[To provide order to the welter of metaphors employed in Christian soteriology, the authors study them within their underlying systems or “models.” The “prophetic” model, in which salvation is effected within history through human instruments, appears in Isaiah and Luke as well as in Irenaeus. In the “liturgical” model, the divine presence is safeguarded by sacrifices; it is found in Leviticus, the Letter to the Hebrews, and also in Athanasius. In the “sapiential” model, sin is willful ignorance and salvation illumination; it is found in Proverbs and John, and echoed in Augustine’s soteriology.]