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The Rambam in Hilchos Melachim 8:10-11 (see also Likkutei Sichos vol. 26 p. 132) rules it is a prerequisite of the 7 Noahide Laws that Gentiles bide by them because it says so in “the Torah of Moses".

"Anyone who accepts upon himself and carefully observes the Seven Commandments is of the Righteous of the Nations of the World and has a portion in the World to Come. This is as long as he accepts and performs them because (he truly believes that) it was the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Who commanded them in the Torah, and that it was through Moses our Teacher that we were informed that the Sons of Noah had already been commanded to observe them. But if he observes them because he convinced himself logically, then he is not considered a Resident Convert and is not of the Righteous of the Nations of the World, but merely one of their wise."

Accordingly, does the Christian doctrine of the abrogation of the “Old Testament” by the “New Testament” of Yoshke, disqualify adherents of Christianity as Pious Amongst the Nations.

(Provided they don’t believe in the trinity nor consider Yoshke an incarnation of G-d ח״ו, otherwise they are oivdei avodah zarah mamash not shituf as per psak of HaRav Moshe Sternbuch ראב״ד of the Edah HaChareidis)

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  • @TamirEvan Nontrinitarian churches. I started going through a couple but I see various have serious issues anyways.
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 11:08
  • @TamirEvan Survey - A Majority Of Americans Think Jesus Is A Great Teacher Yet Reject His Claims To Be G-d
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 11:28
  • I believe your headline asks a different question than your post. There are gentiles that "believe" in the NT but deny the abrogation of the Torah: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-covenant_theology Perhaps consider editing the title to "Does belief in the abrogation of the Torah by the NT disqualify a Ben Noah?"
    – Deuteronomy
    May 3, 2022 at 14:24
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    Thanks for noting that, never heard of those before, I’ll change it.
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 14:44
  • @Deuteronomy in the wikipedia article you sent though it says “ Dual-covenant theology is unique in holding that the Mosaic covenant remains valid for Jews while the ”New Covenant only applies to non-Jews or gentiles.” it may still be a problem then because the 7 mitzvos are for Gentiles.
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 17:26

2 Answers 2

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Yes. See the Rambam you bring in the question.

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  • I understand, but it’s interesting I have never seen Poskim address it. Perhaps there’s a reason?
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 9:26
  • It may depend on the following: Do they believe in Sinai only through Yoshke ימש"ו or maybe they do believe because of Moshe and it is only the “laws” that say were renewed.
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 9:35
  • In the latter they do believe Moshe commanded them, so if they believe Yoshke only annulled laws he disagreed with, then the 7 Mitzvos remain through Moshe. But if yoshke came and renewed the Torah ח״ו then they would be disqualified as Pious Gentiles.
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 9:53
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    How many Poskim discuss the qualifications for Bnei Noach after the Rambam?
    – robev
    May 3, 2022 at 20:35
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At first glance it seems they are disqualified as Pious Gentiles. However, it may depend on the following “chakira”:

If they believe in the Revelation at Sinai only because of Yoshke then they are definitely disqualified.

On the other hand, if they believe in the Revelation at Sinai intrinsically and that Yoshke only came and annulled commandments he disagreed with, then Moshe’s commandments remain unaltered. However even in this scenario if they believe Yoshke renewed the commandments ח״ו then again, they are disqualified as Pious Gentiles.

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  • I know that there are different people within Christianity that do firmly believe that the intention of everything that Jesus said, was not in order to "do away with Torah" G-d forbid, but to learn people to follow the Torah "beyond the letter of Law". In Matt. it says "I have not come to abolish Torah". The Apostle Paul also says that if you do not follow Torah, you should deserve death penalty. – Would this make a difference? Halachically speaking?
    – Shmuel
    May 3, 2022 at 16:33
  • @Shmuel Yeah definitely, they would fit this prerogative in Halacha. But they still have to know about the 7 Noahide Laws, and not just keep them by default. I didn’t know about such people until Deuteronomy above commented there are such Christians. I wonder what they do with the places in the NT that say otherwise.
    – Yehoshua Levy
    May 3, 2022 at 16:45
  • So, actually, it never says that. "Main-stream Christianity" made that from the text, due to anti-semitism. There are several places where it says that the whole point of those teachings, is to fulfill G-ds Torah out of love, not because it's a must, but because Hashem loves us.
    – Shmuel
    May 3, 2022 at 17:01

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