For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:18-20)
This is a passage that puzzles many people. To grasp what the apostle was writing we must keep in mind several things:
First, it should be noticed that when the apostle Peter wrote about these “spirits in prison,” they were dead. This is shown to be true later in the epistle where Peter writes, “For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead” (1 Peter 4:6). “Proclaimed even to dead men” (Weymouth’s translation). When was the gospel preached to them? Not when they were dead, because “the dead know not anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5), for even their thoughts perish (Psalm 146:3-4).1 They have all gone to one place,2 the grave, a place of silence,3 where “[there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
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Author: Philip P. Kapusta
Keywords: Spirits in prison, Hell, Hades, Soul, Spirit, Preaching to the dead, Preached to the dead, Souls in prison, Dead people, Preaching to spirits, Preaching to souls, Preached to spirits, Jesus preached to the dead, Jesus preached to the spirits, The Flood, Days of Noah, Immortal soul, Immortal spirit
Bible reference(s): 1 Peter 3:19
Source: Philip P. Kapusta
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