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Now one of the most clear "Noahide" laws there are presents itself in Genesis 9, but has a precedent in Genesis 4. It is the law against murder. I'll first show you the precedent, and then the law.
(8) And Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. (9) And YHWH said to Cain: 'Where is Abel your brother?' And he said: 'I don't know; am I my brother's keeper?' (10) And He said: 'What have you done? the voice of thy brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. (11) So now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. (12) When you work the ground, it shall no longer give to you its strength; a fugitive and a wanderer shall you be in the earth.' (Genesis 4:8-12)
So as you can see, Cain kills his brother and gets punished for it. The Almighty is the one who punishes Cain. This, at least, shows that Cain did something wrong. The whole crime is the murder of the his brother. There may be those who complain that this only shows that it is wrong to kill your own family. Although it plainly prohibits some form of murder, it can be interpreted to only have a limited scope. The fact that it isn't so limited can be seen by the fact that Lemekh, later on in the chapter (Genesis 4:23-24), reacts to the fact that he killed a man. This is just a generic term for a human, and is not limited a close relative, like a brother. So Lemekh could see that he had done something significant to another person.
But in order to make the whole issue a lot more clearer, and show that these previous incidents are in fact signs of the wider scope of the prohibition against murder, I'll quote the law.
(3) Every moving thing that lives shall be for food for you; as the green vegetation, I have given you everything. (4) Only flesh with its life, its blood, you shall not eat. (5) And surely I will demand your blood of your lives; I will demand it at the hand of every beast; and I will demand the life of man at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother. (6) Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for He made man in the image of Deity. (Genesis 9:3-6)
From the beginning of this little section, the blood is equated with life. And in verse 5, it says "I will demand the life of man, even at the hand of every man's brother" (compare with the story of Cain and Abel). So we know that this passage isn't simply talking about shedding a little blood, and the person is still alive. It is talking plainly about murder. Thus verse 6, which sums up the whole section from verse 4, is telling us that whoever murders someone should be executed by a man. The hyper-literal approach of verse 6, which limits it to only the literal pouring of blood out of a person's body, can be avoided by just looking at the verse in context and taking note of the words used.
So murder of a person, a human, is a crime, as pronounced from the mouth of the Creator. This means that it is wrong to do it. This law is written to teach man to respect human life.
Something else very important should be noted here. Murder is the illegal killing of a human being. But the very same section says that the murderer must be executed, killed, by another man. The question can be asked, doesn't that mean that the executioner should also be killed for killing someone? Look again at the definition of murder: it is the illegal killing of a human being. But then this law gives someone the legal obligation to kill the murderer. Thus that makes the executioner's job legal, i.e., legal killing. Thus the executioner is not guilty of murder, i.e., illegal killing.
This logically leads to one of the laws of the Talmudic Noahide laws: The injunction to set up courts of justice. Now understand that I am not saying that there is a written divine law to make courts of justice. But the fact is that Deity is giving laws, and they need to be implemented, so it becomes imperative, necessary, to regulate these laws. Thus human courts are needed, consisting of at least an appointed judge, wise and knowledgeable in the laws, and an officer, an executioner. I'm sure the Orthodox Jews can offer much information and good opinion on the regulations needed for such a court, since it is among their codification of the Noahide laws, thus they have actually thought it through (see http://www.noachite.org.uk/html/66_noachide_laws.html - "66 laws" which breaks down the 7 Noahide laws into 66 sub-laws). You will see that the thoughts presented are derived from the Israelite law. I'll discuss copying the laws of the Israeli covenant in a later section. But the fact of the matter is that courts of law are needed.
Back to the question of murder, some may ask about suicide. Well, first, it should be known that it still taking someone's life, i.e., your own. Thus it is still a killing. Now someone may look at verse 6 and say that it cannot be punished in that way, so it may not be illegal. But the problem with that thinking is that it ignores the rest of the section. The same section says that Deity Himself will demand the life of a man. This means He demands something in return for it. That means it is a sin against Deity Himself.
Let's put it this way: If a person kills someone, and then escapes the executioner and doesn't get killed by a man, does that make him guiltless? Is he therefore innocent? The answer is no, because it was Deity who demands judgment for the deed, not the executioner. Thus wherever that person goes, he/she is still guilty before Yahweh of the crime. Now let's apply this analogy to someone who commits suicide. Basically, he has no right to kill himself, but he does so anyway. So he has killed illegally, and as a direct result, he takes the ultimate escape: death. Does that make everything ok? Is he/she now innocent? No. Since scripture talks of a future resurrection and judgment, then that person has simply carried their guilt to that place of judgment. In the end, the Creator will still judge that person.
Also look at the reasoning behind the law: "for He made him in the image of Deity". If the reason had been "because it is another person's life", then a person who commits suicide may have reason to think he has escape, since the life he took was, in a limited sense, his own. But the reason has nothing to do with the possession of life, but the fact that man is made in the image of Deity. Therefore, whether you kill someone else or yourself, you are still doing something against an image of the Deity. In essence, suicide is still wrong.
What about killing in the time of war? Or self-defence? Let me deal with self-defense first. It was shown just previously that suicide is wrong. It follows from that you should protect your life, and not allow yourself to be killed, which is just an indirect way of killing yourself. Since murder is wrong, a person has to do all in their power to defend themselves without killing. But it does happen that people are killed by accident or in the course of defending oneself. What then?
Here, a lot of honesty is required on my part. There is no explicit scripture that says that the non-Israeli law of murder gives any allowance or exemption for those who kill either by error or in the act of self-defence. So it would seem like that person has to face death in the same manner as one who killed in a premeditated, knowing fashion. But among Israeli/Mosaic law, it is mentioned that if a person kills another by accident or unintentionally (as should be the case with self-defence), then that person can take refuge in certain "cities of refuge" until judgment can be given (see Numbers 35:10-34). If such a person is judged to have killed in error, they stay alive, but must stay in that city of refuge, until the high priest dies. When he dies, they are free to go home.
So at the very least, this shows that in the eyes of Deity, there is a difference between accidental and intention killing. This fact leaves an opening for non-Israeli courts to give a certain amount of mercy to accidental killers. I say "a certain amount of mercy" because in Israeli/Mosaic law, when a person is judged to be innocent of intentional murder, they still cannot return home to live as free persons. They remain confined to that city of refuge, almost like a form of prison for a certain time. The fact is that someone still died and was killed, so there is still some punishment. But the punishment is not the full "life for a life" punishment.
So I believe there is a reasonable biblical answer to the "self-defence" question.
OK. The final question to deal with is killing in the midst of war. Let's be honest. A nation already following this law given to Noah wouldn't really attack in order to kill another nation, unless it was legal (i.e., the other nation was rife with idolatry and unrepentantly trying to convert the people of the law-abiding nation; or if the other nation had already murdered people belonging to the law-abiding nation. In these cases, it would be legal). So the war would be self-defence. And since the attackers simply wish to kill in war, then it is ok to defend yourself by any means including killing, until the attacker surrenders or all the unrelenting factions of the attacker's forces are eradicated. Those who do not wish to attack would be spared.
I think that is enough with the issue of murder and killing. For more info, the Noahides and the Jews probably have an abundance of information that goes into the ins and outs of the subject.
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