wikinoah.org/en/index.php/…

If a question starts with Christian scripture, this isn't the place for it...

@Harel13 there does not seem to be 7 explicit Noachide laws in Genesis 9.

@Shalom This is exactly the place for it. That is one of the first references where Jews needed to decide what to do with a flood of non-Jewish people trying to join of a form of Judaism. Which is what that movement was understood to be at that time, or else the meeting was unnecessary. After it turned into it's own religion, those rules are completely ignored. That's not the point. I'm trying to find out if there is any evidence for the Noahide Laws outside of the rabbi's discussions in the Talmud. And that's squarely Orthodox Judaism.

One would not reasonably expect mention of the details of our legal system outside of Jewish sources. So you are looking for documentary evidence for a period that we do not have much documentary evidence external to our (rabbinic) texts but indigenous to Judaism.

It seems clear that a tradition existed that the sons of Noah were beholden to some series of imperatives. Rabbinic Judaism presents that in the form of the seven Noahide commandments (as you are aware), however Jubilees 7 has a different enumeration:

"And in the twenty-eighth jubilee Noah began to enjoin upon his sons' sons the ordinances and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to (1) observe righteousness, (2) and to cover the shame of their flesh, (3) and to bless their Creator, (4) and honor father and mother, (5) and love their neighbor, (6) and guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity."

Jubilees dates back to the Hasmonean era (2nd c. BCE) and possibly earlier. That a parallel tradition within a different sect of Judaism existed points to the existence of the shared underlying belief that the the children of Noah are beholden to some series of obligations. This pushes back evidence of such a belief to several hundred years prior to the advent of Christianity.

@Shalom That’s a straw man. The question starts with Christian scripture because it is asking for sources outside the Talmud that mentions Noahide laws and this was all the OP could think of. Read the question, the OP isn’t a Christian!

@Deuteronomy Jubilees is interesting but I don’t think this references the seven Noahide laws. It only mentions six laws and the Talmud says Noah has 7. Plus the laws are different.

@PaulWalker Maybe you can’t find sources outside of the Talmud because God did not dictate the Noahide laws. The ancient sages saw them implied in biblical verses and the sages developed them.

@TurkHill it seems that you've ignored what I state this demonstrates, i.e. the antiquity of a shared notion between sects that the Children of Noah are beholden to divine imperatives. Clearly Pharisaic-Rabbinic Judaism does not invent this idea out of whole cloth and is reflective of an underlying ancient tradition.

@Deuteronomy We only see it in the Jewish tradition. If the 7 laws were universal, starting with Noah, why don’t we hear about them other than what is stated in Jewish tradition?

@TurkHill You again misunderstand me, and the comments section is not the place for extended discussion (let alone in a closed question).

@TurkHill That's a possibility. That's what I'm trying to find out. Were the Torah passages inflated into a religion for Gentiles? The Torah says (Leviticus 24:22) "Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger as for the home-born; for I am the LORD your God." Where is the law for the Gentile that allows him to accept the God of the Jews, but not rest of the Torah?

@PaulWalker I don’t think the Noahide laws are in the Torah. Stranger means a person residing with Jews in the land of Israel. The rabbis saw that there were no laws pertaining to the non-Jew who recognizes the God of Israel but does not or cannot follow the Torah, they developed laws for him/her.

If such a text ever existed (and the sages didn't simply base their discussions on oral tradition), then either it hasn't been found yet in archeological excavations or it didn't survive. Multiple extra-biblical texts are mentioned in Tanach but they haven't survived. On the other, an otherwise unknown text concerning some kind of vision by Bilam was discovered last century in Deir Alla (biblical Sukkot) in Jordan, the text is dated to the Iron II period.

@Harel13 It is also possible that there is no such text about the seven laws.

@TurkHill I stipulated that option with my opening "if such a text ever existed".

@Deuteronomy I am not very familiar with Jubilees so I cannot comment. It is possible it references the 7 but I doubt it.

@PaulWalker As to the NT there are many views that it is the 7 laws. I think it is.

@TurkHill I don't know why you are tagging me. I never said that Jubilees lists seven (in fact I quite clearly stated the opposite). And again, the comments section is not the place for extended dialogue. Feel free to open a chat here: chat.stackexchange.com/…

@Deuteronomy Can you open up this question please so I can paste an answer/

I agree that it is an interesting question, however its not within my power to independently re-open. I can cast a vote on it being re-opened but it appears to me that this technically remains off-topic: "Questions about comparative religion, and questions about what others have written about Judaism, are off-topic on Mi Yodeya. This includes any question that requires of its answerers any knowledge of a religion besides Judaism."