How does Noah's ark prefigure baptism?

Answer 1

An unbiased and reasonable person would say that Noah's Ark does not and could not prefigure baptism. However, Burton L. Mack (Who Wrote the New Testament) tells how with a little ingenuity, one can come up with any comparisons between the Old Testament and the New Testament that one wishes. There is a trick that Mack sees happen all the time in the classrooms of the School of Theology at Claremont and which seems to come naturally when studying The Bible. One can ask any question of the Bible and get some kind of answer. At first the study of a text may not seem to support the answer one hopes to find in the Bible, but with a little ingenuity, one can set up the comparison again with other emphases and make the answer come out right. This is how to make Noah's Ark appear to prefigure baptism.

A NT perspective:"Prefigure" is the wrong word to apply to Noah's ark and baptism. When the two are contrasted in 1 Peter 3:20, 21, the apostle teaches that baptism is an "antitype" (NKJV) of the saving of Noah and his family, which makes perfect sense.

In the flood, Noah and his family were saved because the ark kept them OUT of the water. In baptism, one is plunged INTO the water. Reverse scenario. "Antitype."

The NIV also says that "this [flood] water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also." How can that be so? Everyone outside the ark perished in the flood!

So does the carnal person of sin, in baptism!

Romans 6:3, 4 - Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.[NKJV]