Does Peter say that 8 is the age of accountability?

Question

Gramps,

In Peter does it say age of accountability is 8?

Karen

Answer

Karen,

In his epistle, Peter encourages the former-day saints to take courage in their Lord and parenthetically drops some precious nuggets about Christ’s work in the spirit world. He’s playing with variations on a theme, so while discussing the preaching to the dead (which leads to the important ordinance of vicarious baptism – itself a symbol of death) he adds another thematic layer by mentioning that those being preached to (the wicked of Noah’s day) conjure up the image of baptism (with Noah’s family finding salvation from an immersive flood).

1 Peter 3:20-21 talks about Jesus preaching to the wicked of Noah’s day,

“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

 

The like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God”.

My reading of these verses has Peter using the flood (not the number eight) as the “like figure” of baptism. That being said, I have written elsewhere that the number eight is often associated with baptism to remind us of the themes of rebirth and resurrection.

Gramps