Samuel ben Hophni goes on to compose a list of these thirty commands. Rashi, explicating the Talmud (Hullin 92), about a hundred years later, remarked that the thirty laws are nowhere identified. It was this gap that the Gaon was undertaking to fill. The Gaon also provided each of his laws with a Pentateuchal proof text and as a result, we are in a better position to fathom the meaning and nature of each. They are, in order:
1 - The singularity of God. (That is, to believe in God.)<br>2 - No idolatry.<br>3 - No blasphemy.<br>4 - To pray.<br>5 - No false oaths.<br>6 - No suicide.<br>7 - No murder.<br>8 - No adultery.<br>9 - Formal marriages via bride price and marriage gifts.<br>10 - No incest with a sister.<br>11 - No homosexuality.<br>12 - No bestiality.<br>13 - No castration.<br>14 - Not to eat an animal that died naturally.<br>15 - Not to eat a limb of a living creature.<br>16 - Not to eat or drink blood.<br>17 - Not to crossbreed animals.<br>18 - [justice.]<br>19 - To offer ritual sacrifices.<br>20 - No theft.<br>21 - To respect father and mother.<br>22 - No Molech worship (Deuteronomy 18:10).<br>23 - No witchcraft.<br>24 - No soothsayers.<br>25 - No conjurers.<br>26 - No sorcerers.<br>27 - No ghost meeting.<br>28 - No consulting devil-spirits.<br>29 - No wizardry.<br>
30 - No consulting the dead.
The ancient manuscripts have presented us with a Gaon's original list of thirty Noahide Laws, and a bonus too. They also have brought to mind a striking reading of Hullin 92, a reading probably missed by many a student of the Talmud during the thousand years from the time Samuel ben Hophni wrote his commentary until its present recovery from the Genizah.