Commenting on the theology of water
baptism in 1 Pet 3:19-21, Grant Macaskill in his excellent book, Union with
Christ in the New Testament noted the following:
The flood is,
therefore, a cleansing destruction, purging the earth of that
which is corrupt. This helps to explain why Peter sees it as an
antitype of that which baptism symbolizes, particularly if we accept that
his understanding of baptism may actually agree with that of Paul: the
flood, as a purging judgement, prefigures the death of ‘flesh’ in Jesus and the
establishment of a new order by the Spirit. It is worth mentioning that
other literature of the time, notably The Book of Watchers,
understands the flood as a cleansing and restorative event, prefiguring the
eschatological judgment (particularly 1 Enoch 10, where the
same theme of purging is encountered).
This requires,
though, that Jesus’s identification as the sin-bearer is not simply representative
but is also participatory, putting to death the old order of sins in which we
used to participate and establishing a new order of righteousness in which we
now participate. (Grant Macaskill, Union with Christ in the New
Testament [New York: Oxford University Press, 2018], 277-78, emphasis
in bold added)
With respect to 1 Enoch 10, the
text reads thusly:
Then the Most High
spoke concerning these things, the Great Holy One, and he spoke and he said and
he sent Istrael to the son of Lamech: "Speak to him in my name: 'Hide
yourself!' And declare to him the end that is coming, that all the earth is
destroyed, and a flood is about to come upon all the earth and he will destroy
all things that are on it. "Now instruct him in order that he may escape,
and his seed will remain for all the generations of the eternity." And he
said to Raphael: "Bind Azael foot and hand, and cast him into the
darkness, and open the desert that is in the Dadouel, and cast him in.
"And lay down upon him rough and jagged rocks and cover him with darkness.
And let him dwell there for eternity, and cover his face so he cannot see
light. "And on the great day of judgment he will be lead into the fire.
"And the earth will be healed, which the angels have destroyed, and you
will declare the healing of the earth, so that all the people's children not
perish in the whole mystery, in which the Watchers also commanded their
children. "And all the earth has been made desolate, having been destroyed
in the works of the teaching of Azael; and against him write all (his)
sins." And the Lord said to Gabriel: "Go to the illegitimate
children, to the spurious ones and the sons of sexual immorality, and destroy
the sons of the Watchers from amongst the people. Send them into destructive
war. For the length of day is not theirs. "And every request that is not
to their fathers and about them, because they hope to live an eternal life, and
because each of them will live five hundred years." And to Michael he
said: "Go and reveal to Semiaza and to those remaining with him who have
mixed with the women, to defile themselves in their uncleanness. "And when
their sons will slay (one another) and they see the destruction of their
beloved ones, bind them for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth
until the day of their judgment and consummation,
until the judgment of the age of eternity is completed. "Then they will be
lead away into the chasm of fire and to the torture and to the prison of
eternal confinement. "And whoever will be burned up and destroyed from the
present, they will be bound with them together until the end of the generation.
"Destroy all the spirits of spuriousness and the sons of the Watchers on
account of the harm (done to) humans. "And destroy all the unrighteousness
from the earth, and let him desert every work of wickedness, and let the plant
of righteousness and truth appear forever. With joy it will be planted.
"And now all the righteous ones will escape, and they will be living until
they bear a thousand (children), and all the days of their youth, and their
weeks will be filled with peace. "Then all the earth will be worked in
righteousness and the tree will be planted in it, and it will be filled with
blessing. And all the trees of the earth will be glad; they will be planted.
And they will be planting vineyards, and the vines will be planted, and will
produce thousands of jugs of wine and sowing will produce according to each
measure, olives will produce ten measures. "And you will cleanse the earth
from all uncleanness and from all unrighteousness and from all sins and
ungodliness, and you will wipe out all the uncleanness which is upon the earth.
"And all the people will be worshipping and all will bless me and worship
me. "And all the earth will be cleansed from all defilement and from all
uncleanness and wrath and suffering, and I will no longer send upon them into
all the generations of the age." (The Pseudepigrapha [trans. Craig E.
Evans, 2008, Bibleworks]
Further Reading
“Born
of Water and of the Spirit”: The Biblical Evidence for Baptismal Regeneration (2021). For those
who want a free PDF, email me at ScripturalMormonismATgmailDOTcom
