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In 1 Peter, the rescue of Noah's family through water in the ark is described as an image of baptism. In the Shepherd of Hermas, a tower built on water represents believers whose lives are saved by water, a similar image of baptism.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Peter 3:20
New Testament
17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. 18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit. 19 In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water. 21 And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you—not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.
Shepherd of Hermas 11:5
Early Christian
3 “The tower that you see being built is me, the Church, which you have seen both now and previously. So ask whatever you want about the tower, and I will reveal it to you, so that you may rejoice with the saints.” 4 I said to her, “Lady, since you have once and for all considered me worthy to have everything revealed to me, reveal it.” Then she said to me, “Whatever can be revealed to you will be revealed. Only let your heart be with God, and do not doubt in your mind about what you see.” 5 I asked her, “Why is the tower built on water, lady?” “I told you before,” she said, “and you certainly ask diligently. By asking you discover the truth. Listen, then, to why the tower is built on water: it is because your life is saved and will be saved by water. But the tower has been founded by the word of the Almighty and Glorious Name, and is strengthened by the unseen power of the Master.”
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Notes and References
“... Creation was founded upon the waters (Vis. 1.3.4), as was the tower that is the church, the firstborn of creation (Vis. 2.4.1), as is the life of the Christian in baptism (1 Pet 3:20-21). All three levels of meaning are present under the symbol of water. While the primeval waters are plural, both here in v. 5 and later in Sim. 9.16.2-6, the water of baptism is singular. ...”
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