Marbaniang, Domenic

Judaism doesn't say that conversion to Judaism is necessary for non-Jews; however, it does hold it obligatory for every human to obey what are considered to be the 7 Laws of Noah. Anyone who abides by these 7 laws is considered to be a "righteous gentile" and is assured of a portion in the world to come. 1 In other words, though the Law of Moses given to the Covenant people of Israel is not obligatory for the non-Jewish world, the Laws of Noah are obligatory for all mankind. Tract Sanhedrin of the Babylonian Talmud lists the seven laws in the following words: The rabbis taught: Seven commandments were given to the children of Noah, and they are: Concerning judges, blasphemy, idolatry, adultery, bloodshed, robbery, and that they must not eat of the member of a body while the animal is still alive. 2 The view known as Noahidism builds its ideology on these. Six of the commandments were considered to have been Adamic: "(1) not to worship idols; (2) not to blaspheme the...

Manu, the 7 Sages, and the Fish The Hindus generally consider Manu to be their progenitor, who along with seven sages, they believe, survived the Great Flood that deluged the world. They consider Manu to be their first king and law-giver. His book of law, Manusmriti , now discounted by some Hindu groups, is considered to be the first original law book in history. It is interesting to see very slight similarities between the flood stories and law-giver stories of Manu and others like the Biblical Noah ( Nuh ), Hawiin Nu’u, Roman Numa, the Chinese Nuwa, and the Germanic Minnos.  While the historicity of Manu is not established, some historians have conceded the date of the Great Flood to be 3012 BC (almost close to the date of the Biblical Noah’s flood). John Keay notes: Some historians have dated the Flood very precisely to 3102 BC, this being the year when, by elaborate computation, they conclude that our current era, the Kali Yug in Indian cosmology, began and when Manu became th...