1 Peter 3:19

19 (d) This activity was not confined merely to the unrighteous who are alive like yourselves. In His Spirit thus quickened by death He journeyed to the underworld. He descended into Hell there to proclaim (good) tidings to the spirits in prison. 20  Of these the most notorious and typical examples were the spirits of those who suffered in the flesh as a punishment for evil-doing in the olden days of Noah, when they rejected God’s long continued offer of mercy all through those years while the ark was being prepared.

[In the book of Henoch (x.lxxxix. etc. see Charles, Eschatology) from which St Peter appears to borrow several phrases in the Epistle, there is constant reference to the Flood; and the spirits of those who were judged in this life are assigned a separate place in Sheol (c. 12). For the idea that bodily suffering, even when it is a punishment for sin, may be a factor in the salvation of the soul, cf. 1 Corinthians 5:5, “To deliver unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”; 1 Timothy 1:20, “Whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn (by chastisement, παιδευθῶσι) not to blaspheme.” Also 1 Corinthians 11:32, “When we are judged (with sickness and death) we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world.”

Again in the statement that “it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment” our Lord implies that the inhabitants of those cities must not be regarded as eternally damned because they were so terribly judged in the flesh. For further ideas about “the Harrowing of Hell” see additional note (p. 83).]
(e) In the Flood the same water which drowned the guilty world floated the ark and so saved Noah and his family from perishing. Water was not only the means by which the defilements of the world were cleansed but was also the medium by which Noah and his family passed from the old world into the new, as it were through death into a new resurrection life. 21  Thus the Flood may be regarded as the copy of the spiritual reality of “death unto sin and new birth unto righteousness” which is now represented in Baptism. When we pass beneath the water of Baptism we represent the drowning of the old sinful self, the putting off of the filth of the flesh. But the saving efficacy of Baptism lies in the new birth unto righteousness, the profession (in answer to interrogation) of having a good conscience toward God, which is represented by our emerging from the water, claiming to share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In every case therefore suffering and death are factors in the termination of the regime of sin and the attainment of a new life. In Christ’s case we find that by dying in the flesh once and for all for sins (not His own but those of others) He was thereby quickened in spirit for new and wider service. In the case of those who perished in the Flood their judgment in the flesh led to their receiving the good tidings of Christ bidding them to live in the Spirit (cf. 1 Peter 4:6). In the case of Noah and his family the water of destruction was the means of their salvation; and the same lesson of dying in order to live is taught in Baptism.

22  (f) There remains one further thought that suffering culminates in final glory. The Lord who rose from the dead is now seated at the right hand of God exalted above angels, principalities and powers. So we too “if we suffer with Him shall also be glorified with Him.” 1 Peter 4:1  This conception of suffering in the flesh as a termination of the regime of sin, a quickening of the spirit for new service and a factor in attaining glory, was the armour with which Christ equipped Himself in His earthly life (cf. Hebrews 12:2, “For the joy which was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame.” Hebrews 5:8, “He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.”) Let it be your armour also in meeting persecution and equipping yourselves for service. In your Baptism you claim ideally to have shared in Christ’s death, and any sufferings in the flesh which you may have to undergo are only helping to make that ideal a reality for you, helping to terminate the regime of sin, 2  that the time which remains for you to live in the flesh should be no longer devoted to the lusts of men but to the will of God. 3  I say “the time which remains,” for that which is past, your old heathen days, is all too long to have worked out the wishes of the Gentiles, walking as you have done (πεπορευμένους—perfect participle) in wanton immoralities, lusts, wine-bibbings, revellings, drinking-bouts, and unlawful idolatries. 4  Your heathen neighbours no doubt regard you as fanatics, and revile you for refusing to plunge headlong into the same excess of prodigal recklessness with them. 5  But (like Noah’s contemporaries) they will have to render an account to God, whose judgment is in perfect readiness both for the living and the dead. 6  Such judgment of the dead is perfectly just because they also received the message of good tidings, and the purport of the message to them was the same which God gives to you. Your suffering in the flesh is a call to live in the spirit. Their judgment in the flesh after the pattern of men was a call to live in the spirit after the pattern of God.

19. ἐν ᾧ most naturally means, in that human spirit thus quickened by death and not the divine Spirit of Christ in which He had all along been working in the world, cf. 1 Peter 1:11.

πνεύμασι is used of the dead in Hebrews 12:23, “the spirits of just men made perfect” and this interpretation is here confirmed by νεκροῖς in 1 Peter 4:6. It naturally seems to mean that those who heard Christ’s message were in a disembodied state, as He himself also was.

φυλακῇ sometimes means sentry-watch but far more commonly prison and is almost certainly so used here.

πορευθεὶς naturally suggests a change of sphere and is frequently used of the Ascension, as in 1 Peter 3:22. So here it seems to refer to the descent into Hell, and we thus have a natural chronological sequence θανατωθεὶς—ζωοποιηθεὶς—πορευθεὶς—(διʼ ἀναστάσεως) πορευθεὶς εἰς οὐρανόν.

ἐκήρυξεν is constantly used of preaching the Gospel but never of proclaiming bad tidings. So here it probably means good tidings, cf. εὐηγγελίσθη νεκροῖς, 1 Peter 4:6.

ADDITIONAL NOTE B

ON 1 Peter 3:19

Other interpretations of this confessedly difficult passage are

A. That it does refer to the descent into Hell, but (1) the “preaching” was a proclamation of condemnation and not an offer of pardon. The objections to this view are that in 1 Peter 4:6 (which most probably refers to the same “preaching”) good tidings (εὐαγγελίσθη) is stated to have been preached to the dead. Also κηρύσσειν is the word used in the Gospels of “proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom” Matthew 4:23, “preaching repentance” Matthew 4:17, “preaching deliverance to the captives … and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord” Luke 4:18-19. In the Acts and Epistles it is constantly used of preaching the Gospel or preaching Christ, but there is no instance of its use for proclaiming condemnation, and it would be hardly intelligible in that sense here without some words to explain it.

Or (2) that the good news was only preached in Hades to the spirits of the righteous, such as Abel, Abraham and other O.T. saints. This was a favourite idea in early writers (e.g. the Gospel of Nicodemus, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian). But the context expressly defines the spirits to be “those who were disobedient in the days of Noah.” There is no hint whatever that O.T. saints in general are intended, and ἐν φυλακῇ could hardly mean in God’s safe keeping (cf. “The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God”) nor, as Calvin suggested, the watch tower from which the souls of the righteous in Hades were eagerly looking for the advent of their deliverer.

Or (3) that the passage does refer to those who perished in the Flood, but only to those who turned to God in their dying agony. But St Peter makes no allusion whatever to their repentance, but only to their disobedience.
Or (4) a more tenable interpretation would be to explain “the spirits in prison” as meaning evil angels whose influence was paramount in the world in the days of Noah, cf. Genesis 6:2, “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair,” etc. This seems to have been generally understood of immoral intercourse between angels and women, which caused the destruction of the world by the Flood. In the Book of Henoch there are constant references to this sin of the angels, and in Chapter lxvii. “the angels who have shewn injustice and who led astray are shewn to Noah inclosed in a flaming valley, but the waters of judgment are a healing of the angels and a death to their bodies.” St Peter seems to shew traces of the Book of Henoch in other passages and there is some slight similarity between this description in Henoch and St Peter’s words, 1 Peter 4:6 “judged in the flesh after the pattern of men but living in the spirit after the pattern of God.” St Jude, who quotes the Book of Henoch by name, says, 1 Peter 3:6, “Angels which left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” But this would give no support to the view that the spirit of Christ preached to them during His descent into Hell.

B. Another interpretation, supported in one passage by Augustine and also by Aquinas and Bishop Pearson, is that the passage does not refer to the descent into Hell at all, but to the preaching of the Spirit of Christ in the world in the preaching of Noah. In 1 Peter 1:11 the Spirit of Christ is described as working in the prophets of the O.T., and it is true that it was by the indwelling Spirit of Christ that Noah was a preacher (κήρυξ) of righteousness.

But the objections to this view are:
(1) That it destroys the natural sequence of thought in the passage, in which θανατωθείς, ζωοποιηθείς, πορευθείς, ἐκήρυξε seem most naturally to describe successive stages in the work of Christ, whereas this view would refer the “preaching” to the distant past.

(2) πορευθείς like πορευθεὶς εἰς οὐρανὸν in 22 suggests the idea of a “journey” or change of sphere such as the descent into Hades rather than the omnipresent work of Christ in the world before the Incarnation. At the same time we must not introduce too materialistic ideas of space in dealing with the unseen world either of Hades or of Heaven.

(3) The recipients of the proclamation are described as πνεύμασιν ἐν φυλακῇ and this can hardly mean “those who were living men at the time when they received the message but are now spirits in the prison-house of Hades.” Nor is it likely that the contemporaries of Noah in their lifetime would be described as “spirits confined in the prison-house of sin and unbelief or in the prison-house of the body.”

(4) The spirit in which Christ preached is identified with that in which He was quickened by the death of His flesh, and thus most naturally means His human spirit—whereas His work in the world in the days of Noah could only be that of His divine Spirit.