This chapter begins with an account of the flood story in Hellenistic Judaism with particular attention to Josephus and Philo. It continues with a discussion of the account of Noah within the group of interpreters in the second to fourth centuries CE, whom we generally gather under the broad title of ‘Gnostics’. Like the Gnostics, the early Christian interpreters gave the story of Noah a radically new meaning as they sought the ‘spiritual’ meaning of the Noah story behind the literal or historical meaning. This section of the chapter explores the many allegorical and prototypical readings that dominated Christian readings during the first millennium. The chapter ends with a discussion of Hugh of St. Victor’s (1096–1141) De Arca Noe Morali – an early sign of the increasing emphasis for the next five hundred years within the Christian tradition on the literal and historical meaning of the story of Noah.