Noah.
The patriarch Noah must surely be
considered to be one of the great spiritual leaders of all time. Jewish tradition
(reflected, e.g., in the Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran, as also in other
places) has it that he was born circumcised and spotless white, and that his father
at first believed him to have been begotten by one of the Nephilim. Joseph
Smith informs us that Noah is the archangel Gabriel (HC 3:386), who is listed
in Daniel 8:16 and 9;21 and who appeared to Zacharias to announce the forthcoming
birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-22).
It is perhaps no coincidence that
Noah, who presided over the baptism of the earth (with the sign of the dove
sent from the ark) should announce the birth of John, who baptized the Savior
of the world (with the sign of the dove from heaven – see Matt. 3;16). In
D&C 27:7, we read that the angel who appeared to Zacharias was Elias. He is
perhaps the same personage who appeared in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 to
restore the keys of the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham (D&C 110:12).
Abraham was born before Noah died, according to Biblical chronology. Moreover,
since the gospel taught Abraham that in him and his seed all nations of the
earth would be blessed (Gal. 3:8), it is fitting that Noah, the father of all
the nations of the world (Gen. 10), should restore the keys to such worldwide missionary
work. (John A. Tvedtnes, “The Prediluvian World, the Flood and the Tower of
Babel,” [3], in “Biblical Backgrounds: Old Testament, An Historical,
Archaeological, Geographical and Linguistic Study Guide” [unpublished, c. 1982])
Further Reading:
“Elias” as a “Forerunner” in LDS Scripture