The flood narrative holds a preeminent position in Biblical primordial history. The narratives from the Fall, through Cain and Abel, Enoch and Lameck and the angel-incident all anticipate and work toward the flood and its judgment upon sin. As the impact of sin winds its way through Adam and Eve’s family, bringing increased evil, the flood provides a dual theme of protection for the righteous remnant and judgment upon the wicked masses. The flood thus becomes the unifying feature of biblical primordial history.
The flood also brings a new creation, signaling the end of an era and the beginning of a new, better era. It grounds the flood in history while also positioning the story for substantial reinterpretation by pious Israelites who hoped for better times, desired righteousness and found the evils of their age disdainful. The flood offered hope that God would vindicate the righteous, bring an end to evil and restore the earth. These critical features provided numerous recapitulations for Israel during her history, even serving as encouragement during her exile. The flood narrative, and the related narratives of the times leading up to the flood, provided a rich tradition of teachings and prophecies for Israel to draw from throughout her history. [1]
These same features also positioned the flood narrative as prototype to a coming global judgment in which a remnant of righteous would again be kept through the judgment, rescued by the mighty hand of God. Prophets and apocalyptists drew strongly from the flood narrative, envisioning God’s restoration of all creation. [2] The traditions and prophecies brought new flood recapitulations revealing its importance to Israelite thought. The flood was well understood in Israel as history, ethic and prophecy.
Yet there was also an understanding that Israel’s sins would bring judgment like a flood, from which the righteous could take heart, knowing that though they would experience the judgment, they would be miraculously preserved through it. It thus provided ethical lessons to maintain righteousness among an increasingly unrighteous world.
This tradition would continue into the New Testament providing ethical, eschatological and doctrinal teachings. There would also be fulfillment of Danielic predictions of the destruction of God’s city “like a flood”. Biblical authors kept the flood narrative relevant to their audiences, employing it in Scripture, Jewish tradition and apocalyptic writings. Thus, we will present the background of its various recapitulations that deeply shaped Judaic and Christian thought, before proceeding to more specific analysis of the Noahic flood pericope.
Tĕhowm and its Basis in Scriptural Flood Traditions
Flood imagery became an important allusion of God’s power over nature and to God’s judgment. The flood waters came to be symbolized by a variety of Hebrew terms whose description spans from an overflowing of streams and rivers to “the windows of heaven” and “the deep” – the heavenly ocean and subterranean waters of the chaoskampf from which the Deluge was unleashed.
Throughout the Old Testament, floods were often associated with new creation. Even the spring flooding of rivers anticipated a new season of planting and reaping, making floods and flooding inseparable from Ancient Near Eastern thinking. Scripture developed a recapitulative flood motif associated with judgment upon the unrighteous and blessing upon the righteous. Its beginnings are seen in the ancient conception of תהום tĕhowm (Genesis 1:2), a term translated the deep, the sea, the subterranean or primeval ocean, the abyss and the grave:
תהום occurs 35 times in the Old Testament, 21 times in the singular and 14 times in the plural. Apart from Isaiah 63:16 and Psalm 106:9 (plural) it is always used without the article. תהום always means a flood of water or the deep; there is no personification. The word occurs also in the context of the creation event in Psalm 33:7; 104:6; Job 38:16; Proverbs 3:30; 8:24-27, each time without any mythical reference. Some passages speak of the water which brings blessing and fertility, Genesis 49:25; Deuteronomy 8:7; 33:15; Ezekiel 31:4; Psalm 78:15; Proverbs 8:28; other passages speak of the flood which destroys or threatens, Genesis 7:11; 8:2; Exodus 15:8; Isaiah 51:10; 63:16; Ezekiel 26:19; Amos 7:4; Jonah 2:6; Psalm 36:7; 71:20; 106:9; 107:26; the passages which describe the Reed Sea belong to this group, Exodus 15:5, 8; Isaiah 51:10; 63:16; Psalm 106:9; the flood is used quite generally to describe a phenomenon of nature in Psalm 135:6; Job 28:14; 38:30; 41:24; e.g., Job 38:30: “The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen”; the flood is a creature that praises God, Psalms 42:8; 148:7; the deep trembled at the approach of God, Psalm 77:17; Habakkuk 3:10; the deep mourns, Ezekiel 31:15. [3]
The sea and springs from the earth were often thought to be the remnant of tĕhowm, subdued during creation. It was the Spirit that hovered over these subterranean waters, “God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged” Genesis 8:1 (AV), establishing a firmament amidst the waters dividing and setting limits upon the waters. It was by God’s word and power that the chaotic forces of the waters were bounded.
The same motif is seen in the flood narrative where “the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained” Genesis 8:2 (AV). God caused the land to emerge from the waters post-flood that again had covered the earth. With the restraining of tĕhowm post-flood, there is a recapitulation of creation, linking the flood to creation. The subterranean waters present at creation are recapitulated in other scriptural passages where the theme of restoration or new creation is in view:
. . . the theme of death and resurrection, annihilation (or at least peril and disaster) followed by restoration, is recurrent in the Old Testament narratives from Noah through the Egyptian bondage, the Exodus, the wilderness wanderings and the entry into the Promised Land. In all these cases water, the “deep” which signifies so frequently in Hebrew thought the abyss of Sheol, is central in the story. [4]
The motif of the deep seems to have a dual purpose in Scripture: to judge God’s enemies (the unrighteous) and to provide a way to salvation. The Deluge judged the unrighteous, putting them to death yet Noah and his family were saved, passing through these waters in the ark. This theme is recapitulated in Exodus 15 at the Red Sea using the same term tĕhowm first in judgment of the Egyptians (v 5) then in salvation of the Israelites (v 8):
5 The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. 8 By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood firm like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
This great act is later celebrated in Psalms 33:7; 77:16-20, and 106:9. Psalm 77 closes by recounting the great deliverance provided to the Israelites at the Red Sea using tĕhowm, recapitulating the flood story. The flood brought a new creation and a new man, recapitulating God’s creation of the universe where He moved upon the deep and brought all creation and man into existence.
The crossing of the Red Sea again recapitulates this motif, bringing judgment on the Egyptians and bringing a new creation, the people of God, the Israelites. God’s control over tĕhowm at the Red Sea is then recapitulated in Isaiah 51 and 63 to encourage the righteous, reminding them of God’s great past act of salvation of Israel.
Joshua 24 offers a challenge to the Israelites to put away the idols “from the other side of the flood,” also echoing the crossing of the Red Sea, anticipating Israel’s new creation in the land. Scripture recapitulates the motif showing both the saving aspects of the waters (Genesis 49:25; Exodus 15:8; Deuteronomy 8:7; 33:13; Psalm 36:6; 66:6; Psalm 78:15; Psalm 106:9; Ezekiel 31:4; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5) and God’s judgment by the waters (Exodus 15:5; Psalm 90:5; Isaiah 28:2; 58:19; Jeremiah 46:7-8; 47:2; Ezekiel 26:19; Daniel 9:26; 11:22; Amos 7:4; 8:8; 9:5; Jonah 2:5; Nahum 1:8; Revelation 12:15, 16). The references to the deep and floods shows the reality that God is in charge of the cosmos and the waters are under His control (Psalm 33:7, 104:6; 135:6, 148:7; Proverbs 3:20; Ezekiel 31:15). To those struggling under a flood of cares, Scripture declares:
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. Psalm 29
Prophetic Applications of the Flood Motif
The prophets frequently cited flood imagery, applying it to streams or rivers and their tendency of overflow, flooding surrounding areas. The key idea seemed to be the speed and thoroughness of the destruction brought by the flooding. Isaiah 28 uses the imagery of an overflowing river in describing the judgments to fall upon Ephraim and Isaiah 59 describes the judgments upon the enemies of God’s people using flood imagery. Flood imagery is similarly used in Jeremiah 46 to describe Egypt’s ambitions:
7 “Who is this that rises like the Nile, like rivers of surging waters? 8 Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers of surging waters. She says, ‘I will rise and cover the earth; I will destroy cities and their people.’
Jeremiah 47 uses flood imagery to describe the judgment to fall upon the Philistines. An army from the north will overflow the land and cause destruction:
2 This is what the Lord says: “See how the waters are rising in the north; they will become an overflowing torrent. They will overflow the land and everything in it, the towns and those who live in them. The people will cry out; all who dwell in the land will wail 3 at the sound of the hoofs of galloping steeds, at the noise of enemy chariots and the rumble of their wheels. Fathers will not turn to help their children; their hands will hang limp. 4 For the day has come to destroy all the Philistines and to cut off all survivors who could help Tyre and Sidon. The Lord is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.
Isaiah 8:8 uses a flood allusion to describe the Assyrian invasion of Israel and Nahum 1:7-8 uses flood imagery to describe the judgment to fall upon Ninevah. Ezekiel 26 describes Tyre’s destruction as going into “the deep.” Like the flood narrative, the language of Ezekiel 26 suggests the end of an era with Tyre never to rise again.
In the flood imagery of Isaiah 24:18, a similar end-of-an-era motif is applied to Jerusalem. Like other cities, its importance as a political center had come to an end. A new era of empires has begun.[5] There are also deliberate parallels drawn between “the land” of Palestine and the earth of the flood story to explain the failure of the Israelites to honor God’s covenant with Noah.
Isaiah 65:17 shows a new land and a new heaven, much like the new heaven and the new earth after the flood. A similar end-of-an-era message is seen in Ezekiel 7 where the exiles are told that Israel’s national existence had come to an end and Jerusalem would fall. The end comes about because of the violence in the city and the bloodshed throughout the land, an allusion back to the covenant with Noah. Thus, Ezekiel uses flood language to capture the attention of the Jews, preparing them for Jerusalem’s imminent end:
This nightmarish tradition was employed by the prophets to evoke fear in the hearts of heedless or optimistic hearers. It spoke of the sinister intervention of God in Disaster. In the first pair of oracles, this tradition is reinforced with forecasts of “the end,” with ominous reminiscence of the message of Amos about the fall of the Northern Kingdom and of the primeval flood that blotted out the world. [6]
Yet warnings of judgment were also accompanied with promises of restoration of a remnant, described as new creation:
Isaiah 54:9f sets God’s promise to Israel in exile that he will turn to her once more side-by-side with his oath (only here) at the end of the flood. [7]
This motif of God’s faithfulness to a remnant is the subject of a number of the prophets of Israel:
E.g. Amos 3:12; 5:3; 6:9; 9:1; Isaiah 4:1-3; 8:1 cf. 7:3; 10:22-23; Micah 4:6-7; 5:2-8. Indeed, such ideas reach back to the Deluge, the divine judgment from which righteous Noah and his immediate family were saved (Genesis 6:9-13; 9:8-17). In the exilic prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the severity of God’s judgment is announced (Jeremiah 6:9; 11:21-23; 15:9; Ezekiel 5:1-4, 8-17; 9:4-10), but even so there is hope of a remnant (Jeremiah 23:3-4; 31:7-8; Ezekiel 11:14-21). [8]
The brief survey of flood allusions found in the prophetic books emphasizes the strong and persistent influence that the flood story had on the generations of Israelites that lived long after the flood. The tradition was routinely and regularly recapitulated to offer instruction and correction throughout Israel’s existence.
It was also the basis for explaining many of the hardships Israel was enduring. It was not God’s failure but the failure of His people to keep the covenant made with Noah following the flood. This tradition served to encourage the Israelites during the difficult years of exile when it appeared God had turned His back on His covenant people.
As in the story of Noah, a remnant would be preserved and prepared for a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth. The flood narrative was thus, not mere history. It defined who the Israelites were, assuring their future. Like Noah’s family, they were a new creation with present day obligations to God that they were expected to keep. Failure to keep the covenantal obligations was a frequent explanation of Israel’s sufferings.
Apocalyptic Applications of the Flood Motif
The flood allusions extended into apocalyptic writings, connecting the past universal judgment on creation with a future universal judgment on creation, with its impact on a remnant of Israel that would be preserved. The cosmic dimensions of the flood fit well into the apocalyptic messages of Israelite prophets:
The destructive might of the flood waters is a frequent theme in the Psalms, especially Ps 93, cf. 18:16; 65:5-8; 69:1; 89:9. The cosmic dimensions of the flood do not occur again until the Apocalyptic: Isaiah 24:19 uses the same words, Daniel 9:26 suggests the same . . . and there is mention of it in the texts of Qumran . . . It is significant that the Apocalyptic announcement of the end catastrophe is linked with a sentence like [Genesis] 7:11b . . . [9]
The cosmic dimensions of apocalyptic prophecy are seen in Isaiah 24:
17 Terror and pit and snare await you, O people of the earth. 18 Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. 19 The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. 20 The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again. 21 In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. 22 They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.
The scale of the destruction is massive with the “earth split asunder” and reeling “like a drunkard” – like Tyre “it falls – never to rise again.” The destruction is not limited to the earth but includes the heavens – “the powers in the heavens” are punished. There is a direct allusion to the flood in the reference to the windows of the heaven being opened as part of the cosmic destruction. It is destruction on the scale greater than Noah’s Deluge, bringing an end to the present era. Just as God announced the end of all flesh to Noah, prophets invoked this same language to affirm the certainty of the “ends” they prophesied:
God’s announcement to Noah of judgment is brief but very solemn. The judgment is “an end of all flesh.” The word “end” (qēş) had become a weighty term in the language of prophetic eschatology (Amos 8:2; Habakkuk 2:3; Lamentations 4:18; Ezekiel 21:25, 29). [10]
Isaiah, who prophesied a great flood judgment (Isaiah 24), shows what brings apocalyptic destruction and the end of the era is a failure to honor God’s covenantal obligations:
5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. Isaiah 24
The evil of Noah’s day is repeated at the end of our age. There is unparalleled evil, violence and bloodshed (they broke Noah’s everlasting covenant) that require God’s judgment. Though the faithful are forewarned to fulfill their covenantal obligations, there is a sense that the prophets recognized man’s inability to fulfill these obligations in light of their repeated warnings and Israel’s repeated failures: [11]
Isaiah 24-27 gives expression to the deeper pessimism characteristic of apocalypticism. Not able to abandon the notions of the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God to promises, apocalyptic writers from the late sixth century B.C.E. on down to the common era operated on the premise that faithfulness to the covenant could be restored only by way of a far more thorough going purging of evil than the one that had occurred in the days of Noah. [12]
As in Noah’s day, the failure to honor covenantal obligations requires a new creation from which evil is purged. That flood imagery used to describe the purging of evil underscores the cosmic collapse of the coming apocalypse and the troubles it will bring to creation, mankind and God’s faithful remnant.
Amos 8-9 speaks of the destruction of Israel in apocalyptic terms. Despite unequaled evil prevalent at the end, the prophets assure the Israelites that destruction had a purpose – their redemption. Despite the terrible consequences to befall Israel, a remnant would be preserved and redeemed as a new creation. It was to be a message of hope to a remnant in captivity.
Yet in Daniel 9, flood imagery is used to describe the end of Jerusalem, if not also desolations and the coming Messiah:
25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven “sevens,” and sixty-two “sevens.” It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two “sevens,” the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one “seven.” In the middle of the “seven” he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Daniel’s prophecy stands out. Other prophets had warned of destroying armies coming into Israel like a flood, sweeping away Israel into captivity. Yet their message included hope of a preserved faithful remnant. Daniel, who is interceding for his city and his people at the completion of their exile, is given the shocking revelation that Jerusalem and the temple will be rebuilt, only to be swept away by a future destroying Gentile army from which neither the city nor temple would recover. Both will have only desolation to look forward to.
It is hardly a message of hope. Rather, it appears to be a message of continuing judgment upon God’s people. If it truly continues until “the end”, it stands in stark contrast to other flood narratives, where the earth stopped, controlled or bounded the flood, God’s deliverance at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21-28) or John’s end-time vision of Revelation 12:15-16). [13]
Behind all the destruction is God’s commitment to His plan – to redeem a remnant and usher in a new creation – a new creation devoid of present Jerusalem, Jerusalem-that-is-below. The present creation is wholly unsuitable and could not be reformed. Rather, a new creation was promised and with it a new man. When examining the frequent allusions and recapitulations to the flood narrative, one is struck by how deeply interwoven this motif is with Judaism.
It had deep significance to Israel’s past as the genealogies trace the offspring of the new man Noah to Shem and Abraham. It had strong relevance to each generation, powerfully impacting scores of Israelites, providing a model and pattern of the way in which God’s people were to conduct their lives. Yet it also had profound future significance in that it assured the Israelite nation that they were not abandoned and had a paradise to gain through righteous living. To the Israelites, the flood narrative was a living story, its recapitulation provided a faith-anchor through their exile(s), even beyond the destruction of the second temple. Not surprisingly, this motif is found also in a variety of traditional extra-biblical writings.
Jewish Extra-biblical Flood Traditions
Traditional Jewish writings recall a flood motif including the Book of Enoch, the Book of the Jubilees and a number of hymns and writings discovered in Qumran. Both the Essenes and the Pharisees held that the present age would come to an end, bringing a new creation. It was widely believed that the end would be by fire.
The myth is Babylonian in origin. It is said to stem from the Babylonian doctrine of the Great Year, according to which a flood or a conflagration takes place periodically on earth when the planets assume a certain order. It appears in the apocalyptic Life of Adam and Eve (xlix. 2) where there is no doubt that it is an Essene doctrine. Its best-known expression occurs in the Essene Sibylline Oracles III. 81-87, “then the elements of the world one and all shall be widowed, what time God whose dwelling is in the sky shall roll up the heaven as a book is rolled. And the whole firmament in its varied forms shall fall on the divine earth and on the sea; and then shall flow a ceaseless cataract of raging fire, and shall burn land and sea, and the firmament of heaven and the stars and creation itself it shall cast into one molten mass and clean dissolve.” [14]
The belief in a final conflagration as a flood of fire naturally led to primordial symbols and stories common among Apocayptists such as 1 Enoch.[15] Primordial symbols are also seen in 1 QH iii. 7-10, which includes waves of death (the pit/the abyss), the woman in travail, the man-child, Sheol and the Wonderful Counsellor:
And I was in distress as a woman in travail, Bringing forth her first-born, For [her] birth-throes came suddenly, And agonizing pain to her pangs, To cause writhing in the womb of the pregnant one, For children have come to the pains of Death; And she who conceived a male-child was distressed by her pain; For with the ‘waves of death’ she shall be delivered of a man-child, And with pains of Sheol there shall break forth from the womb of the pregnant one. A Wondrous Counsellor in his might. (cf. Isaiah 9:6) [16]
Echoes of the flood theme are present in later verses of the same work (1 QH 3:19-36), a Hymn of Deliverance that is eschatological and contains fiery features such as rivers of Belial overflowing, fire consuming like a flood, tongues of flame, asphalt, burning and pitch. Paralleling these descriptions are symbols of death such as Sheol Abaddon, the pit, dust, creature of clay, the pit opening with its snares, outpouring of wrath and a period of fury for Belial. The passage ends with a destruction that is cosmic in scale with the mountains burning –consuming to the great abyss, the prisoners of the abyss casting up mire, the earth and its inhabitants crying aloud in anguish and a cosmic battle in the heavens.
Focused on future events, the passage draws from flood themes including the prisoners of the abyss (the disobedient Sons of God and the spirits of the nephilim), the pit and the hope of deliverance from it (the watery abyss), the plain without bounds (the earth/land and its renewal), the outpouring of wrath on the unrighteous and “the flood” of fire. The events are striking as they show a struggle for the coming Messiah followed by a destruction of the current evil creation and its replacement with a new creation. The Messiah and His purifying work are the hope of the righteous!
The hymn shows a widely held expectation among Jews and Essenes that there would be a second great judgment like the flood of Noah, that this judgment would be upon all mankind yet the righteous could expect deliverance and preservation (like Noah and his family during the Deluge) with the consummation of God’s Kingdom and His reign. The expectation was that the second judgment, while modeling the first by water, would be by fire. This view is attested by Black as an Essene belief:
. . . just as the First Judgment and destruction of the world under Noah had been by water, now the Last Judgment would be by fire. [17]
Evidence of this belief is also found in 1 Enoch:
The eternal God comes as conqueror (1 Enoch1:4). Fear will seize “all”, presumably all people, while the watchers or fallen angels will shake, as will the mountains (1 Enoch 1:5-6). The judgment envisaged is probably universal, falling on both human beings and angels. 1 Enoch 1:7 is reminiscent of the Deluge terminology: “all that is upon the earth shall perish”. The judgment of which Enoch speaks is future, however, “for a generation remote” (1Enoch 1:2). [18]
1 Enoch, while enlarging on certain elements of the flood narrative, is written “for a generation remote” and its focus is on the second great judgment. By joining into one literary work the first judgment with the second, the author of 1 Enoch shows both judgments to be part of God’s one unified eschatological plan.
Given the emphases of the other angelic messages upon the final judgment (1 Enoch 10:6, 10, 12-14), the Deluge should be understood as part of the total eschatological intervention of God. [19]
If viewed together as a unified eschatology, then the abbreviated saga of “the Sons of God” of Genesis 6:1-4 (which is enlarged in 1 Enoch) should be seen within that unified eschatology, as implied in the structure of The Book of the Watchers:
It is apparent that the editor of 1 Enoch 6-11 has sandwiched the composite story about the angels between two sections having to do with eschatological judgment for the sinners and blessings for the righteous, that is, between chapters 1-5 and 10:13-11:2. These were the brackets within which he wanted readers to see his tale about angels, women, and giants. That story was not merely an account of an ancient episode that, while being entertaining, was no longer relevant. That episode was to be read in connection with the final judgment of the wicked and reward of the righteous. The writer explicitly refers to the flood as “the end which is coming” (10:2); the final judgment is its counterpart. The two events must be seen together; the episode of the angels shows the connection between them. The sin of the angels, however that was understood, led to the flood; those angels will remain imprisoned until the time of the final judgment when only the form of their punishment, not its substance, will change. [20]
One sees then that the author of 1 Enoch has taken the flood narrative of Genesis, together with the events of the fallen angels, and re-applied these protological events eschatologically. [21] 1 Enoch has recapituated the flood judgment to the end of the age. [22] It is unclear how early this trend began, but it seems to predate the the New Testament. Significantly, it establishes a link between The Book of the Parables (if not all of 1 Enoch) and the predicted coming Son of Man of Matthew 24:37-44/Luke 17:22-27, described like the times of Noah. [23]
It leads to a critical question: if the author of 1 Enoch sought an eschatological interpretation of Genesis 6, should we? Given the flood links to the Son of Man, it seems reasonable. Importantly, Second Temple Literature including Essene writings of Qumran show how deeply the flood narrative infiltrated Jewish thought and literature including Scripture. The angel-flood episode formed the basis of eschatological and apocalyptic prophecy. The employment of the first universal judgment to model the last universal judgment brought new meaning to this age-old saga, maintaining – if not building upon – its core relevance to Jewish religious and philosophical thought.
Biblical Flood Typology
The New Testament reveals a continuing influence from the flood narrative upon early Christianity with continuing application to the Eschaton and Christian sacraments such as baptism. The application of “the days of Noah” by Jesus to “the coming of the Son of man” (cf. Matthew 24:37, Luke 17:26) establishes the typological connection of the flood to the Parousia.
It links the lack of preparedness of the wicked generation of Noah’s day with preparedness of Jesus’ followers given that no one can know the day when judgment will fall. Preparations must be made well in advance, as judgment’s coming is as an overflowing flood that quickly sweeps away the wicked.
2 Peter 2 appears to address the other goalpost – that the coming likely will be delayed beyond expectation. False teachers and false prophets introduced destructive heresies into the body, yet Peter assures his readers of the certainty of judgment by employing flood and primordial symbols such as “the angels who sinned”, “held for judgment” in “gloomy dungeons” “flood on” the ungodly, “protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness” (vss 4-5), while also contrasting with Sodom’s certain destruction to assure readers of the certainty of God’s judgment despite the apparent lengthy delay. [24] Lot’s preservation also enhances that the message is to instill righteous living as “the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials” (vs 9) while also placing the flood judgment alongside Sodom’s judgment. The pairing of the Sodom saga with the flood narrative is deliberate – designed to place the first judgment by water side-by-side with the final great judgment by fire, also seen in Jude:
It should also be noticed that, as in 2 Peter, the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah were sometimes linked together as the two signal examples of divine judgment (Jubilees 20:5; T. Naphtali 3:4-5; cf. Josephus, BJ 5.566; Schlosser, RB 80 [1973] 13-14, 23-24; Lührmann, ZNW 63 [1972] 130), sometimes as the two prototypes of eschatological judgment (Luke 17:26-30). In this connection it should be noted that together they exemplify the pattern of two destructions by water and by fire (Fornber, Early Church, 41; Neyrey, Polemic, 133-34), which is used later in 2 Peter 3:5-7. Undoubtedly the author sees the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire as a pattern for fiery judgment of the ungodly at the Parousia (3:7). This conclusion is strengthened by the words μελόντων άσεβέσιν (“what is going to happen to the ungodly”), which have the ungodly contemporaries of the author, i.e. the false teachers and their followers, especially in view. [25]
This pairing has the express purpose of revealing to the believer the nature of the coming conflagration; it will have elements of both judgments – that of the flood and that of Sodom: [26]
Since the Flood and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah are prototypes of eschatological judgment, the situations of Noah and Lot are typical of the situation of Christians in the final evil days before the Parousia. [27]
Paul employed flood imagery from Isaiah 8 and Isaiah 28 to show the necessity of faith in Jesus, without which Christ becomes a stumbling stone:
The second testimonium which relates to unbelievers is Isaiah 8:14f. (a passage which is thoroughly conflated with Isaiah 28:16 by Paul in Romans 9:32f. to provide a composite testimonium of Israel’s refusal of the gospel). There the prophet foretells how the Assyrian invasion will sweep over the land of Israel – “Immanuel’s land” – like the waters of a great flood. But there will be one place of refuge from the overwhelming flood: the God of Israel will Himself prove to be “a sanctuary” to all who put their trust in Him, a rock on which they will find a secure footing. Those who refuse to trust Him, however, relying instead on other powers, will be swept by the flood against this rock and come to grief upon it; to them, far from being a place of refuge, it will prove a dangerous obstacle – “a stone of offence and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and many shall stumble thereon; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” So, in Luke’s account of the parable of the vineyard, Jesus brings this oracle into relation with “the stone which the builders rejected”, saying “every one who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces”. [28]
In evidence is Christ as refuge from the coming judgment, envisioned as a flood. Noah and his family represent the faithful remnant of believers who will be brought through the fiery judgment safely and inherit the new creation to follow:
Noah, preserved from the old world to be the beginning of the new world after the Flood, is a type of faithful Christians who will be preserved from the present world to inherit the new world after the judgment. [29]
The Scriptural reference to “Noah . . . and seven others” – the eight who were brought safely through the judgment (cf. 1 Peter 3:20) – has not escaped typological suggestion:
The reason for this stress is perhaps to be found in the eschatological symbolism of the number eight, which represented an eighth day of new creation, following the seven days of the old creation’s history (cf. 2 Enoch 33:1-2; Barn. 15:9). Early Christians associated this symbolism with Sunday, the “eighth day” (Barn. 15:9: Justin, Dial. 24.1; 41.4; 138.1). Sunday was the eighth day because it was the day of Christ’s resurrection in which the new creation was begun, and this symbolism is linked by Justin to the eight people saved in the Flood (Dial. 138.1). [30]
Peter continues with a comparison of those brought through the flood and baptism, making baptism an antitype of the flood:
1 Peter uses a type from primaeval history to illustrate the way in which baptism separates the church from the world. Like the saying of Jesus in Matthew 24:37-39 (cf. Luke 17:26ff.), 1 Peter 3:20f compares this age, which is hastening to the end (1 Peter 4:7) and in which the judgment will begin (4:17), with the time of the first world judgment. At that time only eight people from the whole human race were saved (3:20; cf. Genesis 6:18; 7:7), so now only a few from this blind generation, which is sunk in worldliness, will permit themselves to be saved (cf. 1 Peter 1:14f.; 2:9f.; 4:3f.). [31]
Baptism is an act symbolically representing judgment in the descent and burial into the waters of death:
Passing through the water of baptism is symbolic of passing through a water of judgment. According to the New Testament and for Paul especially, baptism saves in that it judges the old man, and, therefore, the final judgment is fulfilled in it proleptically. It is impossible to prove whether or not the author had something like this in mind, but if he did, this is a case of true typology (the consummation is already present in Christ). 1 Peter is familiar with the idea of the Christian’s suffering and dying with Christ and with the idea that this suffering is a kind of judgment. [32]
Tidwell sees the symbolical prolepsis in the raising of the body from those same waters:
But the flood like baptism, is a type of the resurrection also. Here are forty days of prevailing waters (Genesis 7:4, 12, 17) representative of perfect or satisfied judgment. In the third chapter of Jonah, we have forty days denoting complete repentance and forgiveness. In Luke 4:2, we have forty days of conflict and Christ’s complete triumph over Satan. In Acts 1:3, there is recorded the completion of the forty days of resurrection, instruction, and plan for the work of a resurrected Christ through the resurrection lives of His disciples, who have died to sin and the world and have been made alive unto Christ. They were landed beyond the judgment, represented by the flood, as Jesus arose from the death it prefigured. [33]
In baptism, the believer is raised to newness of life as a new creation. Yet baptism symbolically also separates the believer from the present world, with all its evils, and places him on a higher ground before God, a symbolical cleansed ground or land, never to return to the present world’s polluted ground, as with Noah.
Thus the story of the Flood – and this is theologically the most important fact – shows an eschatological world judgment, which becomes visible from the standpoint of preservation, i.e., in retrospect. Peter connected the water of baptism with the waters of the Flood, as a water of judgment beyond which is a life from the grace of the living God (1 Peter 3:20f.). Negatively stated, the Flood story formulates a statement of faith of fundamental importance: the man of the Noahic Aeon has no further direct relation to the world of the first splendor of creation. The world judgment of the Flood hangs like an iron curtain between this world age and that of the first splendor of creation. [34]
The flood separated man permanently from the prior creation, placing him in a new, higher creation. The same pattern is evident in the crossing of the Red Sea (and the crossing of the Jordan). Israel’s passage “through the waters” symbolized death to the old man. The return of the “flood” of water that destroyed the Egyptians also permanently separated Israel from her prior world as slaves in Egypt.
She had now entered a new creation, dwelling on a new, higher land in God. From this pattern, one could anticipate that the final judgment will similarly separate the righteous from the old-world order, an order that oppressed and persecuted them, an order that attacked them with false teaching and false prophecy. It would be replaced by a new creation in Christ, one that would permanently separate God’s people from the old-world order, a new higher order from which they would no longer be in conflict with the forces of evil.
Relevance to Christians Today
From this survey of Israel’s history, a rich flood tradition developed, working its way into Christianity. It is first and foremost, an exemplar on how God will ultimately deal with sin. Judgment will come suddenly like a flood, sweeping away the ungodly. Provision will be miraculously made for the righteous however, to be sustained through the flood. What is an instrument of destruction upon the wicked, becomes an instrument of purification for the righteous.
The tribulations and persecutions the righteous will face, force decisions that prove their faith, while strengthening their commitment to Christ in purification. They become less like the world and more like Christ. They become the recipients of a new post-judgment creation. They are the blessed, living in a new heaven and new earth, freed from all the curse-judgments of the prior ages.
Interestingly, God’s promise to Noah never again to curse the ground is typologically suggestive. Man no longer works the earth in vain. He has been called to a higher purpose and standing before God as a priest before the Lord, working in concert with Him to realize His plan of redemption for the earth.
The cleansing of the earth allowed sacrifices to be brought before the Lord from any location. It was no longer necessary to maintain a place, guarded by Cherubim where man could approach God. [35] It seems significant, suggesting first that man is no longer distant from God, but has been brought near, an outcome consistent with the new covenant (Ephesians 2:11-13).
Second, it points to the inauguration of the new creation for those in Christ. The era in which man met with God at one pre-ordained place (e.g., the Jerusalem temple), has been replaced with a new era in which men can meet with God freely anywhere (Matthew 18:20). This marvelous outcome has been secured in Christ and is available to all believers through the symbol of water baptism, in which one emblematically passes through the flood waters of death pronounced upon the old man, being resurrected in newness of life into the new creation.
In light of warnings of coming global judgment by fire, our inaugurated standing in the new creation is of tremendous comfort (see Figure 1). We can be convinced that “neither death nor life . . . will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:38-39). Believers already dwell in the new creation, but not yet, awaiting its “post-judgment-by-fire” consummation.
In baptism then, we have symbolically already been judged (as by a flood). In the new age, those “in Christ” have been secured safely within “the ark” of Christ, safe from the coming final judgment by fire! Those who have the seal of the Spirit are already secure in the ark of God’s mercy, safe from the coming judgments to fall upon the wicked.
One sees then, the value of careful study of this primordial saga of the conflict between the righteous and unrighteous. As the flood narrative unified Genesis pre-history, its typological recapitulation has made both the judgment-by-water and the judgment-by-fire a unifying saga of eschatological fulfillment.
Both provide the roadmap of how God will deal with the unrepentant. Both reveal the conspiratorial methods of those seeking to corrupt all flesh, those of men and angels. Both reveal how God will protect the righteous from the judgments. Both reveal the blessings to the righteous. Both reveal a new, higher creation available to those who have already passed/will pass from the waters of death to new life. Perhaps most striking, one can already see the outline of eschatological events before having completed study of the flood narrative.
[1] Note the frequent reference to floods, waters of death, the deep in Psalm 42, Psalm 69, Psalm 88, Psalm 144:7, Lamentations 3:54-55. These passages show the hope of salvation from death and the prophetic character of the hope in the Messiah.
[2] The flood narrative introduces for the first time in Biblical history precise dating of events, making it unique among primordial narratives, and possibly contributing to its widespread application to apocalypticism.
[3] Westermann, Claus, Genesis 1-11, A Commentary, Minneapolis MN, Augsburg Publishing House, 1984, p. 105
[4] Lampe G. W. H., and Woollcombe, K.J., Essays on Typology, Naperville, Illinois, Alec R. Allenson, Inc, 1957, p. 28
[5] Note for instance, “There is a conscious parallel drawn throughout the Vision to the era of the flood with the intention of emphasizing the idea that in the eighth to fifth centuries B.C. Yahweh was bringing one age to an end and opening the door to another.” Watts, John D. W., Isaiah 1-33, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 24, Waco TX, Word Books, 1985, p. 317
[6] Allen, Leslie C., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 28, Ezekiel 1-19, Nashville TN, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994, p. 112
[7] Westermann, Claus, Genesis 1-11, A Commentary, Minneapolis MN, Augsburg Publishing House, 1984, p. 478
[8] Davidson, Maxwell J., Angels at Qumran, A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36, 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran, Sheffield UK, JSOT Press, 1992, p. 175 (footnote 1)
[9] Westermann, Claus, Genesis 1-11, A Commentary, Minneapolis MN, Augsburg Publishing House, 1984, p. 434
[10] Von Rad, Gerhard, Genesis – a Commentary, London UK, S.C.M. Press Ltd, 1972, p. 127
[11] It seems clear from Genesis 8:21 that the prophets recognized the evil character of man’s heart and understood mankind’s inability to fulfil God’s lawful requirements.
[12] Hanson, Paul D., Old Testament Apocalyptic, Nashville TN, Abingdon Press, 1987, p. 102
[13] Jerusalem’s “unbounded” destruction seems significant. John shows God’s preserving power of the remnant of Jewish people in Revelation 12:14-16, with the earth swallowing the flood from the dragon’s mouth. No such “salvation/preservation” appears in view in Daniel’s vision. Yet this is not inconsistent with John’s message which conspicuously never mentions “Jerusalem” by name in his entire apocalyptic work. Rather, the object of his prophetic message is the “new” Jerusalem.
[14] Black, Matthew, The Scrolls and Christianity, Historical and Theological Significance, London, UK, S.P.C.K., 1969, p. 105
[15] Davidson, Maxwell J., Angels at Qumran A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36, 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran, Sheffield UK, JSOT Press, 1992, p. 65
[16] Black, Matthew, The Scrolls and Christian Origins, Studies in the Jewish Background of the New Testament, Chico, CA, Scholars Press, 1961, p. 149. Note the picture of a woman in travail, the origin of which is Genesis 3:15-16 that becomes a common feature of apocalyptic prophecy with a parallel to the woman of Revelation 12:1-3: “J. Chamberlain has noted the close parallel in Revelation 12:1ff. where the mother of the male-child, threatened by the Dragon, and who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron, is the true Israel. Though the hymn is employing the imagery of poetry, its apocalyptic language is also striking; through the birth of the man-child the world is to be overwhelmed as by a flood, and the enemies of Israel destroyed and engulfed in hell; the gates of Sheol are to open and close on them.” Black, Matthew, The Scrolls and Christian Origins, Studies in the Jewish Background of the New Testament, Chico, CA, Scholars Press, 1961, p. 149-150. The parallel picture from Qumran supports a commonly known tradition regarding a coming Messiah and a conflagration to follow in which Belial is judged.
[17] Black, Matthew, The Scrolls and Christianity, Historical and Theological Significance, London, UK, S.P.C.K., 1969, p. 105
[18] Davidson, Maxwell J., Angels at Qumran A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36, 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran, Sheffield UK, JSOT Press, 1992, p. 33
[19] Davidson, Maxwell J., Angels at Qumran A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36, 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran, Sheffield UK, JSOT Press, 1992, p. 50 (footnote 2)
[20] Vanderkam, James C., The Interpretation of Genesis in 1 Enoch, published in Flint, Peter W. Editor, The Bible at Qumran, Text, Shape, and Interpretation, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001, p. 138
[21] Nickelsburg, George W. E., Discerning the Structure(s) of the Enochic Book of Parables, published in Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man, Revisiting the Book of Parables, Boccaccini, Gabriele, Editor, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company, 2007, p. 45
[22] Nickelsburg, George W. E., Discerning the Structure(s) of the Enochic Book of Parables, published in Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man, Revisiting the Book of Parables, Boccaccini, Gabriele, Editor, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company, 2007, p. 45, 60. See also Davidson, Maxwell J., Angels at Qumran, A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36, 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran, Sheffield UK, JSOT Press, 1992, p. 53, 50
[23] Suter, David W., Enoch in Sheol: Updating the Dating of the Book of the Parables, published in Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man, Revisiting the Book of Parables, Boccaccini, Gabriele, Editor, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company, 2007, p. 435
[24] The Judaic tradition of the watchers as false teachers (of secret knowledge and sin) and belief among Cainites they were safe from future judgment, naturally allows a parallel with the false teachers and false prophets of Peter’s day.
[25] Bauckham, Richard J., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 50, Jude, 2 Peter, Waco TX, Word Books, 1983, p. 252
[26] Evidence of a side-by-side placement of a flood and fire judgment is evident in Amos 9, notably vss 5-6.
[27] Bauckham, Richard J., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 50, Jude, 2 Peter, Waco TX, Word Books, 1983, p. 253. See also Goppelt, Leonhard, Typos, The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982, p. 34 for flood and fire typological parallels.
[28] Bruce, F. F., This is That, The New Testament Development of Some Old Testament Themes, Exeter, Devon UK, Paternoster Press, 1968, p. 66. Contrast Paul’s view with that of David in 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 where David calls the Lord his rock and saviour, who saves him from the waves of death and the flood of ungodly men. The Psalm seems apocalyptic.
[29] Bauckham, Richard J., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 50, Jude, 2 Peter, Waco TX, Word Books, 1983, p. 250
[30] Bauckham, Richard J., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 50, Jude, 2 Peter, Waco TX, Word Books, 1983, p. 250
[31] Goppelt, Leonhard, Typos, The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982, p. 156
[32] Goppelt, Leonhard, Typos, The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982, p. 157
[33] Tidwell, Josiah Blake, Christ in the Pentateuch, Grand Rapids MI, Zondervan Publishing House, 1940, p. 116
[34] Von Rad, Gerhard, Genesis – a Commentary, London UK, S.C.M. Press Ltd, 1972, p. 129-130
[35] Patrick Fairbairn, The Typology of Scripture, Volume 1, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, 1969, p. 279-280