Noah

===Christianity===
[[File:Noah catacombe.jpg|150px|right|thumb|An early Christian depiction showing Noah giving the gesture of [[orant]] as the dove returns]]

2 Peter 2:5 refers to Noah as a "preacher of righteousness".<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Peter|2:5|NASB}} ([[New American Standard Bible]])</ref> In the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, Jesus compares Noah's flood with the coming [[Last Judgement|Day of Judgement]]: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the coming of the [[Son of man (Christianity)|Son of Man]]. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|24:38}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|17:26}}</ref>

The [[First Epistle of Peter]] compares the power of [[baptism]] with the Ark saving those who were in it. In later Christian thought, the Ark came to be compared to the [[Christian Church|Church]]: [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] was to be found only within Christ and his Lordship, as in Noah's time it had been found only within the Ark. [[St Augustine of Hippo]] (354–430), demonstrated in ''[[The City of God (book)|The City of God]]'' that the dimensions of the Ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which corresponds to the [[body of Christ]]; the equation of Ark and Church is still found in the [[Anglican]] rite of baptism, which asks God, "who of thy great mercy didst save Noah," to receive into the Church the infant about to be baptised.<ref>Peters, DM., [https://books.google.com/books?id=MXU3PTrFe6gC&q=nuanced+%22temple+period%22+%22and+early+christianity%22 ''Noah Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Conversations and Controversies of Antiquity''], Society of Biblical Lit, 2008, pp. 15–17.</ref>

In [[History of medieval Christianity|medieval Christianity]], Noah's three sons were generally considered as the founders of the populations of the three known [[continent]]s, [[Japheth]]/Europe, [[Shem]]/Asia, and [[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]]/Africa, although a rarer variation held that they represented the three classes of medieval society – the priests (Shem), the warriors (Japheth), and the peasants (Ham). In medieval Christian thought, Ham was considered to be the ancestor of the people of black Africa. So, in racialist arguments, the curse of Ham became a justification for the slavery of the black races.<ref>Jackson, JP., Weidman, NM., [https://books.google.com/books?id=g4WalMw26IkC&q=noah+christianity+medieval+shem&pg=PA4 ''Race, Racism, and Science: Social Impact and Interaction''], ABC-CLIO, 2004, p. 4.</ref>

[[Isaac Newton]], in his religious works on the development of religion, wrote about Noah and his offspring. In Newton's view, while Noah was a monotheist, the gods of pagan antiquity are identified with Noah and his descendants.<ref>{{citation |last=Force |first=J E |chapter=Essay 12: Newton, the "Ancients" and the "Moderns" |editor-last1= Popkin |editor-first1=RH |editor-last2=Force |editor-first2=JE |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJKaqMDxyL0C&q=noah+religion&pg=PA254 |title=Newton and Religion: Context, Nature, and Influence |publisher=Kluwer |year=1999 |pages=253–254 |via=Google Books |series=International Archive of the History of Ideas |number =161|isbn=9780792357445 }}</ref>