In what sense was Noah a preacher of righteousness?

[Anna]

Last week’s lesson in the October 16 WT, page 27 about exercising faith in Jehovah’s Promises brought out that Noah exercised faith by preaching to his neighbours.   

Par.7

"Hebrews 11:7 highlights the faith of Noah who, “after receiving divine warning of things not yet seen, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household.” Noah exercised his faith by building the gigantic ark. Without doubt, his neighbors must have asked him why he was building such a colossal structure. Did Noah keep quiet or tell them to mind their own business? By no means! His faith moved him to witness boldly and to warn his contemporaries of God’s coming judgment. Quite likely, Noah  repeated to the people the exact words that Jehovah had spoken to him: “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, because the earth is full of violence on account of them . . . I am going to bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy from under the heavens all flesh that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.” Also, Noah no doubt explained to the people the only means of escape, repeating God’s command: “You must go into the ark.” Thus, Noah further exercised his faith by being “a preacher of righteousness.”—Gen. 6:13, 17, 18; 2 Pet. 2:5".

We have always understood that Noah witnessed to the inhabitants of that time, while he was building the ark. We say this because 2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness”.  But it occurred to me that Noah must have been a preacher of righteousness BEFORE Jehovah asked him to build the Ark, as this was the reason Jehovah asked him to build the ark, to preserve him alive. Genesis 6:9 says: “This is the history of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. He proved himself faultless among his contemporaries.  Noah walked with the true God”.  Is there any scriptural proof that Noah witnessed to “his neighbours”  about the impending destruction while he was constructing the ark, or are we simply assuming he did? And wasn’t Noah exercising faith mainly by building the ark, rather than preaching destruction to the people?  The only scripture that I can think of that would indicate that Noah may have talked about the destruction is in Matthew 24:39 where it says that “they took no note until the Flood came and swept them all away”. But this could also mean that they took no note of him building the Ark rather than any reasoning from Noah. Or Heb 11:7...after receiving divine warning of things not yet seen, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; and through this faith he condemned the world. This seems to indicate that it was because he acted and constructed the ark.....or was it that he actually voiced a condemnation to the people?

[JW Insider]

The Watchtower's view on this is very reasonable. If you work on a large project for several years, then people are going to ask, and you are probably going to try to answer them. At a very minimum we would expect Noah to given an answer that would have to include something about God's impending judgement, which makes him an announcer (preacher) of righteousness. Se we merely take a common sense approach, and then add just a little bit of conjecture about what he might have done or said specifically.

But most scholars, I think, take a more direct approach that includes the idea that 2 Peter is referring to known sources that would have made this idea "common knowledge". Their approach includes the idea that 2 Peter and Jude were likely written later than most fundamentalist Christians acknowledge. (Jude is something like a paraphrase of a subset of 2 Peter.)

Both Jude are 2 Peter seem more acquainted with a larger body of Jewish literature where ideas about the assumption of the body of Moses are known, the names Jannes and Jambres are known, Enoch is considered a prophet who wrote (or "inspired") the well-known book of Enoch, and Noah was a preacher.

The sources for most of these ideas are fairly well known from surviving literature, including the references to Noah as a preacher.

You will find plenty of info on this here: https://www.studylight.org/language-studies/difficult-sayings/index.cgi?a=517

[JW Insider]

 

5 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

You will find plenty of info on this here: https://www.studylight.org/language-studies/difficult-sayings/index.cgi?a=517

I figured it might be OK to just quote most of that article I referenced above. I'd use the info cautiously, but seems fairly accurate:

 

Whether creatively imagined or passed on by oral tradition we do have references to preaching in a variety of literature apart from 2 Peter. The pre-Christian Jewish book of Jubilees 7.20-39 talks of Noah's preaching and teaching his sons after the flood lest the same fate befall them as did those who perished in the flood, but this is not preaching to the generation of the Flood itself. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian speaks of Noah preaching to the ungodly (Antiquities 1.3.1/74) and so certainly a tradition was known of or implied.

Another source known as the Sibylline Oracles, possibly produced within Diaspora Hellenistic Judaism or even by later Christians, purports to be the writings of Etruscan prophetic priestesses as far back as the 6th century B.C. These books were partially burnt in a fire in 83 B.C. and later destroyed by the Roman General Flavius Stilicho in the 4th century A.D.. So whether the following passage dates from the original oracles or from a later edited and/or interpreted reconstruction we cannot be sure. Here is the text, however, judge for yourself, whether this was a source for Peter and Josephus:

 

"God himself
From heaven thus spoke: "Noah, be of good cheer
In thyself and to all the people preach
Repentance, so that they may all be saved.
But if, with shameless soul, they heed me not
The whole race I will utterly destroy"
(Sib. Or. 1:156-61)

 

 

"Thus he spoke; and great trembling seized on him
At what he heard. And then, within his mind
Having contrived each matter, he besought
The people and began with words like these:
"O men insatiate, smit with madness great,
Whatever things ye practiced they shall not
Escape God's notice; for he knows all things,
Immortal Saviour overseeing all,
Who bade me warn you, that ye perish not...""
(Sib. Or. 1:182-90)

 

Another source of Jewish tradition is the Talmud and Midrashim, or commentaries on the biblical text. We find in the Babylonian Talmud the following reference:

 

"...the righteous Noah rebuked them, urging, 'Repent; for if not, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring a deluge upon you.and cause your bodies to float upon the water like gourds, as it is written, He is light [i.e., floats] upon the waters. Moreover, ye shall be taken as a curse for all future generations, as it is written, their portion is cursed' in the earth." (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a)

 

Similarly in the early Jewish Midrash on Genesis:

 

"Noah planted cedars and cut them down. On being asked, 'Why are you doing this? ' he replied: 'The Lord of the universe has informed me that He will bring a Flood in the world.' Said they [his contemporaries] to him: If a Flood does come, it will come only upon your father's house!' R. Abba interpreted: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: 'One herald arose for me in the generation of the Flood, viz. Noah.'" (Genesis Midrash Rabbah 30.7).

 

Finally, in another midrashic commentary:

 

16. THERE WAS A LITTLE CITY (IX, 14): i.e. the world, AND FEW MEN WITHIN IT: i.e. the generation of Enosh and the generation of the Flood. AND THERE CAME A GREAT KING AGAINST IT, AND BESIEGED IT.: i.e. the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, AND BUILT GREAT BULWARKS AGAINST IT: i.e. craft and guile.

 

 

17. NOW THERE WAS FOUND IN IT A MAN POOR AND WISE (IX, 15): i.e. Noah, as it is stated, For thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation (Gen. VII, 1). AND HE BY HIS WISDOM DELIVERED THE CITY: for he said to the people, 'Woe, ye foolish ones! To-morrow a flood will come, so repent.' They answered him, ' If punishments begin, they will begin with your house.' When Methuselah died, they said to Noah, ' Have punishments not begun with your house! ' YET NO MAN REMEMBERED THAT SAME POOR MAN: the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, 'You have not remembered him, but I will remember him,' as it is stated, And God remembered Noah (ib. VIII, 1). (Ecclesiastes Midrash Rabbah 9:16-17)

 

Jewish tradition also saw the 120 years not as simply time for an enormous construction project but also as a period of mercy to allow time for the people to repent (e.g., Targums on Genesis 6:3; Mishnah, Pirqe Aboth 5:2; Philo, Quaest. Gen. 2.13; also cf. 1 Peter 3:20).

The late first century early church writer, Clement also supports Peter's assertion:

 

"Noah preached repentance, and they that obeyed were saved." (1 Clement 7.6) "Noah, being found faithful, by his ministration preached regeneration unto the world, and through him the Master saved the living creatures that entered into the ark in concord." (1 Clement 9.4)

 

Further references that may add credence to the legend may be found in: Pirqe Rab Eliezer 22; Theophilus, Ad Autol. 3.19; Methodius, Conviv. 10.3; Apoc. Paul 50: Book of Adam and Eve 3:2,4, for those that want to do further research.

[Anna]

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

The Watchtower's view on this is very reasonable. If you work on a large project for several years, then people are going to ask, and you are probably going to try to answer them. At a very minimum we would expect Noah to given an answer that would have to include something about God's impending judgement, which makes him an announcer (preacher) of righteousness. Se we merely take a common sense approach, and then add just a little bit of conjecture about what he might have done or said specifically.

But most scholars, I think, take a more direct approach that includes the idea that 2 Peter is referring to known sources that would have made this idea "common knowledge". Their approach includes the idea that 2 Peter and Jude were likely written later than most fundamentalist Christians acknowledge. (Jude is something like a paraphrase of a subset of 2 Peter.)

Both Jude are 2 Peter seem more acquainted with a larger body of Jewish literature where ideas about the assumption of the body of Moses are known, the names Jannes and Jambres are known, Enoch is considered a prophet who wrote (or "inspired") the well-known book of Enoch, and Noah was a preacher.

The sources for most of these ideas are fairly well known from surviving literature, including the references to Noah as a preacher.

You will find plenty of info on this here: https://www.studylight.org/language-studies/difficult-sayings/index.cgi?a=517

Thanks!