"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." 1 Peter 3:18-20

In the church culture there's this belief of this passage that Messiah, while dead in the grave, went to hell and preached to the people of the Old Testament about the gospel of His salvation because no one could be saved under the Old Covenant and only through Him as He is the door that all men are saved.

The logical problem to this is that Enoch went to heaven, Elijah went to heave, angels fought over the body of Moses to bring him to heaven. We have record of man going to heaven before the crucifixion of Messiah.

Since there's this logical contrast I want to at this passage in 1 Peter, using the context of Scripture and the original language, and clear up any confusion revolving around this obscure passage.

Looking first at verse 18, in this King James reading, it says Christ was quickened. The Greek word here (zóopoieó) means to make live; therefore it's discussing the fact that Yeshua rose from the dead: other Bible versions make this clear.

In verse 18 we are seeing the quick story of Christ's death and resurrection: He suffered, was put to death and risen again. To this, there is no confusion. The confusion arises in verse 19.

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

Let's start with the word "spirits". Nowhere, in Holy Scripture, does it describe dead humans as "spirits". If we look at the Greek word used here, we see the word used is pneumasin; which only occurs three times in Scripture. Besides 1 Peter, it occurs in Luke 4:36 and 1 Timothy 4:1; and, in both instances, it refers to the unclean, deceitful, seducing spirits: it refers to the fallen angels.

This use of the english word "spirits" for demons is consistent with its use in the gospels as well (Matthew 8:16; 12:45; Mark 3:11; 5:13; 6:7; Luke 11:26; etc.). In the gospels, "spirits" consistently denotes "evil spirits," "demons," and "wicked spirits."

Further into this passage we see these spirts are imprisoned. The Bible does not refer to human beings who have died as being imprisoned in any way, not even those who have rebelled against and rejected God. Holy Scripture states they were "destroyed" or "killed" or "cut off" or sent to "Sheol," which is a pit or grave, but they are never imprisoned. Yet, the Bible speaks of the fallen angels, calling them spirits, being imprisoned; we see this in 2 Peter, Jude 6 and in Revelation 20:1-3 and verse 7. The "angels who sinned," Peter and Jude say, were cast down to Tartarus ("a place of restraint," a prison) where they are bound until God judges them. Tartarus is not "hell", as some suppose, but it is their "first estate"; earth (Ezekiel 28:17; Revelation 12:7-9).

So, we see the context of language and words around spirit and imprisonment but what about Peter giving reference to the times of Noah?

Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."

Let's look ahead to the second letter of Peter for context of the way Peter thinks and communicates; remember, context is everything.

"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;" 2 Peter 2:4-5

We see Peter referring to the fallen angels and he talks about their bounding or imprisonment. He refers back to the times of Noah, yet he does not mention anything about man, or the old world being imprisoned, they simply were not spared. Not that this passage lays any more weight on who these spirits are, as context makes clear they are fallen angels, but we see a pattern used by Peter, and this would explain his time marker in the phrase, "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,".

In Satan's sin, only the demons themselves were affected, but when they corrupted mankind, human beings who were potential sons of God were affected. The evil spirits tried their best to corrupt the world, driving the world into such a sinful state that only eight were found to be righteous at that time. At their best, they failed as God baptized the world and started fresh with those eight righteous.

Let's move to another important word misinterpreted in verse 19 and that's "preached". The the Greek word used here is kêrússô; and it means "to be a herald," "to proclaim," "to announce," "to publish," or "to preach." Although it can be used as such, it does not necessarily mean "to preach the gospel to" or "to preach salvation too.". Because Peter does not specify what Y'shua "proclaimed" or "announced", to assume the preaching of the gospel is not warranted. The only clue we have of what He proclaimed appears in the immediate context: that He was "made alive by the Spirit."

This being the case, verse 19 says simply that, after Y'shua was resurrected, He ascended to heaven, proclaiming to the imprisoned evil spirits that He lived! The demons, once again, had failed just as they failed in the days of Noah..

Verse 22 supports this understanding, "who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him." This agrees with many scriptures that speak of His exaltation over all things, for example, Philippians 2:9-10 says, "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth."

Y'shua's ascension to the throne of God proclaimed His victory over death and over Satan and his demons!

Now that we look at the Greek words used, and their meanings, and we've looked at the context of this passage, and Holy Scripture as a whole, we see that Peter is not talking about Y'shua descending to Hell during His death, and preaching the gospel to those who died in the days of Noah that are in a place of waiting. This is a Catholicism, purgatory, teaching that was given birth out of manichaeism and paganism. It is appointed for everyone once to die, then the judgment (Heb 9:27); there is no second chance for anyone.

In context, we see that Y'shua suffered and He died; and He was raised from the dead (vs 19). He then ascended to the right hand of YHWH (vs 22), and proclaimed to the fallen spirits (vs 20), who drove this world into such a sinful stated as in the times of Noah (vs 21), that they failed again!

Look how much more beautiful and victorious this portion of Scripture is when we see it for what it was meant to say.

God Bless