This is, indeed, a more tolerable sense than the former; but it will be difficult to show, that men, in the present state of life, are called "spirits", which seems to be a word that relates to the souls of men, in a separate state from their bodies; and especially that carnal and unconverted men are ever so called; and besides, the apostle is speaking of such who were disobedient in the times of Noah; and therefore not of the Gentiles, in the times of the apostles: add to which, that the transition from the times of the apostles, according to this sense, to the days of Noah, is very unaccountable; this sense does not agree with the connection of the words: others are of opinion, that this is meant of the souls of the Old Testament saints, who were , "in a watch", as they think the phrase may be rendered, instead of "in prison": and said to be in such a situation, because they were intent upon the hope of promised salvation, and were looking out for the Messiah, and anxiously desiring his coming, and which he, by some gracious manifestation, made known unto them: but though the word may sometimes signify a watch, yet more commonly a prison, and which sense best suits here; nor is that anxiety and uneasiness, which represents them as in a prison, so applicable to souls in a state of happiness; nor such a gracious manifestation so properly called preaching; and besides, not believers, but unbelievers, disobedient ones, are here spoken of; and though it is only said they were sometimes so, yet to what purpose should this former character be once mentioned of souls now in glory? We know that in human relations it is not so. It is into this very snare that unbelief has brought men in Christendom. One must exercise and give oneself up to the cultivation of that gift which God has given. No such words are used, nor is this what he means. (c) If Christ descended into Hades and preached there, there is no corner of the universe into which the message of grace has not come. That is, our hope arises from being born anew and this new birth comes in some sense thru Jesus' resurrection. Without that question and answer the contract was not valid. Such was Hades, into which the spirits of all men went after death. I admit that what is in the Bible requires faith; and this is as it should be. A Christian wife of those times lived in a society where she would be tempted to senseless extravagance and where she might well go in fear of the caprices of her heathen husband; but she must live in selfless service, in goodness and in serene trust. Matthew 24:37-39//Luke 17:26-27)." It was no afterthought, but His settled plan. In the Revelation the song of praise comes from every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth ( Revelation 5:13). and patriarchs, under the former dispensation: others think the By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Jesus preached to them through the apostles. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer" ( 1 John 3:14-15). The text of 1 Pet 3:19-20 is indeed difficult, but not incomprehensible. Verse 19. I do not believe in these glory-men, or resurrection-men either, without the blood of Jesus; but, on the other hand, as little are we in scripture limited to that most wonderful of all foundations redemption through Christ Jesus our Lord. We should use similar language now. for they were in peace and rest, in the kingdom of heaven, in disobedient in the times of Noah; and therefore not of the Praise to God for a Living Hope 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He tells her something very simple--nothing else than to be a good wife. Publius Sempronius Sophus divorced his wife because once she went to the public games. In his body he suffered the penalty for their sins - death. In the thrilling early days of the Church this prayer was fulfilled, for they were all of one heart and of soul ( Acts 4:32). On the other method of interpretation, we can suggest a reason why they were particularly specified. We can easily comprehend it. It is a mistake to construe it of one that knows not what took place in the lower parts of the earth. The word is a somewhat difficult one; but I believe the force is that it is what conscience wants and asks for from God. Jesus said, "Blessed are ye," and the word "blessed" is happy; "when men persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. The consequence would be that much of the exercise of spiritual affection which humbles the soul, a vast deal which renders needful the gracious present care of the Lord Jesus as advocate and priest on high, would be of necessity left out. They had been used to this and more in Judaism, but it had all passed away. It was a real inward and not merely external setting apart; it was through "sanctification of the Spirit." From there, it next notes, "And when they had brought them." The wording makes it evident that the apostles freely went with the guards and that they were not bound or conducted . The Psalmist wrote: "In death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who can give thee praise?" There is at least one passage in the Old Testament which lists the various items of female adornment and threatens the day of judgment in which they will be destroyed. And this "prison" must not be understood (with Bp. The Romanists say that it was while in prison; that Christ, after he was put to death in the body, was still kept alive in his spirit, and went and proclaimed his gospel to those who were in prison. It may be to him a burden or a bore or something which he vaguely desires but the price of which he is not willing to pay in terms of effort. If they despised it, they none the less suffered the consequences. But this was never the case with Jesus. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation or behavior of the wives ( 1 Peter 3:1 ); Or the lifestyle of the wife. At first sight it looks like injustice. human soul of Christ, but his divine nature, is designed by the Now all this is here judged and set aside as quite wrong The elders are exhorted and warned. But, besides this, what a spring is conveyed to the soul by the sense that his life is the life of Jesus in resurrection. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. And so he talked about, first of all, the servants submitting themselves unto their own masters, Christ leaving us an example. He was about to be a sacrifice for sin, giving Himself up spite of suffering, not only from man, but from God. In face of all this Peter pleads for the graces which adorn the heart, which are precious in the sight of God. That is, "the eighth --eight souls saved by water," "The like figure", whereunto even baptism doth also now save us ( 1 Peter 3:21 ). 3:1-2 Likewise, you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that, if there are any who refuse to believe the word, they may be won for Christ without a word because they have seen your pure and reverent behaviour. This is not the. We have already seen that in the ancient world women had no part in public life whatsoever; they had nothing to pass their time; for that reason it was sometimes argued that they must be allowed an interest in dress and adornment. Unto Christ's obedience and the sprinkling of His blood; for "Jesus Christ" belongs to both these clauses. 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 Peter 2:5. "And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him" ( Genesis 5:24). There were as many ways of dressing the hair as there were bees in Hybca. (iv) Fourth, Peter sets compassion. This is the important difference here revealed. There is no difficulty that I see about it. Accordingly their land became the possession of the Gentiles; and so it has gone on to this day. Again, when Peter is talking about the banishing of fear, he is thinking of Isaiah 8:13, "But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.". knowing that you are thereunto called, that you should inherit a blessing ( 1 Peter 3:9 ). And water now saves you, who were symbolically represented in Noah and his company, I mean the water of baptism; and baptism is not merely the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge to God of a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, because he went to heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been made subject to him. John dragging her. That He might be able to wash and cleanse you from your sin in order that you might have the purposes of God accomplished in your life as you fellowship with God. It is not a description of all that died in unbelief, but of a generation favoured with a special testimony and smitten by a particular stroke of judgment. There is no kind of a hierarchy in the spiritual realm. And why does Peter notice them particularly? What Christ was to them then was all: not in the least did any suspect (for indeed it was not yet true) that any were in Him. It was just before that judgment fell on them, and this because they despised the testimony of Christ through Noah. And this is a point that Peter presses on them, a startling thought for a Jew, yet they had only to reflect in order to know how true it is: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." 1 Likewise. All that is needful is to identify them as the same persons who once had this prospect. [Note: Michaels, p. This is the more important, because of itself it completely dissipates a thought as common as it is grievous to the Lord, that Christ is the one in whom the love is, and that His task for the most part is to turn away the totally opposite feeling that is in God Himself. Jesus came to open the prison to those that are bound, or to open up Hades to those people who were bound there, who died before Jesus died for our sins. as some, to preach to the devils and damned spirits, that they Such is the path of trial through which the believer goes forward, putting to the proof the faith which God has given him:" That the trial of your faith" (not of flesh as under the law) "being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.". Our relationships with God can never be right, if our relationships with our fellow-men are wrong. (c) Abarim Publications first published on 2017-07-11; last updated on 2022-05-13, free, online interlinear (Greek/English), word by word translation and Greek grammar parsing codes, , translated word by word and with Greek grammar parsing codes, https://www.abarim-publications.com/Interlinear-New-Testament/1-Peter/1-Peter-3-parsed.html, The Passion of the Christ and the Theory of Everything, Stars and fractals: the many hearts of wisdom, How the Bible relates to Homer like Ape to Dog, How circumcision created the modern world, The many Hebrew roots of the Greek language. Not so; for as He came out in the love of God, who none the less must by this very Christ judge every soul that lives in sin and unbelief, He would not go back to heaven until He bad by His own sacrifice completely put sin away. What was its content? Unto the spirits in prison - That is, clearly, to the spirits now in prison, for this is the fair meaning of the passage. acc-pl-neu. They were apt to rise against oppression and to fail in obedience to a superior, at least among the heathen. If a man does not carry the sense in his soul that it is God's flock, I do not think he is fit to be an elder or in any other office of spiritual trust: he is far from the right ground for being a blessing to what, after all, is God's flock. but it would By which also he went and . Women cannot hold public offices, or priesthoods, or gain triumphs; they have no public occupations. In Christ Jesus the dividing walls are down, and Jew and Greek are united into one ( Ephesians 2:13-14). unto Abraham, so before him. 1 PETER 3:19 evn w|- kai, Several scholars have advocated the conjectural emendation that introduces the subject "Enoch" (enwkaienw,). But it did not matter whether one gave silver or gold, it was all corruptible; and to what did it come at last? And I am persuaded that a hardness of character, quite intolerable to men of spiritual minds, would inevitably be generated by making all our food to consist in what could be extracted from Ephesians and Colossians, the effect of which would soon become painfully sensible to others. Isaiah had called Sara the mother of God's faithful people ( Isaiah 51:2); and if Christian wives are adorned with the same graces of modesty, humility and chastity, they too will be her daughters and will be within the family of the faithful people of God. Interlinear Bible. Another ancient MS. in my possession has the words nearly as in the printed copy: In quo et hiis qui in carcere CONCLUSI erant SPIRITUALITER veniens praedicavit; "in which, coming spiritually, he preached to those who were SHUT UP in prison.". They were those who were sometimes disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. No others are specified; and if it should be maintained that this means that he went down to hell (Hades), or to Sheol, and preached to those who are confined there, it could be inferred from this passage only that he preached to that portion of the lost spirits confined there which belonged to the particular generation in which Noah lived. A more probable explanation is that these "spirits" were the unbelievers who disobeyed God in Noahs day by rejecting his preaching. in which he went and made a proclamation to those imprisoned spirits. 2. 1 Adv. I pray that God will always grant to me a tender heart, a heart of compassion. For Christ also died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. The rite of baptism doesn't save. Certainly such is not the teaching of God's word anywhere, still less is it what the apostle Peter insists on here. John Piper Sep 19, 2015. It is not merely the Christian who is called to this, but this is what Christ was called to. Undue interest in self-adornment was then, as it still is, a sign that the person who indulged in it had no greater things to occupy her mind. 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. In short, we find here too a guard which shows the meaning more clearly. desiring his coming, and which he, by some gracious There is nothing contrary to sound truth or principle in that, but indeed a very great defect in those who do not believe it; in fact, it is flying in the face of scripture. "She that was at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you." And you have become her children, if you do good, and if you do not become a prey to fluttering fears. Therefore the words must be properly understood of the dead. Israel must wait; but we do not. The whole attitude of ancient civilization was that no woman could dare take any decision for herself. This was done in the mighty work of the Saviour on the cross; and not the fact only but its results were made good when Christ, after having breathed His own risen life into them, went up to heaven and sent down the Holy Ghost that they might taste the joy and have the power of it. A second group believes Jesus preached to Noahs sinful generation while Noah was living on the earth. He has always been a fascinating and mysterious person. . Who is gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him ( 1 Peter 3:22 ). Its full meaning is met by the interpretation that Christ once preached to the spirits then in prison, to wit, in the days of Noah; that is, that he caused a divine message to be borne to them. So Herodotus, to these things they spake, saying - for they said. To restrict yourself to it would be a wrong, not so much to your own soul as to God's grace; and if there be any difference, especially to Him who suffered all things for God's glory and for our own infinite blessing. This accordingly gave occasion for God to exercise a new kind of choice. for the apostle prescribes two things: 1. consideration for the wife, as of the weaker sex: 2. honour for the wife, as a fellow-heir of the grace of life. patriarchs from thence, and carried them with him to heaven; but So Peter takes up a passage of Leviticus, and shows that it is strictly true yea, if one can employ such an expression, more true (of course meaning by this more manifestly true) under the Christian than under the Jewish system. The science of finding types and antitypes in the Old and the New Testaments is very highly developed. This I have long believed to be the sense of this difficult passage, and no other that I have seen is so consistent with the whole scope of the place. 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