Flood of Noah: New Testament References

Events100No genuine follower of Jesus Christ can seriously entertain the idea that the flood of Noah did not occur.

  • In Matthew 24:37-39, Jesus said, “As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away.”
  • On an earlier occasion, Jesus made a similar statement. Luke 17:26 reports that He said, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: People went on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

Jesus could not have paid the penalty for others’ sins if He had been sinful Himself. This means that if He had lied even once, His death on the cross could not have been substitutionary. All Jesus’ words were truthful—and He affirmed the historicity of Noah, as well as God’s judgment on the earth in the form of the flood. Here are some additional references to Noah and the flood in the New Testament.

  • In Luke’s record of Jesus’ genealogy, Luke mentioned Noah in Luke 3:36.
  • In Hebrews 11:7, the writer of Hebrews affirmed Noah’s place in what often is called Faith’s Hall of Fame: “By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built and ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
  • The apostle Peter mentioned Noah and the flood in 1 Peter 3:19-22. In this passage he drew parallels between the floodwaters in Noah’s day and the waters of baptism, which symbolize salvation.
  • Peter mentioned Noah again in 2 Peter 2:5-10. He stated that if God didn’t spare the world in Noah’s day when He sent a devastating flood, or spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s day—but still rescued both Noah and Lot from His wrath toward the unrighteous—“then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority” (quoted portion from vv. 9-10).
  • In 2 Peter 3:3-8, Peter referred to the flood yet again in a discussion of modern-day scoffers who deny the Lord ever will return. Jesus’ having not appeared isn’t evidence He never will return, but evidence that God is patient with the unrighteous, wanting them to repent and become the full beneficiaries of His grace (see v. 9).
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