Flood prayer

In 1523, Luther translated the Roman baptismal rite from Latin to German and in so doing he extensively revised it. Most of the revisions involved omitting material, but he also added the flood prayer to the service. This was included in his "Baptismal Booklet" (German: Taufbüchlein). While the prayer was traditionally regarded as Luther's own composition, "recent scholarship has asserted that it was more than likely a prayer translated and edited from a blessing of baptismal water in a yet-to-be identified medieval ritual at his disposal." Isidore of Seville and Rupert of Deutz have both been suggested as possible sources. The flood prayer was adopted by the Continental Reformed churches. It was included in a modified form in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England in 1549 and continues to be used there under the "Public Baptism of Infants". ==Text==

's 1526 portrait of Luther. The text of the prayer as it found in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod's Lutheran Service Book goes as follows: Almighty, eternal God, in your righteous judgment you punished the unbelieving and unrepentant world with the flood, but in your great mercy saved and protected the believer Noah and his family. You drowned the obstinate Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea, but led your people Israel through the midst of the sea on dry ground—by which baptism was signified. ==Meaning==

The prayer draws on 1 Peter 3:20-21: "...when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you..." (ESV). It also alludes to 1 Corinthians 10:2, which says that "our fathers... were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea". The idea is that both the Red Sea and the water of Noah's Flood served a dual purpose of punishing the ungodly and saving the godly. Baptism is viewed therefore as a means of separating a person from the world. Zachary Purvis notes that anamnesis, "the remembrance of God’s mighty deeds in history," is employed to great effect. The baptism then moves forward to the Baptism of Jesus; Mark Tranvik notes that "the prayer funnels this story of Jesus and John the baptizer from fifteen hundred years ago directly into the life of the one being baptized. He or she now stands through baptism as the recipient of the same saving flood." Hughes Oliphant Old has noted that "Viewed in terms of biblical imagery, liturgical history, and pastoral sensitivity, Luther's prayer is a masterpiece." ==References==