Utdrag:

Part VIII:11 (side 119-120), – The Israelite is a son of Noah before he is a son of Abraham.

… The whole Torah, starting with the creation of man, refutes this vexatious opinion. The love of the neighbor is dependent upon God’s creation of man, and not upon the subjective feeling with which I love myself or somebody else. «This is the book of the generation of man … in the likeness of God made He him.» Upon this principle rests the history of mankind. In monotheism lies the origin of the history of man. And monotheism itself prevents any inner partition between believers in monotheism and all nonbelievers. The Israelite is a son of Noah before he is a son of Abraham. [Chullin 100b – מבני יעקב נאסר גיד הנשה וכו שהיו בני נח קודם מתן תורה] And even as the son of Abraham, his blessing is dependent on the blessing of all the peoples of the earth. But before he isa son of Abraham and a son of Noah, the Israelite is, just as every man is, God’s creature and is created in his image.

Kilder: Chullin 100b

Part VIII:16 (side 123), – the pious of the peoples of the world; as a Noachide he is not bound to the law of Moses, but only to the seven precepts

This third concept denotes «the pious of the peoples of the world» (chassidei umot ha’olam). This concept relates to the peoples outside of Israel, and therefore abstracts from Israel’s religion and still acknowledges piety in these people.

Hence, this wondrous concept is unequivocally a borderline concept between religion and morality, a concept that delineates, and frees, morality from religion.

Through this concept Maimonides completes the distinction between the «sojourner» and the «Noachide.» He is in need of such a distinction because he codifies the entire law, including the law of the state. For the law itself in its own development it is not necessary to make this distinction. The law can consider both concepts as two terms for the same legal idea. The stranger is in the first place a son of Noah, and this is his protection against the deficiency that he is not the son of Abraham. But as a Noachide he is not bound to the law of Moses, but only to the seven precepts, «the seven commandments of the sons of Noah» (שבה מצות בני נח) [Sanhedrin 59]

Kilder: Hilchot Melachim 8:11; Sanhedrin 59.