Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22 in Its Tradition-Historical and Literary Context

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Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22 in Its Tradition-Historical and Literary Context Durham E-Theses Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22 in Its Tradition-Historical and Literary Context PIERCE, CHAD How to cite: PIERCE, CHAD (2009) Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22 in Its Tradition-Historical and Literary Context, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22 in Its Tradition-Historical and Literary Context Chad T. Pierce Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theology University of Durham 2009 Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22 in Its Tradition-Historical and Literary Context Abstract By Chad T. Pierce 1 Peter 3:18-22 records Christ‘s proclamation to the ―imprisoned spirits.‖ Interpreting this passage has challenged even the most competent exegetes. Earliest interpretations understood these imprisoned spirits as the souls of humans to whom Christ preached during his ―harrowing of Hades‖ between his death and resurrection. Augustine identified them as the humans living prior to the flood who were heralded to by the pre-existent Christ through the person of Noah. Scholars from the beginning of the twentieth century through the present have read these verses through the lens of the fall of the watchers tradition first recorded in the Book of Watchers, thus reckoning these spirits as imprisoned angels. Yet contemporary scholarship has failed to acknowledge the development, conflation, and even multiplicity of the fallen angel sin and punishment myths that are found throughout much of early Jewish and Christian literature. This thesis traces the major developments of the fallen angel, giant, evil spirit, and human sin and punishment traditions throughout 1 Enoch, Jubilees, Dead Sea Scroll material, and other relevant works that may have played a role in the formative history of 1 Peter 3:18-22. This thesis also attempts, based upon the conflation of previous traditions, to ascertain the identity of imprisoned spirits, the content of Christ‘s proclamation, and the relevance of these questions to the original readers. Finally, this work attempts to ascertain the relationship between baptism in verse 22 and the warding off of evil spirits. ii Declaration I confirm that no part of the material covered has previously been submitted by myself for a degree in this or any other University. Where material has been generated through joint work, the work of others has been indicated. Chad T. Pierce Durham, October 27, 2009 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without their prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .........................................................................................................................ii Declaration.................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ iv Abbreviations .............................................................................................................vii Chapter 1 Introduction and History of Research ..................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 History of Research............................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 2 1.2.2 Three Influential Lines of interpretation ........................................................ 2 1.2.2.1 Christ‟s Proclamation to Human Souls between his Death and Resurrection ............................................................................................ 2 1.2.2.2 The Proclamation of the Pre-existent Christ through the Person of Noah .................................................................................... 11 1.2.2.3 Christ‟s Proclamation to Fallen Angels/Giants ................................... 15 1.3 The Aims of This Work ...................................................................................... 22 1.4 Approach and Method......................................................................................... 24 Chapter 2 The Book of Watchers .............................................................................. 27 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 27 2.1.1 The Potential Background of 1 Pet 18-3:22 ................................................. 27 2.1.2 The Book of Watchers and the Enochic Corpus ........................................... 29 2.2 Textual History of 1 Enoch ................................................................................. 31 2.3 Sin in the Book of Watchers ................................................................................ 33 a. Fallen Angels .................................................................................................... 34 b. Giants ................................................................................................................ 39 c. Humans ............................................................................................................. 39 2.4 Punishment in the Book of Watchers .................................................................. 39 2.4.1 Timing of Punishment.................................................................................. 39 2.4.2 Descriptions of Punishment ......................................................................... 40 a. Angelic Punishment ....................................................................................... 40 b. Giant Punishment.......................................................................................... 44 c. Human Punishment ....................................................................................... 46 2.5 Agents of Punishment ......................................................................................... 49 2.6 Results of Punishment......................................................................................... 51 a. Results of Angelic Punishment .......................................................................... 51 b. Results of the Giants Punishment ..................................................................... 52 c. Results of Human Punishment .......................................................................... 52 2.7 Sinful Spirits in the Book of Watchers ................................................................ 53 2.7.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 53 2.7.2 Identifying ―Spirits‖ in the Book of Watchers ............................................. 53 a. Angels as Spirits ............................................................................................ 54 b. Giants as Spirits ............................................................................................ 55 c. Humans as Spirits ......................................................................................... 57 2.7.3 Sinful Agents Responsible for the Flood ..................................................... 58 a. Angels ............................................................................................................ 58 b. Giants ............................................................................................................ 58 c. Humans ......................................................................................................... 59 iv 2.8 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 3 Reception and Recasting of Sin and Punishment Traditions in Early Jewish and Christian Literature ................................................. 63 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 63 3.2 The Enochic Corpus ............................................................................................ 63 3.2.1 The Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83-90) .............................................. 63 3.2.1.1 The Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 85-90) ............................................ 63 3.2.1.2 Enoch‘s First Dream Vision (1 Enoch 83-84) ...................................... 66 3.2.2 1 Enoch 91-108 ...........................................................................................
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