1 Peter 3:18-20 – ‘Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.  In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.’

This difficult text raises a number of questions:

• What does it mean when it says that ‘through the Spirit Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison’?
• What was this ‘prison’?
• Is it some kind of purgatory?
• Who were these ‘spirits’?
• What did Christ preach to them?
• Does it mean that Christ was giving a second chance to those who had died?
• What does it mean when it says that he went and preached to them ‘through the Spirit’?
• When did this take place?

Pate (40 Questions About the Historical Jesus) lists six possible views:

View 1: When Noah was building the ark, Christ “in spirit” was in Noah preaching repentance and righteousness through him to unbelievers who were on the earth then but are now “spirits in prison” (people in hell).
View 2: After Christ died, he went and preached to people in hell, offering them a second chance of salvation.
View 3: After Christ died, he went and preached to people in hell, proclaiming to them that he had triumphed over them and their condemnation was final.
View 4: After Christ died, he proclaimed release to people who had repented just before they died in the flood, and led them out of their imprisonment (in Purgatory) into heaven.
View 5: After Christ died (or: after he arose but before he ascended into heaven), he travelled to hell and proclaimed triumph over the fallen angels who had sinned by marrying human women before the flood.  [Cf. Marston, Death and Hell: What the New Testament Does and Does Not Teach: ‘Peter places this after Jesus’ resurrection and the ‘spirits’ are fallen angels in ‘hell’ (‘Tartarus’ in 2 Pet 2.4), not humans in Hades.]
View 6: After his resurrection, Jesus announced his victory over the spiritual principalities and powers—fallen angels—but not in a descent to hell between his death and resurrection but rather after his resurrection. In other words, 1 Peter 3:18–20 has nothing to do with Jesus descending into hell.

To these alternatives we might add the one mentioned by Bauckham (New Dictionary of Theology, art. ‘Descent into Hell):

‘many modern exegetes take 1 Pet 3:19 to refer to Christ’s ascension, during which he proclaimed his victory to the rebellious angels imprisoned in the lower heavens, while 1 Pet 4:6 refers to Christians who died after the gospel was preached to them’

Pate himself favours view 5, on lexical and contextual grounds.  He also refers to 1 Enoch, which elaborates the story told in Gen 6:1-4.  In 1 Enoch,

‘The Watchers were the fallen angels who had abandoned heaven (12.4), slept with human women (15.3), and produced children, referred to as “giants” from whose bodies “evil spirits” have come (15.9). These evil spirits have taught people “deeds of shame, injustice, and sin” (13.2) and will continue to corrupt the earth until “the day of the great conclusion, until the great age is consummated, until everything is concluded” (16.1). The Watchers appeal to Enoch to intercede with God on behalf of themselves and the evil progeny they have produced. Enoch obliges and returns with God’s proclamation to the Watchers: “[You will] not be able to ascend into heaven unto all eternity, but you shall remain inside the earth, imprisoned all the days of eternity.” Moreover, the Watchers would see the destruction of their sons (referred to as “the spirits”) because the petitions for themselves and for their sons (the spirits) will not be heard by God (14.5–6). These “spirits” that came from the bodies of the giants fathered by the Watchers through human women were the cause of the human evil that led to the great flood during the time of Enoch’s grandson, Noah.’ (Jobes)

Given this background (Pate argues),

‘then the spirits to whom Christ preached should be understood as fallen angels and/or demonic spirits. Their imprisonment represents in spatial terms God’s restraining power over them, and the message Christ preached to them is the confirmation that “the day of the great conclusion,” first announced by the flood, is now upon them. Christ’s ascension itself may have been the proclamation of their defeat. In other words, the apostle Peter is identifying Jesus Christ as the victor over all evil in both the spirit and the human worlds forevermore.’

Pate suggests that Jude 6 and 2 Pet 2:4 probably refer to the same situation.

The ‘preaching’, Pate further argues, is not of the gospel, but of judgement (as implied in v22).  This took place after Christ’s death but before his resurrection.

Moffat’s translation of this verse attracted particular criticism in its day: “Enoch also went and preached to the imprisoned spirits.”

J.I. Packer (God’s Words, p210) deals with the question of whether this verse, taken with v18, gives any support for the notion of post-mortem evangelism.  In answering in the negative, he explains:-

1. The spirits in prison are at least as likely to be fallen angels as fallen men (cf. Gen 6:1-4; Jude 6);
2. The statement that Christ preached to spirits who disobeyed in Noah’s day more naturally implies that the preaching was not to others than that it was;
3. ‘Preached’ (Greek kerusso, with the message unspecified, does not imply an offer of life any more naturally than it does a bare proclamation of Jesus’ triumph.

Gerald Bray (God Is Love):

‘Exactly what this means is hard to say. If we take it literally, then Jesus went down to hell to preach to the rebellious spirits who were imprisoned there in the days of Noah. This presumably refers to those who were drowned in the flood, but why they should be singled out for particular attention is unclear. What about everyone else? Should they not have had a chance to hear the gospel as well? Perhaps we should understand Noah as the man who received God’s promise that the sinful world would be preserved in spite of its wrongdoing. If we take it that way, then it may be that all those who died before the coming of Christ were granted the chance to hear the gospel, though we cannot say how they responded to it if they did hear it.’

This verse must, of course, be read in context. Moreover, we look to the RSV and NRSV for a clearer rending of the passage. Peter is urging his persecuted readers to follow the example of Christ, who was put to death in the body rather, in the flesh but made alive by rather in the Spirit, v18. Through whom in this verse should accordingly be translated in which. It is clear that two spheres of existence are being described. Christ’s death ‘in the flesh’ was the gateway to his exaltation ‘in the spirit’. Cf. the contrast in Heb 12:2: ‘who for the joy set before him endured the cross’.

It may be helpful to see this verse as parallel with 1 Pet 3:22: by his resurrection and ascension Christ was victorious  over the principalities and powers of the present world order.  Other texts, such as Eph 1:20-23; Col 2:15; 1 Tim 3:16 teach something similar.

When did this journey of Christ take place?

‘[It] took place after the resurrection rather than between his death and resurrection, since the description follows the resurrection in verse 18, and the relative clause “in which” (en hō) refers either to his resurrected spiritual state, or “at that time,” that is, after his death and resurrection. Since the very same form of the participle (poreutheis, “going,” or “traveling”) is used in both verse 19 and verse 22, it is most likely that this is a single journey of Christ through the heavens to the right hand of the Father (v. 22).’ (Ericson, EDBT)

Who were these spirits in prison? The next verse connects them with the days of Noah. They may have been the spirits of wicked people from those days? (cf. Gen 6:3-6,11) More probably, they are to be identified with the ‘sons of God’, Gen 6:2. These latter appear to have been fallen angels, cf. Jude 6 2 Pet 2:4. There was a long Jewish tradition (cf. 1 Enoch 10-16; 21) of these fallen angels as having been kept in a prison. The latter is the interpretation favoured by HSB.

Norman Ericson agrees that they are the evil angels of Gen 6:1-4 (or their offspring):

‘[This] is indicated by their being in prison, their disobedience in the time of Noah, their mention in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6, and the New Testament use of the plural noun (“spirits,” pneumasin) as a reference to evil spirits unless otherwise qualified. This is further supported by contemporary Jewish literature (1 Enoch 6:1–8; 12:1–16:4; 19:1; 2 Baruch 56:12), which describes these evil angels in the same way as the passage in 1 Peter.’ (EDBT)

But what did Jesus preach to these spirits? The word preached is not only used in the NT for the preaching of the gospel. It is also used for other kinds of announcement or proclamation. (cf. Lk 12:3 Rom 2:21 Rev 5:2) In 1 Enoch (known to the early church and quoted in Jude), Enoch announces to these spirits their doom. This accords with the present passage, which ends on the triumphant note of v22 with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Christ. This victory of Christ over the spirit world is attested elsewhere in the NT, e.g. 2 Cor 2:14; Eph 6:11-12; Col 2:15; Rev 12:7-11.

The entry in Hard Sayings of the Bible, whose interpretation is closely followed above, concludes its discussion of this passage as follows:-

‘The Christians in Asia Minor were facing persecution and possible martyrdom. Peter calls them to look at the example of Jesus. He was, from the human point of view, killed. Yet, in fact, he rose, not simply to renewed natural life, but to transformed life in the spiritual world, and in that world he proclaimed his victory to the fallen angels who were disobedient in Noah’s day. This may have been during his ascension, for while this text does not tell us where this prison was, some Jews located it in the “second heaven” and thus on the way between earth and the heaven where God dwells. Whatever the case, in the end of this section in 1 Peter Christ is in heaven with all spiritual beings subject to him. Peter’s point is that Christians through baptism have identified with Christ and so will be saved in the final judgment and share his triumph. They too will live with Christ in exaltation, no matter how human beings persecute or condemn them. As for their persecutors, unless they repent, what hope do they have, living as they do in the purely human sphere? Christ triumphed over his foes and proclaimed his victory. The Christians in Asia Minor (and today) will do the same if they remain faithful to this Christ.’

Gundry summarises:

‘The context favors a proclamation of triumph over demonic powers. Just as Jesus gained such vindication before them, so too at the Last Day his persecuted followers will gain vindication in the presence of their persecutors. As usual, when lacking qualification to the contrary, the term “spirits” refers to spirits of an angelic or demonic kind, not to the spirits of disembodied human beings.’

We might tentatively propose the following paraphrase, itself based on that of Grudem:

‘Long ago, Christ went, in the realm of the spirit, and preached through Noah to those who had disobeyed. To these people, now imprisoned in hell, God in his patience was giving an opportunity for repentance even while the ark was being built.‘

Grudem says that this passage, in its context, functions,

1. to encourage the readers to bear witness boldly in them midst of hostile unbelievers, just as Noah did;
2. to assure them that though they are few, God will surely save them;
3. to remind them of the certainty of final judgement and Christ’s ultimate triumph over all the forces of evil which oppose them.

So, the sense would be:

Don’t be afraid; don’t be ashamed of suffering in a good cause. Those who persecute you may hurt you, but they can do you no lasting harm. Christ, in suffering, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, suffered for doing good. And, though his suffering ended in his dying in the physical realm, it ended also in his being made alive in the spiritual realm. It is in the spiritual realm that he has gone and preached the gospel via his messengers to the spiritual captives. Among such spiritual captives had been those disobedient people who long ago in Noah’s day exercised God’s patience while the ark was being built. If a few people – eight in all – could be delivered in those far-off days long before the coming of Christ, how much more is your own deliverance assured now that his saving work is finished and his reign is supreme?

What a description of those outside of Christ! They are ‘spiritual captives’. What a captivity: condemned, waiting for their sentence. Yet it is not a hopeless imprisonment. The key that will liberate the captives is at hand. What a description of our Deliverer. He has taken our place; he has paid the price; he has secured the way back to God. He only can unlock the dungeon. He only can give life to dead soul. He has give life to many, and will give it to many more, as long as this day of opportunity lasts. What a description of Christian ministry. The work of evangelism is the work of Christ. The word of salvation, faithfully proclaimed, is the word of Christ himself. We are Christ’s voice on earth.