F.S. (London), writes: I wonder if, in your “Difficulties in the Daily Readings,” you would like to proffer an explanation of 1 Peter 4:6. In verse 5 it is stated that certain will have to “give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” And it is for this cause, Peter says, that “the gospel was preached also to them that are dead.” Who are (or who were) the “dead”? When was the Gospel preached to them? By whom? In what place? Under what circumstances? Peter says, or is made to say, that it was done that they might be “judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in spirit.”
What is meant by these “dead,” whoever they were, being judged according to men in the flesh? And what is meant by their living according to God in the spirit?
I have looked up the verse in the Revised Version; Ferrar Fenton; Moffatt; Weymouth; Young’s Literal Translation; and the Diaglott. None of them helps. The Variorum gives no varied readings or varied renderings.
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Author: P. H. Adams
Keywords: Spirits in prison, 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, 1 Peter 4:6
Source: “The Gospel Was Preached Also To Them That Are Dead,” The Testimony, Vol. 20 No. 235, July 1950, pp. 299-300.
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