"Noah, the preacher of (God's) righteousness": the argument from Scripture in 2 Peter 2:5 and 9

In the argument of 2 Pet 2:4-9, the force of the reference to “Noah” in V. 5 as a δικαιοσύνης κήρυξ is not immediately clear, all the more so since in the biblical narcative Noah never preaches and in 2 Peter no righteous behavior is explicitly associated with him. The purpose of this essay is to suggest, however, that the description of Noah as a “preacher of righteousness” does reflect its biblical and epistolatory righteousness of God/Christ revealed in redemption as well as referring to the righteousness of those whom, like Noah, God delivers. Read in this way, it contributes a rhetorically powerful argument from Scripture to the argument of 2 Peter.