WAS NOAH A PREACHER? (II PETER 2:5)

In II Peter 2:5, Noah is called “a herald (or preacher) of righteousness.” This was a favorite text used by the pastors at the church in which I was raised. More than one preacher told us about the poor preacher Noah who preached repentance to his friends and neighbors for 120 years without getting a single convert. My sneaking suspicion was that these pastors loved this passage because Noah made them look good by comparison. The lesson we were given was that it is much better to be faithful in the ministry than successful. I'll admit that I always wondered why one couldn't be both. So in what sense was Noah a preacher? Here are some options.

Noah wasn't a preacher at all.

In reading some of the “back of the Bible” books like Jude and II Peter, one problem that may disturb Christians is the way they sometimes quote non-biblical sources as if they were on a par with the Bible itself. And this is certainly the case in II Peter 2:5 since the Genesis account never even hints that Noah was a preacher. Therefore, some would argue that it has absolutely no basis in fact.

“Many complex issues surround this topic, but the evidence presents a fairly consistent picture. The New Testament's use of the Old Testament is a phenomenon that cannot be treated in isolation from the hermeneutical milieu of Second Temple biblical interpretation.” (Enns) In other words, the New Testament authors may have been influenced by the way their contemporaries interpreted the Old Testament.

In the case of II Peter 2:5, Noah is described as a herald or preacher (keryka) in several extrabiblical Jewish and Christian writings works: Sibylline Oracles 1:175-233; I Clement 7:6; Jubilees 20-29; Eccles. Rab. 9:15; b. Sanh. 108; and Josephus' Antiquities 1.72-119. “The tendency in this literature is to correlate Noah with the righteous remnant that the community constituted while associating the rebellious Watchers of the flood generation with the corrupt Jewish priestly line in Jerusalem...” (Carson)

Again, I see a parallel with my home church which had a marked tendency to identify our own small denomination as the only saved remnant while the larger denominations were filled with those going to hell.

For example, Carson says, “The most interesting use for our purposes is the interpretation of Josephus, for here we have the longest imaginative description of Noah pleading with his compatriots to change their ways..” Neyrey provides the following quote from Josephus, Ant. 1.74: “Noah, indignant at their conduct and viewing their counsels with displeasure, urged them to come to a better frame of mind and amend their ways.” And J.H. Walton notes, “In the Sibylline Oracles Noah makes a long speech (1:175-233) condemning his neighbors and warning them that a flood threatens their lives...Though the New Testament refers to Noah as a proclaimer or herald of righteousness, it offers little detail to support elaborate speculations of the extrabiblical sources.”

However, since Peter's audience was certainly well aware of these other written sources, Peter went ahead and quoted from them in much the same way a modern preacher would use current fictional characters in TV shows or movies as teaching examples. In any case, the mere fact that some biblical authors quoted from outside sources does not either (a) constitute a warrant for considering those non-canonical books as worthy of inclusion into Scripture or (b) rejecting their statements out of hand.

We can infer that Noah must have preached to his contemporaries.

Just because Genesis does not explicitly state that Noah preached to people, it is certainly a logical inference, as the following commentators point out:

“A herald, together with the reference in I Pet. 3:20 to the disobedient, suggests that Noah was commissioned to call his contemporaries to repentance, but that they chose to ignore or reject his message – as the false teachers [of Peter's time] will do.” (Wheaton)

“The Old Testament does not say that Noah was a preacher of righteousness; nor, incidentally, does I Enoch. But it was well known in Jewish tradition, and if he was indeed a 'righteous man, blameless' who 'walked with God' (Gen. 6:9) then he must have been a herald of righteousness...how could any good man keep quiet when he saw others going to ruin? Any man of God is at least as concerned for the rescue of others as he is in preserving his own relationship with God.” (Michael Green)

As a somewhat dissenting view, however, Walton explains, “We could easily imagine that Noah would have been involved all of his life in trying to make an impact on his world for righteousness. Usually the tradition today, however, implies that Noah was trying to persuade them to join him in the ark and gain deliverance...[But] Noah was told exactly whom to bring in the ark, and space was made for those eight passengers.”

So maybe we should consider a little closer the possible nature of Noah's “preaching.”

Noah was a lifestyle evangelist.

There is more than one way to reach others with the truth, which is why the concept of lifestyle evangelism is also taught in the Bible. Harvey and Towner explain, “The righteousness Noah preached was in the Old Testament sense of ethical behavior, not the forensic righteousness of the New Testament justification by faith and righteousness 'credited' to us (Gal 3:6). As to Noah himself however, his belief in God was so credited to him (Heb 11:7).” Thus, “His very life...would speak volumes.” (Green)

That sort of “preaching” through the ethical behavior of his life as an example would not necessarily have included any sort of message of salvation through repentance. But it should have prompted some of his contemporaries to consider their own lives in comparison with his so that they might want to have what he had and they obviously didn't. The same, of course, applies to our own witness today.

Noah was prepared to give a defense for the faith.

We generally think of evangelism as consisting of offensive actions (in the good sense of the word). But right in Peter's first letter we read the following: “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.” (I Peter 3:15 NRSV) And not coincidentally, that verse appears right before the author again cites the example of Noah (vv. 20-21). Thus, Carson says that “probably imaginative reading of the narrative presupposes that Noah would have to provide some sort of rationale for his activity before the ungodly watching world.”

Noah preached using an enacted parable.

One more way in which to possible view Noah's “preaching” is to compare it to the acted-out prophetic parables found in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. These are discussed in some detail in my post titled “Enacted Parables.” As in the case of Noah, both of these Old Testament prophets were surrounded by a hostile and unbelieving audience who had turned from God and were soon to face earthly judgment for their actions. But instead of God telling them to preach only in words, he instructs them instead to carry out a number of quite bizarre actions in the sight of those people that will get their attention and prompt them to contemplate their meaning for themselves (just as Jesus' parables were designed to do). And in the case of Ezekiel, for a number of years in his prophetic career the prophet is expressly told by God to remain silent, in itself a sign to the people.

So what does this have to do with Noah? I can imagine nothing more bizarre and attention-getting than the sight of a huge boat being slowly assembled over a 120-year period miles away from any body of water and with no prior history of flooding in the area. It must have certainly caused Noah's neighbors to either think that he had totally lost his mind or that perhaps he knew something that they didn't.

The conclusion is that Noah certainly was a preacher of God, but perhaps not in the sense that we would use the word today. However, in that larger sense, we are all called to be preachers as well.