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ANSWER : The first six commandments
were given to Adam. These commandments were repeated, and a 7th commandment was added, when G-d made the Covenant
of the Rainbow with Noah and all of the world's creatures. Hence these became known as the Seven Noahide Commandments.
As an introduction before going on to point out the source verses, note that the Covenant of the Rainbow was not
dependent on these commandments. Rather it was G-d's promise to all living creatures that He would never again obliterate all land-life from the world,
no matter how sinful people would become (Genesis 9:8-17 - "Never again will there be a flood to destroy the
earth"). The Covenant of the Rainbow
has an inner meaning as well, which is that G-d promised that He would always accept a person's sincere personal
repentance if it was directed to Him.
The entire Book of Genesis, and the Book of Exodus up to and including the arrival of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai,
were dictated by G-d to Moses when they arrived there. There was then a first covenant made between G-d and the
Israelites on that part of the Torah, which included their acceptance of the Seven Noahide Commandments which are
for all nations. That was four days before the Ten Commandments (which implicitly included all the 613 Jewish Commandments)
were spoken openly by G-d to all of the Israelites (approximately 3 million people).
Since the whole future existence of the creation was dependent
on the acceptance of the Torah of Moses and its 613 Jewish Commandments by the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, G-d's covenant
for the reward of eternal life was made on the Torah at that time as a heritage for the Jews, and for Gentiles
who wish to accept their part in this Mosaic Covenant. The Torah is G-d's "Tree of Eternal Life," and
from that time on, Gentiles can obtain a share in the future World to Come (the culmination of the Messianic Era)
if they choose to observe their their part in the Written and Oral Torah which G-d gave through
Moses.
The part of Torah which G-d decreed that Gentiles must observe is the Seven Noahide Commandments (which in essence
are all prohibitions). G-d told Moses at Mt. Sinai that the Gentiles ("all that come into the world")
should keep those Seven Commandments from that point on, according to their details which G-d taught to Moses in
the Oral Torah. These details are the extent of the Noahide Code.
G-d also made this understandable by simple human logic. Since we only know about the Seven Noahide Commandments
and all their details through G-d's Torah, a Noahide's reward for acceptance and fulfillment of them as Divine Commandments must be accompanied by faith in the Torah. But if a person lacks this faith, G-d forbid, that does
not change his or her accountability for transgression of any of the Seven Noahide Commandments.
In the Oral Torah (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 7), it is explained that all of these Seven Noahide
Commandments are encoded within a single verse in Genesis, chapter 2. But first let's start with the five Noahide
Commandments which are explicitly found in different verses in the Book of Genesis, and one which is found in Leviticus.
1. Do Not Murder.
The edict against murder, and the punishment for this transgression, is stated in Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds
the blood of man, among man, his blood shall be shed; for in the image of G-d He made man."
2. Do Not Have Forbidden Sexual Relations.
Five of the six types of relations which are forbidden by G-d to Gentiles are covered in Gen. 2:24: "Therefore
a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife and they shall become one flesh." This verse explicitly forbids relations with one's mother,
one's father's wife, a wife of another man, another male, and an animal. A Gentile is also forbidden to have relations
with his maternal sister, which is learned from
Gen. 20:13: "Moreover, she is indeed my sister, my father's daughter, though not my mother's daughter; and
she became my wife." (Note that Abraham said this to appease Abimelech. It was actually only figuratively
true in his case, since Sarah was the daughter of Abraham's brother. So they had the same paternal grandfather,
who people often referred to as "father".) It also was universally accepted that father-daughter relations
would be included, as evidenced by the disgrace of Lot after he had relations with his two daughters, following
G-d's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:29-36, and Rashi's explanation of Gen. 20:1). Relations of a female
with a female are likewise an abomination to G-d which is included as one of the subjects of the verse Lev. 18:3,
which speaks against the immoral practices of the ancient Egyptians and Canaanites, and which Lev. 18:30 refers
to as "abominable traditions." About these the Midrash (Sifra) specifies: "A man would marry a man,
a woman would marry a woman, and a woman would be married to two men."
3. Do Not Commit Theft.
The prohibition of theft is contained within the permission which G-d granted to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16 to
eat from the trees of the garden. This implies that if the permission had not been granted, they would have been
forbidden to do so, because the property did not belong to them. This applied specifically to the fruit of the
Tree of "Knowledge of Good and Evil" which was forbidden for them to take, under penalty of death (Genesis
2:17). This Noahide commandment was cited explicitly by Jacob in Genesis 31:32.
4. Establish Laws and Courts of Justice.
This can be learned from the story of Shechem, Dinah, and the sons of Jacob. In Genesis 34:2 it relates, "Shechem,
son of Hamor the Hivvite, the prince of the land, saw her; he took her, and he lay with her, and violated her."
His "taking" her against her will was a form of kidnapping, which was forbidden as a type of theft. Since
the men of Shechem's city did not convene a court of justice and convict him for his crimes, they failed to obey
this commandment and also collectively became accomplices to his crime. Jacob's sons therefore formed a court,
convicted them, and executed them. It should also be noted that all the men of Shechem were also guilty of the
sin of idolatry, as evidenced by the idols which the sons of Jacob removed from the city (Gen. 35:2,4).
5. Don't Eat Flesh Taken From a Live
Animal.
Adam and Hava (Eve) were not given permission to kill animals for food, and this remained in effect until after
the Flood. G-d permitted the eating of meat for the first time to Noah and his family after they left the Ark,
which is why G-d at that time added the seventh commandment, which prohibits the eating of flesh removed from a
living animal. This commandment given to Noah is recorded in Genesis 9:4. ("Nevertheless, you may not eat
flesh with its life, which is its blood.")
6. Do Not Commit Blasphemy.
Leviticus 24:10-17 relates the incident of a Jew who violated the injunction of Exodus 22:27 and blasphemed in
anger, and the Divine edict proclaiming this to be a capital offense. Moreover, it states there "ish ish
(any man) who curses his G-d shall bear his sin." Why the double expression of ish ish (literally: a man, a man)?
To include all mankind, Jews and Gentiles. This demonstrates that blasphemy thus is prohibited to Gentiles as a
capital offense even as it is for Jews. (Tractate Sanhedrin, p. 56a)
The source for the remaining Noahide commandment, which prohibits worship of false gods, is explained below.
But first note that the recounting and recording of the Seven Noahide Commandments
by Moses took place at Mt. Sinai, two days before G-d spoke
the Ten Utterances in Ex. 20:1-14.
In Exodus 24:3, it says "Moses came [before
G-d spoke the Ten Utterances] and told the people all the words of G-d and ALL THE LAWS ..." The words "all
the laws" refer to the Seven Noahide Commandments and three additional Jewish Commandments, which the Children
of Israel had already been commanded before they arrived at Mt. Sinai. (Moses told this total of 10 commandments
to the Israelites at Marah, after they crossed through the sea - see Exodus 15:25.) The next verse, Exodus 24:4,
states that "Moses wrote all the words of G-d ..." These words were the Book of Genesis, which contains
the verses which inform us of the earlier Covenant of the Rainbow and the Noahide Commandments, and the Book of
Exodus up to that point. G-d thus commanded the Jewish People to publicize the Noahide Commandments, to teach them
to all the nations of the world for all generations (whenever possible), and to require acceptance of the Noahide
Commandments by all Gentiles who choose to live in the Land of Israel under Jewish authority.
In the Oral
Torah, given to Moses at Mount Sinai and passed
down through the Jewish prophets and sages and recorded in the Talmud, it is explained (Tractate Sanhedrin, p.
56b) that all these Seven Noahide Commandments are coded within the verse Gen. 2:16 ("And L-rd G-d commanded
to the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may surely eat.") In Hebrew, the verse reads, "Va-y'tzav Havaye E-lokim al ha'adom laymor mikol aits hagan achol tochayl." One of the 13 specific rules of authentic Torah exegesis is
by a tradition of an analogy between two laws established on the basis of identical Hebrew expressions. The Seven
Noahide Commandments are coded into Gen. 2:16 as follows, as explained by the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yochanan:
1. The word E-lokim is one of the holy divine Names which mean "G-d." But the same word is used in the non-holy
plural sense to refer to physical or conceptual idolatries (other "gods"), as in the verse "You
shall have no other gods ..." (Ex. 20.3). Thus the statement to Adam in Gen. 2:16 implies that only G-d should
be worshipped, but not an idol. According to this, a Gentile is liable for making an idol, even without worshipping
it.
[Note: the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yitzchak offered an alternative derivation. He suggested that the word tzav
("command") in the verse points to a prohibition of worship of false gods. The verse would then teach
that only G-d, the One True G-d, is the source of all true commandments, and therefore only G-d is to be served.
The connection to idolatry is evident from Hosea 5:11: "Ephraim is plundered, shattered by his judgment; for
he has willingly followed after their command/tzav" - i.e., the command of idolatrous priests.]
2. The unspoken four-letter Divine name in this verse, transposed to spoken form as Havayeh, points to a prohibition
against cursing G-d, as evident from Leviticus 24:16. ("And one who pronounces blasphemously the Name of the
L-rd/Havayeh shall be put to death, the entire assembly shall surely stone him; convert and native alike, when
he blasphemes the Name, he shall be put to death." Note: in the painless mode of execution translated from
Hebrew as "stoning", the convicted criminal was drugged and thrown to his death from a high tower onto
a stone pavement, as explained in Tractate Sanhedrin.)
3. The words al ha'adom ("to the man") point to the prohibition against murder,
which is stated in Gen. 9:6 (see above).
4. The prohibition of the six forbidden sexual relations (see above) is pointed to by the word laymor
("saying"), as evident from Jeremiah 3:11 ("Saying/laymor: if a man divorces his
wife, and she goes from him and marries another man, can he return to her again [while she is married to the other
man]? Would that not bring profound guilt upon the land? Yet you have committed adultery with many lovers and would
now return to Me [without repenting] - the word of the L-rd.")
5. The prohibition of theft is contained within
the general sense of the verse, as explained above.
6. The word va-y'tzav ("He commanded") in the verse points to the requirement
for courts of justice, as seen from the similar wording in the verse Gen. 18:19: "For I know him, that he
will command ("y'tzaveh") his children and his household after him that they may keep
the way of the L-rd, to do righteousness and justice."
[Note: the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yitzchak offered an alternative derivation. He suggested that the commandment to
establish laws and courts of justice is pointed to by the word E-lokim/G-d, which also means
"judges." This is evident from Exodus 22:27, which uses this word to simultaneously prohibit cursing
G-d and cursing judges - as explained for example by Maimonides in his Book of the Commandments.]
7. The verse concludes, "you may surely eat" - of the trees of the garden, but not meat removed from
a live animal.
So there you have it!
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