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  • From: Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Ritual Purity
  • Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 03:52:02 -0700 (PDT)


Hyam, Dennis, and all --

I've been noticing some remarks about Noahide laws and
God fearers which could perhaps be qualified more
carefully. For instance, Hyam wrote:

>...laws that could never form part of the Noahide
>Laws are the dietary laws, because they
>are part of the Holiness Code, which again define
>the Jews as a priest-nation... the Noahide Laws are
>universal ethical principles (which apply to all
>mankind),while the ceremonial laws of the Holiness
Code,
>of which circumcision is the most important,
>form the Rule of the priest-nation, the Jews.

Depending on the rabbinic text we follow, one of the
Noahide commandments prohibits eating flesh of living
creatures (limbs torn from a living animal), which
doesn't exactly square with what's normally considered
"universal ethical principles". And note the third
injunction of the apostolic decree of Acts 15:19-20,
which prohibits eating meat from an animal that's been
strangled.

Dennis DeJarnette wrote:

>God fearers kept the Sabbath, and the Law makes
>it quite clear that a dweller in the land...did
>in fact observe the sabbath and other OT practices.

What makes you think all God fearers kept the sabbath?
I think you mean resident aliens (the God fearers who
lived in Palestine), since you're citing the
regulations for sojourners/aliens in Lev 17-26.
Prohibitions against offering sacrifices to other
gods, eating blood, eating leavened bread during
passover, and working on the sabbath usually applied
to resident aliens alone.

The rabbinic sources may not exactly offer us an
untainted lens through which to examine first century
beliefs, but I agree with Hyam that "Noahide law"
isn't an anachronism; I've confidence that variations
of the Noahide commandments could be found across the
spectrum of pre-70 Judaism(s). It's interesting that
the apostolic decree represents a cross between God
fearer (prohibitions 2 & 3) and resident alien
(prohibitions 1 & 4) obligations. That all four of
these were non-negotiables for the apostles (if Acts
is trustworthy) would seem to indicate the level of
sensitivity and care taken to insure that the pagan
nations wouldn’t get any "wrong ideas" as Christianity
expanded throughout the Greco-Roman world.

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com

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  • Ritual Purity, Dennis De Jarnette, 06/04/2002
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Ritual Purity, Loren Rosson, 06/04/2002
    • Re: Ritual Purity, Hyam Maccoby, 06/04/2002

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