How are Noahide and Jewish Commandments listed in the Torah?

Question: “Why doesn’t the Torah include a list of the 7 Commandments for Gentiles, whereas it does have a list of the Ten Commandments for Jews?”

Answer: This question is placed in quotation marks, because it comes from a mistaken, non-Torah perspective. It is mistaken both in regard to listing the Noahide Commandments, and in regard to listing the Jewish Commandments.

First, note that in the Torah tradition, the verses Exodus 20:2-20:14 which G-d spoke openly at Mount Sinai are not called the “Ten Commandments”. In Hebrew, they are called the “Aseres HaDibros”, which means the “Ten Statements”. In fact, those Ten Statements contain more than ten commandments.

The statements that G-d spoke at Mount Sinai

Here is the list of the commandments that G-d spoke in the Aseres HaDibros, using the numbering in the list of the 613 Jewish Commandments in Rambam’s Introduction to Mishneh Torah:

1. Ex. 20:2 – Positive Commandment #1: to know that there is a G-d
2. Ex. 20:3 – Negative Commandment #1: not think that there is another divinity aside from G-d
3. Ex. 20:4 – Negative Commandment #2: not to make an idol
4. Ex. 20:5 – Negative Commandment #5: not to bow down to any false gods
5.                 – Negative Commandment #6: not to worship false gods with their customary types of ser­vice
6. Ex. 20:7 – Negative Commandment #62: not to take an oath in vain
7. Ex. 20:8 – Positive Commandment #155: to sanctify the Sabbath
8. Ex. 20:10 – Negative Commandment #320: not to forbidden work on the Sabbath
9. Ex. 20:12 – Positive Commandment #210: to honor one’s father and mother
10. Ex. 20:13 – Negative Commandment #243: not to kidnap a Jewish person (see the explanation from Rashi)
11.                   also Negative Commandment #285: not to give false testimony
12.                   also Negative Commandment #289: not to kill an innocent person
13.                   and Negative Commandment #347 (also in Lev. 18:20): not to have adulterous relations
14. Ex. 20:14 – Negative Commandment #265: not to covet

Rethinking the idea of “lists of commandments” in the Torah

That is a total of 14 commandments, not 10, but still it is only 14/613 or only 2.28% of the Jewish Commandments. So is it correct to compare the 7 Noahide Commandments to Ex. 20:2-14 as being “the” list of the Jewish Commandments? The entire Five Books of Moses is the list of the 613 Jewish Commandments, as it says (Deut. 33:4), “Torah tzivah lanu Moshe…” – “Moses commanded us a law…”

For example, the Torah portion Kedoshim (Lev. 19:1-20:27) lists 13 Positive Jewish Commandments and 38 Negative Jewish Commandments from G-d. That is 51/613 or 8.32% of the Jewish Commandments, and a number of them involve precepts that are relevant for Gentiles.

The Torah portion Mishpatim (Ex. 21:1–24:18) lists 23 Positive Jewish Commandments and 30 Negative Jewish Commandments from G-d. That is 53/613 = 8.65% of the Jewish Commandments, and a number of them involve precepts that are relevant for Gentiles.

If we consider the entire Book of Leviticus, it is a listing of 247 Jewish Commandments. That is 247/613 = 40.29% of the Jewish Commandments.

On the other hand, in Genesis 9:4-6, G-d tells a list of 3 of the Noahide Commandments to Noah. That is 3/7 = 42.86% of the commandments for Non-Jews. So, relatively speaking, a higher percentage of the Noahide Commandments are listed within 3 consecutive verses in Genesis, compared to the percentage of the Jewish Commandments that are listed in the entire Book of Leviticus.

Source verses for all of the 7 Noahide Commandments are given on this page of our site: Source Verses and Timeline.

For a listing and codification of 90 precepts for Gentiles that include and extend from the Seven Noahide Commandments, see our book The Divine Code, by Rabbi Moshe Weiner of Jerusalem.