Noaḥide Commandments: A Talmudic Introduction

The Sages taught in a baraita: The descendants of Noah were commanded to observe seven mitzvot: judgment; blessing the name; idol worship; forbidden sexual relations; and bloodshed; and robbery; and a limb from a living animal.

Rabbi Ḥananya ben Gamla says: "Also concerning the blood from a living."

Rabbi Ḥideka says: "Also concerning castration."

Rabbi Shimon says: "Also concerning sorcery."

Rabbi Yosei says: "All that is stated in the passage about sorcery, it is prohibited for a descendant of Noah to engage in it. This is derived from the verses: 'When you come into the land that the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do like the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, a diviner, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a warlock, or a charmer, or one who consults a necromancer and a sorcerer, or directs inquiries to the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out from before you' (Deuteronomy 18:9–12) and since God would not have punished them for an action unless He first prohibited."

Rabbi Elazar says: "Also concerning the prohibition of diverse kinds. Nevertheless, it is permitted for the descendants of Noah to wear diverse kinds of wool and linen and to sow diverse kinds of seeds together, and they are prohibited only with regard to breeding diverse species of animals and grafting diverse species of trees."

From where are these matters, the Noahide mitzvot, derived?
Rabbi Yoḥanan says: "Which the verse states: 'And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it, for on the day that you eat from it, you shall die' (Genesis 2:16–17) - 'and…commanded,' these are the courts of judgment; and so it states in another verse: 'For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice' (Genesis 18:19).
'the Lord' - this alludes to blessing the name of God;

And so it states 'And he who blasphemes the name of the Lord…shall be put to death' (Leviticus 24:16) - 'God' - this is idol worship; and so it states: 'You shall have no other gods before Me' (Exodus 20:2).

'The man' - this alludes to bloodshed, and so it states: 'One who sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed' (Genesis 9:6).
'Saying' - this alludes to forbidden sexual relations; and so it states: 'Saying, if a man sends his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s…will that land not be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers' (Jeremiah 3:1).

'Of every tree of the garden' - and he may not stolen items.
'You may freely eat' - alludes to the fact that one may eat fruit, but not a limb from a living."

Were the descendants of Noah commanded on judgment?

But isn’t it taught? The Jewish people were commanded to observe ten mitzvot when they were in Marah: Seven that the descendants of Noah accepted upon themselves, and God added to them the following mitzvot: Judgment, and Shabbat, and honoring one’s father and mother.

As the school of Menashe taught: The descendants of Noah were commanded to observe seven mitzvot: The prohibitions of idol worship, and forbidden sexual relations, and blood-shed, and robbery, and eating a limb from a living animal, and castration, and diverse kinds.

Rabbi Yehuda says: "Adam, the first, was commanded only with regard to the prohibition of idol worship, as it is stated: 'And the Lord God commanded the man' (Genesis 2:16).
Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira says: "Also concerning blessing the name."
And some say: "Also concerning judgment."