# 1 Peter 3:19



## Herald (Jan 30, 2007)

[bible]1 Peter 3:19-20[/bible]

I would like to hear explanations as to the interpretation of this verse.

Thanks.


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## DTK (Jan 30, 2007)

BaptistInCrisis said:


> [bible]1 Peter 3:19-20[/bible]
> 
> I would like to hear explanations as to the interpretation of this verse.
> 
> Thanks.


As I recall, the standard Puritan hermeneutic, and which I regard as doctrinally sound, is that Christ preached to the spirits of these men through Noah and in Noah's day. The text does not indicate that the message received by them was "while" or "when" they were in prison, but simply underscores that these "spirits" so incarcerated at the present heard the message of Christ when they were alive in the days of Noah. Compare what Peter goes on to affirm in the next chapter, 1 Peter 4:6 _For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit._ 1 Peter 3:20 speaks of them as "formerly disobedient," i.e. when they were alive they were disobedient to the message which was proclaimed to them.

I stand to be corrected by the historical reformed hermeneutic if I've misrepresented it.

DTK


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## MW (Jan 30, 2007)

I would concur that is the standard Reformed understanding. Where does the translation derive "because" from? It seems to me to convey the idea that the preaching of verse 19 was due to the disobedience in verse 20.


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## DTK (Jan 30, 2007)

armourbearer said:


> Where does the translation derive "because" from? It seems to me to convey the idea that the preaching of verse 19 was due to the disobedience in verse 20.


I agree with this pertinent question regarding the ESV translation. When I posted I had missed this translation of 1 Peter 3:20 in the ESV. There is, in my opinion, no basis for the introduction of the word, "because." I don't think the Greek text sustains this explanatory note. It seems to be a theological interpretive grid which has been imposed upon the translation.

DTK


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## Herald (Jan 30, 2007)

David...Matthew, thank you both.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 31, 2007)

Edward Veale (Matthew Poole's Annotations):



> 1 Pet 3:19. By which also; by which Spirit, mentioned in the end of the former verse, i.e. by, or in, his Divine nature, the same by which he was quickened. He; Christ. This notes the person that went and preached, as the former doth the nature in which, and so shows that what is here spoken of the person of Christ, is to be understood of him according to his Divine nature. Went; or, came, viz. from heaven, by all anthropopathy, by which figure God is often in Scripture said to go forth, Isa 26:21, to come down, Mic 1:3, and go down, Gen 18:21; Exod 3:8; which two latter places are best understood of the Second Person. This therefore here notes in Christ not a change of place, but a special operation, and testification of his presence. And preached; viz. by Noah, inspired by him, that he might be a preacher of righteousness, to warn a wicked generation of approaching judgment, and exhort them to repentance. Unto the spirits; souls of men departed, which are frequently called spirits, Eccles 12:7; Acts 7:59; Heb 12:23. In prison; i.e. in hell, so it is taken, Prov 27:20; compare with Matt 5:25; Luke 12:58, where prison is mentioned as a type or representation of hell; and the Syriac renders the word by Sheol, which signifies sometimes the grave and sometimes hell. See the like expression, 2 Pet 2:4-5; Jude 6.
> 
> 1 Pet 3:20. Which; which spirits in prison. Question. When were these spirits, to whom Christ preached by Noah, in prison? Answer. Then when Peter wrote this Epistle. The Greek participle of the present tense is here to be supplied, and the word thus read, preached to the spirits which are in prison, viz. now at this time; and so the time of their being in prison is opposed to the time of their being disobedient; their disobedience going before their imprisonment; q.d. They were disobedient then, they are in prison now. Sometime; viz. in the days of Noah, when they were upon earth. Were disobedient; would not believe what Noah told them in God's name, nor be brought to repentance by his preaching. When once; not always, but for a determinate time, viz. one hundred and twenty years; which term being expired, there was no hope left for them that they should be spared. The longsuffering of God; i.e. God in his patience and longsuffering. Waited; for the repentance and reformation of that rebellious generation. In the days of Noah; till the one hundred and twenty years were run out, and the ark, which was preparing for the security of him and his family, were finished. Eight souls; i.e. eight persons, Noah, and his wife, his three sons, and their wives. Were saved by water; either, 1. By water is here put for in, as Rom 4:11, that believe, though they be not circumcised: the same Greek preposition is used as here, and the words may be read, by, or through, or rather in uncircumcision; for uncircumcision was not the cause or means of their believing. See the like use of this particle, 2 Pet 3:5. Thus, saved in the water, is as much as, notwithstanding the water, or the water not hindering; so 1 Tim 2:15, saved in childbearing, where the same preposition is used. Or, 2. By water; the water which drowned the world, lifting up the ark and saving Noah and his household. Question. Doth not this place countenance the papists' limbus, or the place where the souls of the Old Testament fathers were reserved (as they pretend) till Christ's coming in the flesh? Answer. No: for, 1. The spirits here mentioned were disobedient, which cannot be said of the fathers of the Old Testament, who were true believers. 2. The spirits here mentioned are not said to be delivered out of prison, but only that Christ by his Spirit preached to them, and to his preaching to them their disobedience is opposed. 3. According to the papists, Noah and his family must be in their limbus, whereas they are opposed to those disobedient spirits to whom Christ is said to preach.



Zechariah Merrill (Matthew Henry's Commentary):



> II. The apostle passes from the example of Christ to that of the old world, and sets before the Jews, to whom he wrote, the different event of those who believed and obeyed Christ preaching by Noah, from those that continued disobedient and unbelieving, intimating to the Jews that they were under a like sentence. God would not wait much longer upon them. They had now an offer of mercy; those that accepted of it should be saved, but those who rejected Christ and the gospel should be as certainly destroyed as ever the disobedient in the times of Noah were.
> 
> 1. For the explication of this we may notice, (1.) The preacher—Christ Jesus, who has interested himself in the affairs of the church and of the world ever since he was first promised to Adam, Gen. iii. 15. He went, not by a local motion, but by special operation, as God is frequently said to move, Gen. xi. 5; Hos. v. 15; Mic. i. 3. He went and preached, by his Spirit striving with them, and inspiring and enabling Enoch and Noah to plead with them, and preach righteousness to them, as 2 Pet. ii. 5. (2.) The hearers. Because they were dead and disembodied when the apostle speaks of them, therefore he properly calls them spirits now in prison; not that they were in prison when Christ preached to them, as the vulgar Latin translation and the popish expositors pretend. (3.) The sin of these people: They were disobedient, that is, rebellious, unpersuadable, and unbelieving, as the word signifies; this their sin is aggravated from the patience and long-suffering of God (which once waited upon them for 120 years together), while Noah was preparing the ark, and by that, as well as by his preaching, giving them fair warning of what was coming upon them. (4.) The event of all: Their bodies were drowned, and their spirits cast into hell, which is called a prison (Matt. v. 25; 2 Pet. ii. 4, 5); but Noah and his family, who believed and were obedient, were saved in the ark.
> 
> 2. From the whole we learn that, (1.) God takes exact notice of all the means and advantages that people in all ages have had for the salvation of their souls; it is put to the account of the old world that Christ offered them his help, sent his Spirit, gave them fair warning by Noah, and waited a long time for their amendment. (2.) Though the patience of God wait long upon sinners, yet it will expire at last; it is beneath the majesty of the great God always to wait upon man in vain. (3.) The spirits of disobedient sinners, as soon as they are out of their bodies, are committed to the prison of hell, whence there is no redemption. (4.) The way of the most is neither the best, the wisest, nor the safest way to follow: better to follow the eight in the ark than the eight millions drowned by the flood and damned to hell.



John Calvin:



> 19. By which also. Peter added this, that we might know that the vivifying power of the Spirit of which he spoke, was not only put forth as to Christ himself, but is also poured forth with regard to us, as Paul shews in Romans 5:5. He then says, that Christ did not rise only for himself, but that he made known to others the same power of his Spirit, so that it penetrated to the dead. It hence follows, that we shall not less feel it in vivifying whatever is mortal in us.
> 
> But as the obscurity of this passage has produced, as usual, various explanations, I shall first disprove what has been brought forward by some, and secondly, we shall seek its genuine and true meaning.
> 
> ...


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## CDM (Jan 31, 2007)

This this link for an audio sermon of this passage. It is very informative.

Preached at the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte by Pastor Tim Worrell recently on 1/14/07.


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