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Home , 1 Peter 3, 2 Peter 3

Dr. Terren Dames

1 Peter 3:19-22

19. In which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,

There are four main interpretations that have been proposed for this verse. Luther wrote:

“A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the , so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.”

First, Augustine, and many throughout church history, understood the text to refer to Christ’s preaching ______to those who lived while was building the ark. According to this view, Christ was not ______but spoke by means of the Holy Spirit through Noah. The spirits are not ______but refer to those who were snared in sin during Noah’s day. If this view is correct, any notion of Christ descending into hell is excluded.

Second, some have understood Peter as referring to ______and were liberated by Christ between his death and resurrection.

Third, some believe Peter here referred to the descent of Christ’s ______between His death and resurrection to offer people who lived before the Flood a ______chance for ______. However, this interpretation has no scriptural support. Most of those who adopt such an interpretation infer from this that God will offer a ______to all those ______, especially to those who never heard the gospel. If salvation was offered to the wicked generation of Noah, surely it will also be extended to all sinners separated from God. (Schreiner).

Dr. Terren Dames

Fourth, the majority view among scholars today is that the text describes Christ’s ______and ______over the ______. These evil angels, according to Gen 6:1–4, had most likely possessed the bodies of men and had sexual relations with women and were imprisoned because of their sin (this too is debated). The point of the passage, then, is not that Christ descended into hell but, as in 3:22, but rather ______over evil angelic powers.

In the discussion that follows, the second and third view will be combined since both teach that Christ liberated people from confinement between his death and resurrection.

First, the idea that Christ spoke by means of the Spirit through Noah suffers from a number of problems. (1). It does not explain adequately the participle (poreutheis) translated “went” in v. 19 and “gone into” in v. 22. ______.

(2). The word “spirits” (pneumasin) fits much more plausibly with a reference to ______than to human beings, for “spirits” (pneumata) in the plural almost without exception in the New Testament refers to ______. The normal use of the plural “spirits” points toward ______, not human beings.

(3). Though, the word “prison” (phylakē) is often used to denote the place where human beings are held on earth (e.g., Acts 5:19; 8:3; 2 Cor 6:5; 11:23), the word is ______to denote the place of ______for ______. The term is used in Rev 20:7, however, for Satan’s confinement for one thousand years (cf. Rev 18:2). That the evil angels are imprisoned is clearly taught in Jewish tradition (1 Enoch 10:4; 15:8, 10; 18:12–14; 21:1–10; 67:7; 2 Enoch 7:1–3; 18:3; Jub. 5:6).

Dr. Terren Dames

(4). It is difficult to see what relation ______through Noah has to the present context.

(5). This interpretation has another fatal problem. It makes no sense ______for Peter to be teaching that the wicked have a ______in a letter in which he exhorted the righteous to persevere and to endure suffering.

The best solution, therefore, is that the verse proclaims Christ’s victory over demonic spirits after his death and resurrection. The evidence supporting this view is impressive. First, as we have seen, the word “spirits” almost certainly refers to angels (evil angels in this context). Second, the notion that the spirits are imprisoned fits with Satan’s imprisonment in Rev 20:7. Third, Gen 6:1–4 may possibly provide the reason for the spirits’ punishment: their possession of men by which they had sexual relations with women. Such an interpretation of Gen 6:1–4 is debated of course.

20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

What did Peter mean when he said that eight “were saved through water” (diʾ hydatos)? If one takes the preposition as instrumental, then the water is the means by which Noah and his family were saved. The objection to this interpretation is that the water was the instrument used to destroy the world, not the means by which Noah and his family were saved. Others understand the preposition in a general locative sense. According to this view, Noah and his family were brought safely through the waters that threatened to submerge and destroy them.

The Ministry of Noah

What relationship did Peter see between his readers and the ministry of Noah?

Dr. Terren Dames

1. Noah was a “______” (:5) during a very difficult time in history. The early knew that had promised that, before His return, the world would become like the “______” (Matt. 24:37–39); and they were expecting Him soon (2 Peter 3:1–3). As they saw society decay around them, and persecution begin, they would think of our Lord’s words.

2. Noah was a man of faith who kept doing the will of God even when he seemed to be a ______. This would certainly be an ______to Peter’s readers. If we measured faithfulness by ______, then Noah would get a very low grade. Yet God ranked him very high!

3. Peter saw in the Flood a picture (type) of a Christian’s ______. It is a picture of our Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection.

4. When Peter wrote that Noah and his family were “saved by water,” he was careful to explain that this illustration does not imply ______. is a “figure” of that which does save us, namely, “______” (1 Peter 3:21). However, baptism does save us from one thing: a bad ______. Peter had already told his readers that a good conscience was important to a successful witness (see 1 Peter 3:16), and a part of that “good conscience” is being faithful to our commitment to Christ as expressed in baptism.

5. Compare Heb 10:22. The meaning seems to be that water baptism symbolizes ______. The connection of water baptism and the baptism of the

Dr. Terren Dames

Spirit with cleansing is everywhere apparent in the Scripture, relating to the sharing of Christ’s death and his resurrection power.1

21. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

“Baptism … now saves you.”

How does the flood water relate to baptism?

1. The waters of the flood overwhelmed the ancient world and were the ______. Similarly, baptism, which was by immersion during the time of the New Testament, occurs when one is plunged under the water. Anyone who is submerged under water dies. Submersion under the water represents death, as Paul suggested in Rom 6:3–5.

2. Jesus described his upcoming death in terms of baptism (Mark 10:38–39; Luke 12:50), indicating that submersion under the water aptly portrays death.

3. The waters of baptism, like the waters of the flood, demonstrate that destruction is at hand, but believers are rescued from these waters in that they are baptized with Christ, who has also emerged from the waters of death through his resurrection.

The idea, then, is quite similar to Heb 10:22, where believers can draw near to God confidently because their “hearts” have been “sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience” (cf. Heb 10:2). In Hebrews there is no doubt that a cleansed conscience is due to the cross of Christ.2

1 Pfeiffer, C. F., & Harrison, E. F. (Eds.). (1962). The Wycliffe Commentary: New Testament (1 Pe 3:21). Chicago: Moody Press.

2 Schreiner, T. R. (2003). 1, 2 Peter, Jude (Vol. 37, pp. 184–198). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Dr. Terren Dames