Scrutinizing Soteriology Concept in Flood and the Ark Images

One of the most repeated epiphanies of global soteriology concept, is the rescue of a specific group from the destructive flood. A close observation of its narration of this event indicates that, while the basis of this narration such as the reason of its occurrence, the rescuer, the means of the rescue and the survivors are the same, some other elements have revolutionized during time. The main concern of this research is why and how has the narrations been evolutionized and some of its motifs have transformed to symbols. To find the answer, the most well-known mythical, religious and post religious narrations are analyzed based on descriptive- analytic method and the motif transubstantiation perspective in iconology. The main question is how these motifs have been transformed to symbols in the narrations of the flood? The findings of the research have shown that, the number of the survivors has expanded and the concept of soteriology has switched from the individual survival to group ones through time. The savior who is a god-like in the beginning becomes a holly individual first and in the end, degrades to a normal human. The means of the rescue which is an ark, gets a symbolic meaning and also the language of the manuscripts changes from narration to symbolization to the point that symbols such as Ghezelbash headpiece, Shamseh, the red sail of the Ark and figures in different races are used to show the symbolic expression of concept based on the artist’s idea. In conclusion, by the theory of changing the motifs to symbols in iconology, the role of the artists’ world and the impact of history on the symbolic narration of Soteriology concept which led the Safavid dynasty to become the saviors of the time can be recognized.