6. The ordinances of the Noahic Covenant
Jewish scholars identify seven so-called “Noahic commandments”:
“These consist of prohibitions against (1) idolatry, (2) whoredom, (3) blasphemy, (4) murder, (5) theft, (6) eating blood, and (7) anarchy, ..” (53)
But, Kuyper, argues these are mistaken in that there are only two ordinances:
“(1) the prohibition given to the humanity that sprouted from Noah against “eating flesh with its life,” and (2) the commandment given to this renewed human race to punish a murderer with death”. (54)
He then considers these two in more detail. For the first some have asserted, wrongly according to Kuyper, that it means not eating the blood of the animals. Rather it is an
“order in which man kills the animal in the name of his God, respecting the supremacy of his Creator over that animal, and therefore takes it for food only when its life has completely departed and the flesh that initially contained the soul became flesh without the soul.” (58)
Regarding the second ordinance he notes that it opposes cannibalism. There is a distinction between human and animal.
“The tiger devours the ox with its life; the man takes him for food only when the life has departed. The tiger steals its prey and does not know God; the man uses a right given him by God, but simultaneously honors the Creator and the Giver of life by waiting until life has departed.” (59)
He goes on:
“No animal may devour a man, and no man may take a fellow man as food. Despite this having occurred, however, God will require an accounting for all this shed blood.” (60)
This question of capital punishment is then explored in several subsequent chapters.
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