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One verse does not establish a fact. One phrase within a verse does not establish anything. Other verses always back up anything that we are to accept as a fact! There is only one exception to this rule. Some verses teach about God's sovereignty and can stand alone, 2Chron 20:6, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Ecc 3:19, Dan 4:35, Job 13:13, and Is 14:24. But, the doctrine of God's sovereignty is also shown through many other verses, showing that in Scripture, other verses are always used to establish doctrines, or are found as a part of the Jewish culture and history.
English translations are not accurate word-for-word translations of Scripture. No two English translations are exact duplicates of each other. There are English translations that have added verses not found in any original text and other English translations that have removed words and verses from original texts. And others that have changed the original text. Anything found in the New Testament can always be referenced by the same or similar teaching in the Old.
In English translations, 2Pet 2:5 states that Noah was a "preacher of righteousness." You have to ask yourself, "Why is that said?" Why is that part of the verse, and to what Old Testament passage or example is Peter referring? Nowhere in the Old Testament do we see Noah "preaching" to anybody! In all of Scripture, there is only one example of "preaching righteousness," Psalm 40:9. How many hundreds of years between Noah and the Psalms being written? No other person is called a "preacher of righteousness. This phrase is only found once in English translations. I'll say it again, just because something is said in a translation doesn't mean it is true or found in the original Scripture. "Preaching righteousness" is not a theme or practice in Scripture.
There were no "preachers" in Noah's day. The English word "preacher" isn't used until the book of Ecclesiastes, and even there, the word is an incorrect translation of the Hebrew word qoheleth. The practice of "preaching" is not found in Scripture until we reach the Gospels. Preaching is teaching/proclaiming Scripture. There was no Scripture, God's written word, in the days of Noah.
We don't see Jehovah commanding Noah to "preach" anything. Noah wasn't a prophet foretelling the coming disaster. Let's look at what Scripture says.
Gen 6:5-7 "...And the LORD said I will destroy man...from the face of the earth..."
Pretty simple, Jehovah said He was going to destroy man, all of mankind.
Gen 6:8-9 But Noah found Grace in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was a just man, blameless among the people, and he walked with God.
Gen 6:13 And God told Noah, "The end of all flesh is come before me...behold I will destroy them with the earth."
Gen 6:17 "...And I will bring a flood upon the earth to destroy all flesh...everything in the earth shall die."
Gen 6:18 But with you, Noah, I will establish my covenant. And you, your wife, your sons, and their wives will go into the ark.
When Jehovah gave Noah instructions for building the ark, He didn't mention having extra space for anyone on the earth who would repent and go into the ark. Jehovah was specific about the number of people who would enter the ark. He didn't add, "and anybody who repents." We see three times Jehovah where He stated that He was going to destroy all people on the earth.
From the end of chapter 6, until Noah enters the ark, 100-120 years pass. To build the massive ark, using only hand tools, would have taken long days of constant work. As far as we know, Noah only had his three sons to help him. When would Noah have had any time to walk around the people "preaching righteousness?" Righteousness means to live right and do the right things. How would preaching righteousness have helped people Jehovah clearly stated He was going to destroy? Preaching righteousness does not mean preaching repentance. Preaching righteousness would have nothing to do with warning people about the coming flood. Where do you see Noah spending time preaching? Jehovah had told Noah three times He was going to destroy all people. Why would Noah waste any time on a lost cause? If Noah had "preached repentance," doesn't it make sense that Peter would have said that Noah was a "preacher of repentance?" If the Old Testament showed Noah being a "preacher of righteousness," I wouldn't be doing this study. I base what I study and believe on what I find in Scripture, not a tradition of man, not popular Evangelical teaching.
Let me debunk another lie. Where do we see Noah being mocked by people? We don't see Noah having even one conversation with another person while he built the ark. It would have been impossible to keep other people from being aware of the ark being built due to its size and the time frame. How is it that we don't see any interference with the construction? I have no doubt God kept the wicked, violent people from being able to see the ark. Knowing people, there is no doubt that evil people would have burned up the ark if they had seen it or even killed Noah and his family. In Mat 24:37-39, Jesus said the people on the earth were unaware of the coming flood.
Gen 7:1 Jehovah instructs Noah and his house to enter the ark.
Gen 7:4 Jehovah repeats that He is going to destroy all people in the flood.
Gen 7:16 God shuts the door.
Some may think that the flood was some gradual rising of the water. Gen 7:11 describes a great onslaught of water from the ground and the sky. The amount of water was so great that all of the people and animals on the face of the earth were underwater in minutes, instantly drowned, like a tsunami. There wouldn't have been any time for people to try and climb up on anything to escape the "slowly rising water." The flood caught them completely off guard.
This wasn't the only time Jehovah sent sudden destruction upon people without warning. When He drowned Pharoah's army, Sodom and Gomorrah, and when the walls of Jericho came crashing down. We know that Noah was righteous in Jehovah's eyes, Gen 7:1, Eze 14:14, 20. There are three possible reasons why we find the phrase "a preacher of righteousness" in 2Pet 2:5:
1 At some point, a person making a copy of a Greek text added the phrase. Others then copied the altered copy, and it was accepted as a part of the original text over time. This is what I believe happened. Since there is no reference to a "preacher of righteousness" anywhere in Scripture, it would make sense if Peter had written "a righteous man," which would have referenced the Old Testament.
2 There are a number of extrabiblical writings that state that Noah preached to people. Perhaps Peter was aware of this and decided to include it. But, extrabiblical literature was not included in the Canon for a reason.
3 It's possible that Peter used the phrase as a metaphor for describing how Noah was a preacher of righteousness by how he lived his life.
English translations are not accurate word-for-word translations of Scripture. No two English translations are exact duplicates of each other. There are English translations that have added verses not found in any original text and other English translations that have removed words and verses from original texts. And others that have changed the original text. Anything found in the New Testament can always be referenced by the same or similar teaching in the Old.
In English translations, 2Pet 2:5 states that Noah was a "preacher of righteousness." You have to ask yourself, "Why is that said?" Why is that part of the verse, and to what Old Testament passage or example is Peter referring? Nowhere in the Old Testament do we see Noah "preaching" to anybody! In all of Scripture, there is only one example of "preaching righteousness," Psalm 40:9. How many hundreds of years between Noah and the Psalms being written? No other person is called a "preacher of righteousness. This phrase is only found once in English translations. I'll say it again, just because something is said in a translation doesn't mean it is true or found in the original Scripture. "Preaching righteousness" is not a theme or practice in Scripture.
There were no "preachers" in Noah's day. The English word "preacher" isn't used until the book of Ecclesiastes, and even there, the word is an incorrect translation of the Hebrew word qoheleth. The practice of "preaching" is not found in Scripture until we reach the Gospels. Preaching is teaching/proclaiming Scripture. There was no Scripture, God's written word, in the days of Noah.
We don't see Jehovah commanding Noah to "preach" anything. Noah wasn't a prophet foretelling the coming disaster. Let's look at what Scripture says.
Gen 6:5-7 "...And the LORD said I will destroy man...from the face of the earth..."
Pretty simple, Jehovah said He was going to destroy man, all of mankind.
Gen 6:8-9 But Noah found Grace in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was a just man, blameless among the people, and he walked with God.
Gen 6:13 And God told Noah, "The end of all flesh is come before me...behold I will destroy them with the earth."
Gen 6:17 "...And I will bring a flood upon the earth to destroy all flesh...everything in the earth shall die."
Gen 6:18 But with you, Noah, I will establish my covenant. And you, your wife, your sons, and their wives will go into the ark.
When Jehovah gave Noah instructions for building the ark, He didn't mention having extra space for anyone on the earth who would repent and go into the ark. Jehovah was specific about the number of people who would enter the ark. He didn't add, "and anybody who repents." We see three times Jehovah where He stated that He was going to destroy all people on the earth.
From the end of chapter 6, until Noah enters the ark, 100-120 years pass. To build the massive ark, using only hand tools, would have taken long days of constant work. As far as we know, Noah only had his three sons to help him. When would Noah have had any time to walk around the people "preaching righteousness?" Righteousness means to live right and do the right things. How would preaching righteousness have helped people Jehovah clearly stated He was going to destroy? Preaching righteousness does not mean preaching repentance. Preaching righteousness would have nothing to do with warning people about the coming flood. Where do you see Noah spending time preaching? Jehovah had told Noah three times He was going to destroy all people. Why would Noah waste any time on a lost cause? If Noah had "preached repentance," doesn't it make sense that Peter would have said that Noah was a "preacher of repentance?" If the Old Testament showed Noah being a "preacher of righteousness," I wouldn't be doing this study. I base what I study and believe on what I find in Scripture, not a tradition of man, not popular Evangelical teaching.
Let me debunk another lie. Where do we see Noah being mocked by people? We don't see Noah having even one conversation with another person while he built the ark. It would have been impossible to keep other people from being aware of the ark being built due to its size and the time frame. How is it that we don't see any interference with the construction? I have no doubt God kept the wicked, violent people from being able to see the ark. Knowing people, there is no doubt that evil people would have burned up the ark if they had seen it or even killed Noah and his family. In Mat 24:37-39, Jesus said the people on the earth were unaware of the coming flood.
Gen 7:1 Jehovah instructs Noah and his house to enter the ark.
Gen 7:4 Jehovah repeats that He is going to destroy all people in the flood.
Gen 7:16 God shuts the door.
Some may think that the flood was some gradual rising of the water. Gen 7:11 describes a great onslaught of water from the ground and the sky. The amount of water was so great that all of the people and animals on the face of the earth were underwater in minutes, instantly drowned, like a tsunami. There wouldn't have been any time for people to try and climb up on anything to escape the "slowly rising water." The flood caught them completely off guard.
This wasn't the only time Jehovah sent sudden destruction upon people without warning. When He drowned Pharoah's army, Sodom and Gomorrah, and when the walls of Jericho came crashing down. We know that Noah was righteous in Jehovah's eyes, Gen 7:1, Eze 14:14, 20. There are three possible reasons why we find the phrase "a preacher of righteousness" in 2Pet 2:5:
1 At some point, a person making a copy of a Greek text added the phrase. Others then copied the altered copy, and it was accepted as a part of the original text over time. This is what I believe happened. Since there is no reference to a "preacher of righteousness" anywhere in Scripture, it would make sense if Peter had written "a righteous man," which would have referenced the Old Testament.
2 There are a number of extrabiblical writings that state that Noah preached to people. Perhaps Peter was aware of this and decided to include it. But, extrabiblical literature was not included in the Canon for a reason.
3 It's possible that Peter used the phrase as a metaphor for describing how Noah was a preacher of righteousness by how he lived his life.