Preaching to the Spirits in Prison

Read 1 Peter 3:13–20. How did Christ preach “to the spirits in prison

. . . in the days of Noah”? (See also Gen. 4:10.)

Commentators who believe in the natural immortality of the soul

usually point out that Christ preached “to the spirits in prison” (1 Pet.

3:19, NKJV) while He was still resting in the tomb. For them, His dis-

incarnated spirit went into hell and preached to the disembodied spirits

of the antediluvians.

Yet, this fanciful notion is biblically unacceptable because there is

no second opportunity of salvation for the dead (Heb. 9:27, 28). So,

why would Jesus preach to those who had no more chance of salvation?

Meanwhile, and most important, this theory contradicts the bibli-

cal teaching that the dead remain unconscious in the grave until the

final resurrection (Job 14:10–12; Ps. 146:4; Eccles. 9:5, 10; 1 Cor.

15:16–18; 1 Thess. 4:13–15).

Also, if this verse were really saying that Jesus, while bodily in

the tomb, went down to hell and preached to the wicked antediluvi-

ans, why did only they hear His message? Were no other lost people

burning in hell with them? Why did only the antediluvians hear Him

preach?

It also is senseless to suggest that Christ preached to the fallen angels

who had been disobedient in Noah’s day. While the “spirits in prison”

are described as having been disobedient “formerly” (1 Pet. 3:19, 20,

NKJV), the Bible speaks of the evil angels as still disobedient today

(Eph. 6:12, 1 Pet. 5:8). Furthermore, the fallen angels are “kept in

darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day”

(Jude 6, NIV), without any opportunity of salvation.

We should notice that in 1 Peter 3 the “spirits in prison” of verse

19 are identified in verse 20 as the “disobedient” antediluvians in the

“days of Noah.” The term spirit (Greek pneuma) is used in this text, and

elsewhere in the New Testament (1 Cor. 16:18, Gal. 6:18), in reference

to living people who can hear and accept the invitation of salvation. The

expression “in prison” obviously refers not to a literal prison, but to the

prison of sin in which the unregenerate human nature is found (Rom.

6:1–23, Rom. 7:7–25).

Christ’s preaching to the impenitent antediluvians was accomplished

through Noah, who was divinely instructed by God (Heb. 11:7) and

became a “preacher of righteousness” to his contemporaries (2 Pet.

2:5). Peter’s verses were written in the context of what it means to be

faithful; they are not a commentary on the state of the dead.