JAMES D. TABOR
JAMES D. TABOR GUEST COLUMNIST B'nai Noach is a Judaism or Tor ah faith for gentiles. All humankind, as "children of Noah, " can have a full and vital relationship to the God of Israel without...
...Nonetheless, her task is to be a "kingdom of priests" bringing "light" to those nations (Exodus 19:6...
...They have developed distinctive liturgical and community lifestyles appropriate to nonjews who nonetheless worship and " serve the God of Israel...
...As a gentile and a self-professed "God-fearer" with no intention of converting to Judaism, I applaud editor Hershel Shanks' Perspective, "Should We Encourage God-Fearers...
...1 Corinthians 5-6...
...In this regard the rabbis expound the "seven Noachide laws": prohibitions agajnst idolatry, sexual immorality, blasphemy, theft, murder and cruelty to animals, along with the obligation to establish courts of justice.1 These seven laws involve more than a simplistic listing of general moral precepts...
...Genesis 18:19...
...Shanks rightly steers between these extremes, which are neither practical nor theologically sound...
...All humankind, as "children of Noah, " can have a full and vital relationship to the God of Israel without entering the community of Israel...
...If this leads to further dilution of Jewish identity, inter-faith marriage, etc., then so be it, Shanks argues...
...They do not consider themselves second-class but full partners with the Jewish people in bringing about the ideals of the prophets...
...3' James D. Tabor is associate professor of Christian origins and Second Temple Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte...
...indeed, their Torah study is often led by rabbis...
...Indeed, Israel's mission is to call them back through word and example...
...Jonah...
...In other words, this is a kind of Judaism or Torah faith for gentiles...
...Shanks is correct to urge that the Jewish mission offer a gracious welcome to gentiles...
...Isaiah 42:6...
...1 See "Noachide Laws" in Encyclopaedia Judaica and Aaron Lichtenstein, The Seven Laws of Noah, 2nd ed...
...At the same time, he believes that "the Jewish way of life" (values, observances, ethics) can be broadly appealing...
...There is a congregation of more than 100 Noachites in Athens, Tennessee...
...Exodus 19:5-6...
...He would welcome any and all gentiles into the synagogue, whether on the road to conversion or not, in a glorious mix of halachic pick and choose, side by side with those Jews who also pick and choose among aspects of their cultural and religious traditions...
...This Noachide alternative is more than a rabbinic construct...
...Zechariah 14:9...
...Shanks puts his finger on a crucial point...
...Though they would differ in their evaluations of Jesus (sage, prophet, messiah, charlatan), almost all would reject the trinitarian notion of the divinity of Jesus and any worship of Jesus would be considered idolatrous...
...February, 1991...
...I maintain there is a better course...
...David Novak, The Image of the Non-few in fudaism: An Historical and Constructive Study of the Noahide Laws (New York: Mellon Press, 1983...
...As a gentile outsider, this looks to me like a recipe for further confusion regarding Jewish identity and mission not to mention the practical problems of assimilation and interfaith marriage that Shanks mentions...
...Judaism fully recognizes the concept of righteous gentiles who "have a part in the world to come" (Sanhedrin 56a...
...All humankind, as "children of Noah," can have a full and vital relationship to the God of Israel without entering the community of Israel...
...the gain of meaningfully extending the Jewish community is worth the attendant problems, he concludes...
...New York: Berman Books, 1981...
...Psalms 117...
...I think not...
...But what happens when the message of Judaism for the nonjewish masses receives a broader hearing...
...The participants in this growing Noachide movement come largely from Christian churches...
...And yet, in a concrete way, they represent the fruits of Israel's teaching mission to the world...
...Is this Jewish mission merely a vague showcase affair, as if to say to gentiles look at us and learn, but stay outside, this is not for you...
...In theory, at least, classic Judaism understands the tensions between the particularity of Israel as the selected "covenant people" and the universality of her mission to all humanity...
...Yet, is the Jewish mission to make the whole world Jewish...
...Worth, XX 76163 for newsletter and information...
...Classic Judaism, with the support of both Tanach and rabbinic tradition, offers an alternative to these issues: I have in mind the notion of b'nai noach, the "children of Noah" (Sanhedrin 56-60...
...They are broad topical categories, based on central Torah concepts, that form a full halachic framework for gentiles to relate to God, alongside of, but distinct from, the Jewish people...
...3 See Tennessee Baptists Turn to Judaism for New Inspiration," The Wall Street foumaU March 20, 1991, p. 1. Contact Dereck Ben No'ach, P.O.B...
...Rabbinic authorities such as Aaron Lichtenstein, David Novak and Yoel Schwartz have worked out some of the theological, historical and practical halachic questions.2 This is in keeping with the vision of the prophets—not that all the nations would enter the congregation of Israel but that they would turn from idols to serve the living God (Jeremiah 16:19...
...Incidentally, Jewish authorities over the ages have differed on whether trinitarianism should be classified as idolatry (avodah zarah...
...Dozens of such Noachide communities are scattered across the United States and abroad.3 Such gentile groups are in close contact with their Jewish counterparts...
...Non-Jews were brought into the Christian movement on the basis of Noachide laws but were not obligated to convert to Judaism with full Torah observance (see Acts 15...
...His forthcoming book is A Noble Death (HarperCollins, 1991...
...It is of historical interest that earliest gentile Christianity is a kind of messianic b'nai noach movement within Judaism...
...Harking back to the successful and "gracious welcome" Jews apparently offered to gentiles in antiquity, Shanks proposes a revival of the God-fearers concept...
...Both proposals—Noachide and God-fearer—will have to face the complicated questions of how to welcome those of Christian faith or background...
...As a historian of ancient Judaism and early Christianity, I likewise agree with my teacher Louis Feldman that Judaism in Roman times attracted large numbers of God-fearers, non Jews who oriented their religious faith and cultic life around the synagogue but stopped short of formal or full conversion...
...Enoch, Noah, Shem, Job, Jethro—to name a few—are surely tzadikim, yet none of them was Jewish...
...Welcoming gentiles into the synagogues as God-fearers, as Shanks suggests, might work if they are a minority, absorbing what they wish of Jewish life from the larger congregational body...
...Shanks correctly doubts whether "classic" or halachic Judaism can ever be a mass movement, attracting large numbers of non-Jews...
...B'nai noach seems to be an ancient but fascinating practical alternative whose time has come...
...Were they to merge with the local Jewish community, it would create chaos and confusion...
...331564, Ft...
...What would the average local synagogue do with 50, 100 or 200 gentiles who come to learn...
...However, I have some serious reservations about the wisdom of Shanks' proposal that Jews should welcome into their communities gentiles who wish to adopt Jewish traditions but don't (at least yet) wish to convert...
...2 Lichtenstein, ibid...
...Ultimately, Judaism is to speak to the world, not merely to itself...
...Yoel Schwartz, A Light to the Nations (Jerusalem: Yeshivat D'var Yerushalayim, 1988...
...However, many Jewish sages, following Rabbenu Jacob Tam, have denied that the doctrine of the trinity was idolatry...
...This mission is absolutely concrete and thoroughly evangelistic: to witness to the one creator God and a specific way of justice (mishpat) and righteousness (tzedakah), as revealed in the Torah (Isaiah 43:10...
...Maimonides, while recognizing the differences between Christians and pagans devoid of the biblical revelation nonetheless classified trinitarian ideas and liturgical practices as idolatry...
...These problems exist already, he says...
...Israel remains the "people dwelling alone, not reckoned with the nations" and God's chosen "treasure" (segulah) among all other peoples (Numbers 23:9...
...none was formally part of the covenant nation of Israel...
Vol. 16 • December 1991 • No. 6
