by Guest Writer, Joshua Torrey
Noah’s Baptism
The story of Noah is well known to us. We know how it starts (sinful man leads to rain drops) and how it ends (wine drops Noah). But lodged in the middle are a few fascinating events that link Noah with the original Adam and the last Adam. These events affirm the typology of baptism in the Old Testament as one that is a union of Spirit and water.
The Narrative
The primary link occurs mid-flood and is the crucial bridge between the original creation and Noah’s “new creation,”
1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. – Genesis 8:1-5
There is a lot here so I’ll start with the Spirit focused part. When this passage is read in Hebrew the inclusion of the Holy Spirit is more evident. Genesis 8:1 reads “God made a spirit blow over the earth.” Translated in English the inclusion of “a” before the word spirit or wind is a misnomer that can confuse readers. Broken down the sentence reads “God (noun) passed over (verb) spirit (direct object) the earth (indirect object).” But the grammatical argument is solely part of the link. The greater argument is the general context surrounding Noah’s deliverance.
Destruction of sinful flesh has occurred through the flood. The world is once again “formless” and once again it is covered in water. Genesis 1:2 is played out once again as God’s Spirit moves across the water and brings to fruition life-bearing land. The waters are brought together once again in the heavens and under the earth and slowly the great mountains of the earth show themselves. And it is on this mountain that the ark rests. The baptism of Jesus Christ has already been connected to new creation and so here too Jesus is the realization of this “new land.” He is represented by the mountain that reveals itself because of the hovering of the Holy Spirit.
New creation has appeared. Noah is a re-casting of Adam and he is bestowed with a new creation. Already this story is highlighting the Holy Spirit and water. Once again both in union point to the creation account and to the work of Jesus Christ. Event surrounding the flood interconnect with the baptism of Jesus. The first is the timing of the parting of the heavens,
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. – Genesis 7:11-15
The opening of the heavens only occurs once the full number of animals and people are within the ark. It is at the conclusion of their inclusion that the Lord Himself closes the door to the ark (Gen 7:16). So also Luke’s description of Christ’s baptism comes at the inclusion of “all the people” (Luke 3:21). The heavens open up at the baptism of Jesus Christ and the Lord speaks. The Trinitarian involvement does not stop there. The typology of Noah’s sending out of the dove is also a pertinent link to this story’s link to the baptism of Jesus,
8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. – Genesis 8:8-12
An argument from this passage may border on allegorical for many. But the dove of Christ’s baptism makes sense of the gospel writers’ tie to the Old Testament baptismal stories. This tie could be to the general idea of peace that is associated with doves but I believe the easier link to make is with this story of Noah. For through Christ, new life is granted to His church and to us. The seven days between flights and the total number of three flights are surely symbolic of Christ’s work but they do not build up or diminish the two-fold link found in Noah’s flood to the first Adam and last Adam.
Covenant Framework
Having drawn a relationship between creation, Noah and Christ’s baptism, this section concludes with an application to New Testament hermeneutics. But before that we must address the covenant framework contained in the simple idea “God remembered” (Gen 8:1). From a grammatical perspective, this is a powerful word in the book of Genesis and Exodus. It is used in respect to covenants (Gen 9:15-16; Exo 2:24; 6:5) but it is also used for deliverance from trials (Gen 19:29; 30:22). In the story of Noah both of these concepts are pertinent and permissible understandings of God’s remembrance. The world is being judged and God’s “remembrance” delivers Noah and his family through the work of the Holy Spirit. Outside of the story of Noah, no other place in the Old Testament combines these concepts more clearly than the prelude to the exodus from Egypt,
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. – Exodus 2:23-25
Everything pertinent to this word “remember” (H2142) is contained here. There is a need for deliverance and there is a remembrance of a covenant. Our God is omniscient and does not actually forget so it should be clear that this word is drawing together a pertinent truth focused on the covenant action of God. These are actions focused toward His covenant people for deliverance. Thus God’s “remembrance” is another way to say that He has decided to save His people.
This concept stands at the start of our important passage with Noah. God has remembered His covenant man with his covenant family. And God has decided to move in His Spirit to save His covenant people through the emergence of new land and new life. All of this is tied together in a way very similar to the exodus. There is salvation through the Holy Spirit and water. There is then salvation in baptism. It is in all of this that we interpret Peter’s link Noah and baptism,
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ – 1 Peter 3:20-21
It is the overriding concepts of salvation from trials contained in this epistle that drives Peter to this story of deliverance found in Noah. Baptism, which was portrayed in the flood and realized in Christ, points to the type deliverance and new creation Peter is using to assure those who are suffering. Through this typology his audience would be aware of the faithful being saved from the filth of the world. Even with the original story of Noah is embedded the Jewish concept of 40 days for purification. This is Peter’s conclusion that water from God washes away the sinfulness of the world. But Peter has to make sure that the church doesn’t fall into the mistake of presuming its only water. As the story of Noah has shown it was the deliverance found of in the union Spirit water. The story of Noah was water and Holy Spirit moving to revealing new creation (Gen 8:1) and so it is with Peter. Baptism saves but not as just water. Baptism truly saves because of its inherent relationship to the Holy Spirit in applying to us the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter cannot be read to make a separation of water and Spirit. The water was necessary for the flooding of the world. It’s the entire basis for the typology to the narrative of Noah. But the Spirit was necessary for the deliverance of ark.
Water and Spirit remain distinct from each other but they are not separated from each other. Baptism is Spirit and water.<>
