Are Gentiles Put To Death For Studying Talmud?
Gentiles are not put to death for studying or learning Talmud. The accusation rests on a single line of Sanhedrin 59a — "Rabbi Yochanan said: A gentile who studies Torah is liable for death" — quoted in isolation. The very same passage immediately presents Rabbi Meir's opposing view: "Even a gentile who engages in the study of Torah is like a Jewish high priest" (citing Leviticus 18:5, "which man shall do them and live by them" — man, meaning all of humanity). The Gemara then resolves the apparent contradiction by clarifying that a gentile is praised for studying the Noahide laws and the parts of Torah relevant to his own role. Anti-Talmud polemics quote the first sentence and silently drop the rest.
The "death penalty" is also not what the polemic implies. Maimonides (Hilkhot Melakhim 10:9) does not treat it as a literal court-imposed execution, and the Meiri (Beit HaBechirah on Sanhedrin ad loc.) holds there is no intrinsic prohibition at all — the concern is only that observers might mistake a learned gentile for a Jew and be misled in halakhic practice. Maimonides himself (Responsum #249, Blau ed.) explicitly ruled that one may teach Torah to Christians, since they accept the divine authority of Tanakh.
Major authorities narrow the rule further still. Maharatz Chajes, Yehuda Ya'aleh (OC 1:4), and the Netziv (Meshiv Davar 2:77) limit it to the Oral Torah; the Written Torah may be taught freely. Tiferet Yisrael (Zevachim 14:36) and Seridei Esh (2:56) hold that a non-Jew who studies without in-depth halakhic analysis — for example, attending a lecture — is not included at all. The only thing the sugya actually restricts is a non-Jew claiming the specifically Jewish covenantal commandments as though he were already a Jew, when the proper path for someone seeking that role is conversion. There is no record of any rabbinic court ever executing a gentile for Torah study.
Sources: