For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. (1 Pet 3:18-20 | 1995 NASB)
This pericope is one of the best texts supporting the doctrinal of baptismal regeneration. For an exegesis of this pericope, with a focus on the relationship between the water of the flood and the water of baptism, see:
See also:
Interestingly, the comment by Peter about the survival of eight persons was seen by early Christians as typological evidence for baptismal regeneration. Commenting on this, Jean Daniélou noted:
There is one another fact which will appear even more strange, namely the author’s statement that the number of persons was eight, Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wives. But it is even more astonishing if we consider the last Noachic text of the Epistles of Peter. For we read there, “for if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments to be reserved unto judgment: and spared not the original world, but preserved Noah the eighth person, the preacher of justice, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly . . . The Lord knoweth how to deliver the ungodly from temptation” (II Pet. 2:4-9). We may notice first that the punishment of the Angels before the Flood, already mentioned in the first epistle, here becomes a figure of the punishment of the wicked. But what is particularly noticeable is the re-occurrence of the number eight in connection with Noah, and even more curious, not in connection with the number of persons saved in the Ark, but with genealogies before the Flood. There is a tradition which counts seven generations before Noah (Clementine Recognitions, 1, 29). It is different from that given both in Genesis (5:1-31), and from that in the Gospel of St Luke (3:24-38). It seems to be derived from apocalyptic traditions, influenced by the Babylonian conception of the antediluvian seven wise men. It is characteristic of most of the affinities of this Epistle with the Apocalyptic literature, but it does not explain to us why the Epistle of St Peter emphasizes this point in connection with baptism. The reason is that the number eight symbolizes the eighth day on which Christ rose, being the day after the Sabbath, and of which (eighth) day the Christian Sunday is the perpetual memorial. And it is through Baptism that the Christian enters the Church, given on Easter Sunday, the eighth day par excellence. So we very early find the baptismal symbol—ogdoad. It is from that the Epistle of St Peter finds the type in the ogdoad of Noah. St Justin gave this symbolism definitive form. Noah with his wife, his three sons and the wives of his sons form the number eight and provide the symbol of the eighth day, the day of the manifestation of the resurrection (Dial. CXXXVIII, 1-2).
The last text of the Second Epistle of St Peter which we have cited has a feature not so far encountered: Noah is presented as “the preacher of justice” (II. Pet. 2:4). This is not derived from Genesis but from Jewish traditions (Josephus, Ant. Jud. 1, 3, 2; Sybill. Orac. 1, 127). And Christian tradition will often bring it forward. The Epistle of Clement, whose affinities with the Jewish haggadah are numerous, writes, “Noah preached penitence and those who heard him were saved” (VII, 6). And later, “Noah, being found faithful had the office of proclaiming to the World the second birth (παλιγγενεσια)” (IX, 3). This last word is interesting as designating both the second creation which followed the Flood and the Christian Baptism (John 3:5). The expression, “preaching of repentance” is found in Theophilus of Antioch (Ad Aut., III, 19). We find once more the interval permitted by God before the cataclysm to give time for repentance. And if we recall the relationship between the baptism of John and the Flood, then Noah’s preaching of repentance will be seen as prefiguring the preaching of John the Baptist. And Christ also “preached repentance because the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Here also the New Testament writers show us how the themes which the Old Testament writers announced as to be accomplished at the end of time are fulfilled in Christ.
We see, then, how the Epistles of St. Peter gives a complete typology of Noah, worked out in the times of Christ, the Church and Eschatology. (Jean Daniélou, From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers [trans. Dom Wulstan Hibbard; London: Burns and Oates Ltd, 1960; repr., Ex Fontibus Co., 2018], 81-83)
Another witness to this pericope being understood to support baptismal regeneration, as noted by Daniélou, is that of Didymus of Alexandria (AKA Didymus the Blind [313-398]) in his De Trinitate:
“The flood which purified the world of its ancient wickedness was a hidden prophecy of the washing away of sins by the sacred pool. And the ark which saved those who entered it, is a type (εικων) of holy Church and the good hope which it brings to us. The dove which brought back the olive branch to the ark, indicating the presence of dry land, heralded the coming of the Holy Spirit and the reconciliation from on high: the olive branch is indeed the symbol of peace” (II; P.G. XXXIX, 696A-B). (Ibid., 99)
The evidence, from both biblical exegesis and early Christianity, is overwhelming. Latter-day Saints are on very sound footing in their acceptance of this doctrine, while many of our Evangelical Protestant detractors who reject this doctrine are going against, not just the unanimous concent of early Christians, but the Bible itself. So much of their claim that they represent so-called "biblical Christianity."
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