…And just what DID Peter mean when he said that Jesus “made a proclamation to imprisoned spirits?”

I’m not totally sure on that. But I am leaning in one direction.

As is usual, here is the video link:

1 Peter 3:18-22

Audio links are to the right.

Here is the transcript that todays podcast was based on.

3:18-22 …Because that is what Jesus did

If we suffer for doing good, know this…

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 

“For Christ also suffered” suggests that the example of Christ’s experience through suffering into victory gives assurance that those joined to him will share the same destiny.

He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive,[d] he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. 

I do not believe the term “imprisoned spirits” refers to those who died during the flood. I can’t recall the term “spirits” being used to refer to humans. If we assume that the term “spirits” refers to imprisoned fallen angels, then what Peter refers to here is Jesus after His death, (perhaps during the 3 days He was in the Tomb before He showed Himself to His followers), going to where these fallen angels are imprisoned (Sheol?) and proclaiming victory. He is not preaching the Gospel to them – He is proclaiming victory.

The message here is that through suffering Christians go on to victory. Those who oppose Christians will be defeated (Col 2:15; 2Th 1:6-8).

Zondervan’s thoughts on this are intriguing:

To sum up, the thought of vv.18-19 may be paraphrased as follows:

“He was put to death in the human sphere of existence but was made alive in the resurrection sphere of existence, in which state of existence he made a proclamation of his victory to the fallen angels.”

In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.[e] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

These fallen angels are now identified as those who were disobedient at the time of Noah. This connects with the rebellion of Ge 6:1-4:

Genesis 6:1-4

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Peter makes a connection between the disobedience of the spirits and the Flood-judgment. The Flood-judgment is a warning to humanity of God’s coming final judgment on the disobedient world (cf. Mt 24:37-41; 2Pe 3:3-7). The ark that saved a few through water portrays the salvation now available in Christ.

Blessings!

Paige C. Garwood M.Ed;MFA