@fisher.UUCP> <20980050@cmu-cs-k.ARPA> <7181@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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Xref: watmath net.religion:5264 net.religion.jewish:1248

> By the way, I tried explaining and discussing the concept of these "Noachic"
> laws with my wife (a widely-read fundamentalistic Protestant) and a friend who
> has had extensive Catholic religious training [spent some time as a monastic
> novice before deciding against continuing it]; neither knew anything about
> them.

Try Gen 9:1-17.  After Noah came out of the Ark, he made a covenant with
God.  Everyone remembers that God promised not to flood the earth again.
Not so many people remember that a covenant has two sides.  The things Noah
promised are the "Noachic laws".  They are known among Christian scholars
because they were involved in the first-century debates over what laws
Christians had to obey.  As you may recall, some Christians felt that
Christianity was a sect of Judaism, and all new converts should obey the
entire Mosaic law.  Paul argued that this was not necessary.  The compromise
was that Gentile Christian converts would be bound by the Noachic laws but
not the Mosaic ones.  At the time, Jews apparently considered that the
convenant with Moses applied only to Jews, but the covenant with Noah
applied to all men.  The reason is that only the Jews are decendants of
Moses, but everyone is a descendant of Noah.  Act 15:19-21 records this
decision.  This did not apply to Jewish Christians, who were still 
expected to obey the law of Moses.