Editing Seven Laws of Noah (section)

== Early Christianity ==
{{Main|Christian views on the Old Covenant|Council of Jerusalem|Historical background of the New Testament|Salvation in Christianity|Split of early Christianity and Judaism}}
{{Further|Anti-Judaism in early Christianity|Apostolic Age|Dual-covenant theology|New Perspective on Paul|Paul the Apostle and Judaism|Supersessionism}}
[[File:Saint James the Just.jpg|thumb|right|[[James, brother of Jesus|James the Just]], whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of [[Acts of the Apostles|Acts]] {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|15:20|NRSV}}: {{qi|but we should write to them [gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by [[Idolatry and Christianity|idols]] and from [[Fornication#Christianity|fornication]] and from whatever has been strangled and from [[Blood#Christianity|blood]].}} ([[NRSV]])]]

In the [[history of Christianity]], the [[Apostolic Decree]] recorded in [[Acts 15]] is commonly seen as a parallel to the Seven Laws of Noah, and thus be a commonality rather than a differential.<ref name="Vana 2013"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bockmuehl |first=Markus |date=January 1995 |title=The Noachide Commandments and New Testament Ethics: with Special Reference to Acts 15 and Pauline Halakhah |journal=[[Revue Biblique]] |location=[[Leuven]] |publisher=[[Peeters Publishers]] |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=72–101 |issn=0035-0907 |jstor=44076024}}</ref><ref name="Fitzmyer 1998">{{cite book |last=Fitzmyer |first=Joseph A. |author-link=Joseph Fitzmyer |year=1998 |title=The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary |location=[[New Haven, Connecticut]] |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |series=[[Anchor Bible Series|The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries]] |volume=31 |page=Chapter V |isbn=9780300139822}}</ref> Some modern scholars dispute the connection between Acts 15 and the seven Noahide laws.<ref name="Fitzmyer 1998"/> The Apostolic Decree is still observed by the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] and includes some [[Christian dietary laws|food restrictions]].<ref>[[Karl Josef von Hefele]]'s [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.viii.v.iv.ii.html commentary on canon II of Gangra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220220146/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.viii.v.iv.ii.html |date=20 December 2016 }} notes: {{qi|We further see that, at the time of the [[Synod of Gangra]], the rule of the [[Council of Jerusalem|Apostolic Synod]] with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the [[Greek Orthodox|Greeks]], indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies still show. [[Theodore Balsamon|Balsamon]] also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the 63rd [[Canons of the Apostles|Apostolic Canon]], expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command. What the Latin Church may have thought on this subject around 400 is suggested by [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]] in his work [[Contra Faustum]], where he states that the Apostles had given this command to unite the heathens and Jews in the one ark of Noah; but that then, when the barrier between Jewish and heathen converts had fallen, this command concerning things strangled and blood had lost its meaning, and was only observed by few. But still, as late as the eighth century, [[Pope Gregory III|Pope Gregory the Third]] (731) forbade the eating of blood or things strangled under threat of a penance of forty days. No one will pretend that the disciplinary enactments of any council, even though it be one of the undisputed [[Ecumenical council|Ecumenical Synods]], can be of greater and more unchanging force than the decree of that first council, held by the Holy Apostles at Jerusalem, and the fact that its decree has been obsolete for centuries in the [[Western Christianity|West]] is proof that even Ecumenical canons may be of only temporary utility and may be repealed by disuse, like other laws.}}</ref>

The ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' article on [[Paul the Apostle|Paul of Tarsus]] states:
{{Blockquote|According to {{Bibleverse||Acts|13|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|14|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|17|NRSV}}, {{Bibleverse-nb||Acts|18|NRSV}} [...], Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the proselytes of the gate [e.g., {{Bibleverse||Exodus|20:9|HE}}] and the Jews met; and only because he failed to win the Jews to his views, encountering strong opposition and persecution from them, did he turn to the gentile world after he had agreed at a [[Council of Jerusalem|council with the apostles at Jerusalem]] to admit the gentiles into the Church only as proselytes of the gate, that is, after their acceptance of the Noachian laws ({{Bibleverse||Acts|15:1–31|NRSV}})".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kohler |first=Kaufmann |author-link=Kaufmann Kohler |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13232-saul-of-tarsus#anchor10 |title=Saul of Tarsus: His Missionary Travels |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218134014/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13232-saul-of-tarsus |archive-date=18 February 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref>}}

The article on the [[New Testament]] states:
{{Blockquote|For great as was the success of Barnabas and Paul in the heathen world, the authorities in Jerusalem insisted upon circumcision as the condition of admission of members into the Church, until, on the initiative of Peter, and of James, the head of the Jerusalem church, it was agreed that acceptance of the Noachian Laws—namely, regarding avoidance of idolatry, fornication, and the eating of flesh cut from a living animal—should be demanded of the heathen desirous of entering the Church.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kohler |first=Kaufmann |author-link=Kaufmann Kohler |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11498-new-testament#anchor19 |title=New Testament: Spirit of Jewish Proselytism in Christianity |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106214558/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11498-new-testament |archive-date=6 January 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref>}}

The 18th-century rabbi [[Jacob Emden]] hypothesized that Jesus, and Paul after him, intended to convert the gentiles to the Seven Laws of Noah while calling on the Jews to keep the full [[Law of Moses]].<ref name="JE3"/>