James Jordan points out in an essay on the Ascension offering that the early chapter of Genesis follow a sacrificial sequence: Sacrifice outside the garden, then Enoch ascends to the Lord, then the world is washed in the flood, and finally Noah joins his forefather on a high place. This sequence helps to fill out Peter's claim that the flood is a baptism: It would seem that Noah is saved from the water, rather than saved by water. But in the flood, Noah moves upward as a result of the flood. Because the waters buoy him up, he ends up on a mountain as a new Adam. Baptism "saves" in the same way, by elevating us to the garden on the mountain that is the highest of the mountains of the earth.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 06:51 PM
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