A Catholic Warning: Noahide Punishments, Including Beheadings, Are a Present Threat, Not a Messianic Future (Code Purple)
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A Catholic Warning: Noahide Punishments, Including Beheadings, Are a Present Threat, Not a Messianic Future
Dear fellow Catholics, many of you may hold the misconception that the punishments prescribed by the Noahide Laws, including the severe penalty of beheading, are relegated to a distant Messianic Age in Jewish theology, posing no threat in our time. This belief is dangerously incorrect, as evidenced by Michael E. Dallen’s The Rainbow Covenant, which clarifies that while mandatory beheadings for every Noahide violation apply within Israel during the Messianic era, outside Israel, Noahide courts are intended to administer punishments—potentially including beheadings—here and now. From a Catholic perspective, grounded in the teachings of the Church as articulated by the Council of Trent, the Roman Catechism (1566), and papal encyclicals such as Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891) and Pope Francis’s revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2267, 2018), these punishments represent a grave threat to justice and human dignity in our age. This essay, incorporating Dallen’s full quote, refutes the misconception that Noahide punishments are only future-oriented, demonstrates the immediate danger of Noahide courts, and urges Catholics to actively oppose their establishment to protect the Gospel’s call to universal justice and mercy.
Dallen’s Quote on Noahide Punishments
The following quote from Michael E. Dallen’s The Rainbow Covenant clarifies the application of Noahide punishments, including the possibility of beheadings in the present era:
Several writers have said, in effect, that the notoriously harsh and unjust laws of benighted countries like ancient Syria, Rome and Persia provide humanity with examples for enlightened Noahide courts to follow. Solemnly, they argue that Gentiles may properly enforce their own laws with horrible severity, and that the regular, statutory punishment administered by Noahide courts must always be capital punishment, die death penalty.
This sort of ghastly misconception does little credit to the logic of the Law. Analysis reveals the error. The key teaching is Maimonides', in his seminal work, the Yad HaChazaka or Mishneh Torah ("Repetition of the Torah"), Hilchot Melachim ("Laws of Kings"): "A Ben Noah who transgresses one of these Seven Commandment laws shall be executed by the sword."
Let's take a close look at this:
Execution by the sword: this means, as the Torah teaches, that society shll effect the death penalty only by the quickest and least painful method possible, decapitation in one stroke. The grotesque final penalties so often imposed in humanity's bloody history — flaying, drawing and quartering, keelhauling, burning at the stake, and other mutilating tortures to kill men really, really dead — are forbidden.
Must every convicted criminal be executed? Must every teenaged shoplifter be punished just as murderers are punished? The context of this passage, setting out the duties of Israel's kings once the line of (King David has been restored to sovereignty and the Messianic era has begun, explains everything. Plainly, it directly pertains only to B'nai Noah who have elected to live alongside the people of Israel, within the land of Israel, in the future — that is, in Messianic times, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
Recently, many scholars have taken us deeper into this supposed harsh rule of Maimonides. Love and mercy make up the bare bones of the Law and here we have another instance where the exemptions, exacting safeguards and loopholes of divine jurisprudence make a harsh penalty — capital punishment — mostly important only as a symbolic legal benchmark. God wants us to know just how seriously He takes our every failure to live up to our humanity, to His minimal moral expectations for us. Every time we fail to act fully human we die at least a little anyway; the symbolism of the harsh general penalty — the technical penalty — ought to bring that moral value home. As for the practical working details of Noahide jurisprudence, actual penalties are for each nation to determine for itself, based on the facts and circumstances of every case and over time.
…
God doesn't act as a tyrant to His creatures. The fact is, persuasive ancient as well as modern scholarship insists, that God has established the substance of His Law while He grants B 'nai Noah freedom to legislate its details.
Such details include minimal amounts or threshold quantities and the mechanisms for the Law's enforcement, to be determined in accordance with their — the nations' — own communal needs. So the nations may devise whatever structure or hierarchy of penalties they think appropriate to secure compliance with their laws.
Looking at this system logically, we see that it must be so. Which means that we can say plainly: B'nai Noah legislators have the right to enact the death penalty to punish any crimes committed under the Noahide Law. After all, these aren't just crimes committed against other men, offensive to the good order of society. They are crimes of idolatry, committed against God and His sovereignty, which are directly offensive to Him. But a legal right is not an obligation: a right need not be exercised.
God's Universal laws are also laws of sublime justice. They aren't merely ideal or far off, designed for application only in some spiritual or Messianic future: it is another Revolutionary principle that God's laws are practical laws, meant to govern man's practices now? We see that He has designed them accordingly, to commend themselves to the enlightened conscience and sense of justice of every nation. The nations can adjust the details to suit themselves.
Source: Dallen, Michael E. (2003). The Rainbow Covenant. Light Catcher Books & The Rainbow Covenant Foundation, pp. 82–85.
This sort of ghastly misconception does little credit to the logic of the Law. Analysis reveals the error. The key teaching is Maimonides', in his seminal work, the Yad HaChazaka or Mishneh Torah ("Repetition of the Torah"), Hilchot Melachim ("Laws of Kings"): "A Ben Noah who transgresses one of these Seven Commandment laws shall be executed by the sword."
Let's take a close look at this:
Execution by the sword: this means, as the Torah teaches, that society shll effect the death penalty only by the quickest and least painful method possible, decapitation in one stroke. The grotesque final penalties so often imposed in humanity's bloody history — flaying, drawing and quartering, keelhauling, burning at the stake, and other mutilating tortures to kill men really, really dead — are forbidden.
Must every convicted criminal be executed? Must every teenaged shoplifter be punished just as murderers are punished? The context of this passage, setting out the duties of Israel's kings once the line of (King David has been restored to sovereignty and the Messianic era has begun, explains everything. Plainly, it directly pertains only to B'nai Noah who have elected to live alongside the people of Israel, within the land of Israel, in the future — that is, in Messianic times, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
Recently, many scholars have taken us deeper into this supposed harsh rule of Maimonides. Love and mercy make up the bare bones of the Law and here we have another instance where the exemptions, exacting safeguards and loopholes of divine jurisprudence make a harsh penalty — capital punishment — mostly important only as a symbolic legal benchmark. God wants us to know just how seriously He takes our every failure to live up to our humanity, to His minimal moral expectations for us. Every time we fail to act fully human we die at least a little anyway; the symbolism of the harsh general penalty — the technical penalty — ought to bring that moral value home. As for the practical working details of Noahide jurisprudence, actual penalties are for each nation to determine for itself, based on the facts and circumstances of every case and over time.
…
God doesn't act as a tyrant to His creatures. The fact is, persuasive ancient as well as modern scholarship insists, that God has established the substance of His Law while He grants B 'nai Noah freedom to legislate its details.
Such details include minimal amounts or threshold quantities and the mechanisms for the Law's enforcement, to be determined in accordance with their — the nations' — own communal needs. So the nations may devise whatever structure or hierarchy of penalties they think appropriate to secure compliance with their laws.
Looking at this system logically, we see that it must be so. Which means that we can say plainly: B'nai Noah legislators have the right to enact the death penalty to punish any crimes committed under the Noahide Law. After all, these aren't just crimes committed against other men, offensive to the good order of society. They are crimes of idolatry, committed against God and His sovereignty, which are directly offensive to Him. But a legal right is not an obligation: a right need not be exercised.
God's Universal laws are also laws of sublime justice. They aren't merely ideal or far off, designed for application only in some spiritual or Messianic future: it is another Revolutionary principle that God's laws are practical laws, meant to govern man's practices now? We see that He has designed them accordingly, to commend themselves to the enlightened conscience and sense of justice of every nation. The nations can adjust the details to suit themselves.
Source: Dallen, Michael E. (2003). The Rainbow Covenant. Light Catcher Books & The Rainbow Covenant Foundation, pp. 82–85.
Correcting the Catholic Misconception
Dear Catholics, if you believe that the severe punishments of the Noahide Laws, including beheadings, are confined to a future Messianic Age in Judaism, you are gravely mistaken. Michael E. Dallen’s The Rainbow Covenant clearly refutes this misconception, emphasizing that while mandatory beheadings for every Noahide violation apply within Israel during the Messianic era, outside Israel, Noahide courts are intended to administer punishments—potentially including beheadings—here and now (The Rainbow Covenant, pp. 82–85). Dallen explains that Maimonides’ rule of execution by the sword (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 9:14) for any Noahide transgression is a “symbolic benchmark” within Israel during the Messianic Age, but outside Israel, nations have the discretion to impose penalties ranging from fines and imprisonment to beheading for crimes like theft, idolatry, or blasphemy (Sanhedrin 56a). The Talmud prescribes beheadings as the standard execution method for Noahides (Sanhedrin 57a), and Dallen underscores that these laws are “practical laws, meant to govern man’s practices now,” not merely future ideals (The Rainbow Covenant, p. 85). This present-oriented framework, supported by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s advocacy for Noahide outreach (Likkutei Sichot, Vol. 26), indicates a real and immediate intent to enforce Noahide punishments, as seen in calls for Noahide courts (Israel365 News, https://israel365news.com/400368/sanhedrin-letter-to-trump-you-have-been-elected-to-fulfill-a-heavenly-mission/).
The Immediate Threat of Noahide Punishments
The Noahide punishments, including the potential for beheadings, pose a significant threat to Catholics in our age, necessitating urgent action to prevent the establishment of Noahide courts. Dallen’s clarification (The Rainbow Covenant, pp. 82–85) that nations outside Israel can choose beheadings for any Noahide violation—such as idolatry, which includes Catholic Trinitarian worship (Sanhedrin 63b), or minor theft (Sanhedrin 57b)—reveals a system that could target Catholics for their faith. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia (“Laws, Noachian,” https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9679-laws-noachian) confirms that Noahide courts have broad authority to punish violations, with beheading as a primary method (Sanhedrin 56a). The flexibility to impose fines, jail time, or death (The Rainbow Covenant, p. 84) does not mitigate the threat, as it empowers courts to selectively enforce severe penalties, potentially against Christians who refuse to abandon their beliefs. Posts on X highlight contemporary Jewish efforts to establish Noahide courts, such as the Sanhedrin’s 2025 appeal to Trump, underscoring the immediacy of this danger (Israel365 News, https://israel365news.com/400368/sanhedrin-letter-to-trump-you-have-been-elected-to-fulfill-a-heavenly-mission/).
From a Catholic perspective, this system violates the dignity of the human person (Gaudium et Spes 27) and the Church’s teaching on justice (Catechism 1807). The Catechism (CCC 2267, revised 2018) deems the death penalty inadmissible in most cases, favoring non-lethal means to protect society, and certainly rejects it for religious practices like idolatry or minor crimes like theft (Roman Catechism, Part III, on the Fifth Commandment). Catholic justice, rooted in mercy and proportionality (Evangelium Vitae 56), contrasts with Noahide Law’s harshness, which could punish Catholics for worshipping the Trinity (Sanhedrin 63b). The Church’s social teaching (Rerum Novarum 37) upholds equal dignity, rejecting supremacist biases that privilege one group, as seen in Noahide exemptions for Jews (The Rainbow Covenant, pp. 196–197).
Catholic Call to Action
Catholics must recognize the Noahide punishments as a present threat, not a distant future concern, and take decisive action to prevent the erection of Noahide courts. These courts, empowered to impose beheadings or lesser penalties (The Rainbow Covenant, pp. 82–85), could criminalize Catholic practices, undermining religious freedom and human dignity. We must:
- Pray: Intercede through the Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration for protection against Noahide influence, invoking Our Lady (Roman Catechism, Part IV, on the Hail Mary).
- Educate: Study Noahide errors (Sanhedrin 56a–b) and Catholic truth (Catechism 2267), sharing resources like St. Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho to counter anti-Christian claims.
- Advocate: Oppose Noahide courts in public policy, contacting lawmakers to reject laws like Public Law 102-14, which symbolically endorse Noahidism, citing First Amendment violations (Jewish Encyclopedia, “Noahide Laws,” https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9679-laws-noachian).
- Evangelize: Proclaim Christ’s lordship (Philippians 2:11) to Noahides, inviting them to the Church’s fullness (Acts 4:12).
The Noahide system’s present applicability (The Rainbow Covenant, p. 85) demands vigilance, as its courts threaten our faith and justice. Catholics must resist, upholding the Gospel’s call to mercy (Luke 6:36) and trusting in Our Lady to guide us to her Son, the King of kings (Revelation 19:16).
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