Here are the relevant bits from Genesis 9
Quote:
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
Okay, we get to eat pork chops. Hooray.
...and possibly...
Quote:
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan!
The lowest of slaves
will he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said,
“Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s territory;
may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
Poor Canaan. He had nothing to do with it--it was his dad, Ham, who happened to see his grandpa drunk and naked. It isn't as if either Ham or Canaan had done anything wrong--it's not as if either of them had tried to rape Noah. it was Noah's fault for being drunk and naked. Boy, and this Noah was supposedly so much of a Goody-Two-Shoes that God had to save him and him alone.
Now for the 7 Laws of Noah:
1)
to establish courts of justice: not there
2)
not to commit blasphemy; not there
3)
not to commit idolatry; not there
4)
not to commit incest and adultery; not there
5)
not to commit bloodshed; that is there
6)
not to commit robbery; not there, but, at that point, there was hardly anyone worth robbing
7)
not to eat flesh cut from a living animal. okay, I conceed that one.
Is there an official version of the Seven Laws of Noah that we may read? When did the equivalent of the Supreme Court hand this down?
I gather that the 7 Laws of Noah are not to be regarded as "inspired", and therefore not really something that Christians would care about. It might even be less than the Apocrypha.
09 Feb 2011, 10:40 am
