Commentaries Miss THIS: 1 Peter 3:19 - Michael Heiser & Chuck Missler Explain The Mission of Christ

Here verse 19 we have a verse that's

widely confusing many people over the

centuries. Peter says by which also he

went and preached unto the spirits in

prison

is that he who is the he and who are the

spirits and where are they? Which

spirits are we talking about here?

When were they preached to?

What are we talking about? There's a

peculiar passage in the first epistle of

Peter that details an event that

involved Jesus ministering to spirits

who are quote in prison. And as we'll

find out, many pastors and Bible

commentators will either overlook this

key piece of information or misinterpret

it. Let's go ahead and read 1 Peter

3:15-22.

But sanctify the Lord God in your

hearts, and be ready always to give an

answer to every man that asks of you, a

reason of the hope that is in you, with

meekness and fear, having a good

conscience, that whereas they speak evil

of you, as of evildoers, they may be

ashamed that falsely accuse your good

conversation in Christ. For it is

better, if the will of God be so, that

you suffer well for doing than for

evildoing.

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

preparing, wherein few, that is, eight

souls were saved by water. the like

figure where unto even baptism does also

now save us. Not the putting away of the

filth of the flesh, but the answer of a

good conscience toward God by the

resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has

gone into heaven and is on the right

hand of God, angels and authorities and

powers being made subject unto him.

This passage is jam-packed with wisdom,

but the key phrase I want to direct your

attention to is by which also Jesus went

and preached unto the spirits in prison.

Some argue that this preaching to the

spirits in prison actually took place

during the lifetime of Noah. This view

suggests that the pre-existent Christ

preached through the Holy Spirit inside

of Noah as he built the ark, warning the

wicked generation whose spirits are now

in prison of the judgment that was soon

to take place.

Proponents of this view will suggest

that since Jesus pre-existed as the word

of God before he was born a human being,

he already visited the people in the

times of Noah, claiming that their

spirits were already imprisoned during

the building of Noah's ark and was

attempting to set them free. Hence the

phrase when once the longsuffering of

God waited in the days of Noah while the

ark was preparing. The other viewpoint

for interpreting this passage suggests

that Peter is alluding to an event that

took place following the crucifixion and

is more literally referring to Jesus

descending into shol the underworld or

the realm of the dead and proclaiming

his victory to spirits who reside there.

This viewpoint can be broken into two

subcategories. The first sees Jesus

preaching to disobedient human souls

from Noah's time claiming his ultimate

victory over sin and death. This

interpretation lends itself to

proliferate into a heap of other

theories like the Eastern Orthodox

heroing of hell doctrine which states

that Jesus preached to those souls who

died before his time offering them a

chance to repent and accept the gospel.

This is considered to be an offer of

post-mortem salvation. The other

subcategory, and this is my personal

belief, is that Jesus went into the

abyss between the crucifixion and

resurrection to declare his victory over

the fallen angels who were in part

responsible for the wickedness in Noah's

day. This interpretation takes into

account the larger overarching storyline

that the Bible presents of the cosmic

spiritual battle that's been waged

between Yahweh and an entire hierarchy

of rebellious divine beings for

millennia. For a comprehensive look at 1

Peter 3 and why the other

interpretations of this passage are

flimsy when you hold them up to other

parts of scripture, let's check out this

fantastic clip of Dr. Chuck Mistler

examining the text. Then we get to a

very strange verse coming. The spirits

in prison. Which spirits and who are

they preached to? Verse 19. Verse 18 is

a great verse. You can take that whole

verse and make a a study of it. I'll

leave it to you to go through the notes

and so on. Here verse 19 we have a verse

that's widely confusing many people over

the centuries. Peter says by which also

he went and preached unto the spirits in

prison

is that he who is the he and who are the

spirits and where are they? Which

spirits are we talking about here?

When were they preached to?

What are we talking about?

The spirits in prison.

Clement of Alexandria about in the

second century AD, he taught that Christ

was sent to Hades in his spirit to

proclaim the message of salvation to the

souls of sinners who were imprisoned

there since the flood. That's what he

taught early. Sorry, that view is

inconsistent with scripture. There is no

conversion after death anywhere. Some

people try to read that into this big

mistake. That's not what it's talking

about. Apparently,

Augustine a couple of centuries later

said that the pre-existent Christ

proclaimed salvation through Noah to the

people who lived before the flood. H

that's a little more possible.

However, Augustine is departing from the

context of the previous verse.

This follows verse 19 follows verse 18.

That's not accidental. One follows the

other.

He went and preached. Now we get misled

by that word preached.

It actually comes from Caruso to

proclaim

and not preach in the sense of seeking

repentance.

Simply proclaim or declaration is what

that word actually means.

The it doesn't necessarily imply

repentance as its object. It can include

simply declaring a victory

is is is coruso. Just to break in here

for a moment, I want to highlight what

Chuck just said. This Greek word kuso is

translated a couple of ways in different

versions of the Bible. For instance, the

KJV has it as preached and the ESV has

it as proclaimed.

But either way, when you look at the

original Greek, the Strong's concordance

defines Kuso as a verb that means to

herald, especially divine truth, to

proclaim or publish. And the theer's

Greek lexicon defines it as to be a

herald always with a suggestion of

formality, gravity, and an authority

which must be listened to and obeyed.

While this verb is often attached to the

idea of preaching and offering

repentance, it's just as often attached

to the idea of the kingdom of God and

making a proclamation thereof, which is

in effect what we see here.

Jesus was proclaiming the establishment

of the kingdom of God and the authority

being stripped away from the spirits in

prison. But let's get back to Chuck

because he goes further into the text

and touches on some important points for

our discussion. Now, the spirits,

the term is usually applied to

supernatural beings, but it is used at

least once, maybe more than that, uh to

human spirits in Hebrews 12 is an

example. And they are described in the

following verse coming as those who were

disobedient when God waited patiently

for Noah to finish building the ark.

We're going to discover that in Peter's

thought here. The next verse is going to

reveal what he has in his mind is Noah

building the ark. Okay, so let's take a

look at that. See, they the spirits had

rebelled against the message of God

during the years the ark was being

built.

God declared that he would not tolerate

people's wickedness forever. but in

longsuffering extended the life of

Methuselah delaying the judgment by 120

years. Methuselah's life becomes a model

of God's mercy and it's the longest

lifetime in the Bible I think

deliberately

since the entire human race except Noah

was evil. God determined to wipe mankind

from the face of the earth. Genesis get

all this is out of Genesis 6.

The spirits referred to in 1 Peter 3:20

may be the souls of the evil human race

that existed in the days of Noah, the

people that drowned in the flood. Those

spirits are now in prison awaiting the

final judgment of God at the end of the

millennium.

Okay, it's possible.

The problem then remains as to when did

Christ preach to those spirits. Given

that that's what the spirits means,

there's two possibilities. One is that

he visited them after the crucifixion,

but not necessarily. Let's take a look

at this. Peter's explanation of the

resurrection of Christ by the spirit,

emphasized in verse 18, brings to mind

the suggestion that the pre-incarnate

Christ was ministering through Noah by

means of the Holy Spirit. that Christ

preached to Noah to those those people

in that era through the Holy Spirit in

Noah, not as a as a physical

manifestation.

The spirit of Christ preached through

Noah to the ungodly humans who at the

time of Peter's writing were spirits in

prison awaiting final judgment. Those

people that didn't listen to Noah that

drowned are lost in sh awaiting the

final judgment. And that's what Peter

may have in mind here. And this

presentation is very is is the general

one that most conservative uh

commentators tend to um infer here.

This interpretation seems to fit the

theme of this whole section from verse

13 to 22. Um that is keeping a good

conscience in unjust persecution. Noah

is presented as an example of one who

committed himself to a course of action

for the sake of a clear conscience

before God. Though it meant enduring

harsh ridicule. Can you imagine Noah

building this boat for 120 years.

The ridicule

that that testimony that he was trying

to give the people all his neighbors

fell on you know on on blind blind eyes.

Can you imagine having the structure in

your driveway for 120 years and the

neighbor saying laughing because it it

had never rained till then?

The flood was preached on for four

generations

and certainly laughed at in Noah's case

for 120 years until of course it came.

But see verse 20 adds to this. Which

sometime were disobedient when once the

longsuffering of God waited in the days

of Noah while the ark was preparing

wherein few that is eight souls were

saved by water. How many is a few?

Eight. It's defined here in 1 Peter

3:20. But the point is out of the entire

world some scholars estimate there must

have been several billion people on the

planet earth in those days. But they

were all evil. And God chose to save

eight souls.

eight souls

once the long suffering of God waited in

the day. See the Peter's mind is back

then

the flood has postponed for 120 years.

Remember he's going to say in his next

letter he's going to remind us that the

Lord is longsuffering to us not willing

that any should perish and that was his

attitude back then. He gave them 120

years to get with it. They didn't.

when see that the timing of this is

critical to understanding the whole the

thrust of the passage here in Christ's

day the spirits of those men whom Noah

had preached to were in prison for they

had rejected the message of Noah they

had gone into shaol

hades in the Greek shol in the Hebrew

that's not the grave the grave is

physical you can own a grave no sh or

hades is a domain of the spirits where

they're shackled and they're waiting for

judgment they were lost back then and

they still are. Christ did not go down

and preach to them after he died on the

cross as some people teach.

He had preached through Noah already

when once the longsuffering of God

waited in the days of Noah. The time

that Peter has in mind here is back

then, not something that occurred after

the cross. Follow me. That's the

argument here. That's the most common

view of this.

The when for 120 years Noah preached the

word of God. He saved his family but no

one else. It was a spirit of Christ who

spoke through Noah in Noah's day. In

Christ's day, those who rejected Noah's

message were in prison. The thought is

that Christ's death meant nothing to

them, just as it means nothing to a

great many people today who as a result

will also come unto judgment.

See, Peter's drawing a parallel here

between the people that don't hear

Christ today are in an analogous

position as those that weren't paying

attention to Noah's message back in

Genesis 6. You with me? That's the

thought that Peter has here. But it gets

a little spookier.

Some people I haven't sold this hard,

but I want you to be at least aware of

this view that these incarcerated

spirits are fallen angels.

Frederick Spa about in about 1890

he in his commentary applied Christ's

proclamation to the fallen angels of

Genesis 6. And this seems to be

confirmed in second Peter 2:4. We'll

talk about that in the next epistle and

also in Jude 6. That whole issue, the

whole spooky side of Genesis 6. We do

know that Christ did pass through the

realm where the fallen angels are kept

and proclaimed his triumph over them.

And that's alluded to in Colossians

2:15. And it's also alluded to in effect

in Ephesians 6:12.

Wrestle not against flesh and blood and

so forth.

See, so another possible explanation of

this passage is that the spirits in

prison are the fallen angels of Genesis

6 who consorted with the daughters of

men going after strange flesh as Jude

verses 6 and 7 explains it. The word

prison in 3:19 refers to the place of

judgment mentioned in second Peter 2:4,

the chains of darkness. And second Peter

2:4 ties that to the days of Noah. Also,

that all ties together. And we'll take

that up a little bit more in detail when

we get to the next epistle.

It was this violation of God's order to

help bring the flood, which explains why

Peter mentions Noah.

See, Noah's flood was not just because

everybody was sinful. There was a gene

pool problem of the Nephilim. That's a

whole study you have to deal with

separately.

I want you to notice also when we get to

verse 22 that Peter's theme is the

subjection of angels to Christ. That's

in his mind as he goes through here.

These fallen angels were not subject to

him. Excuse me. These fallen angels were

not subject to him and therefore were

judged because they should have been

subject to him. Between his death and

resurrection, Christ visited these

angels in prison and announced his

victory over Satan. The word preached in

verse 319 means to announce and not to

preach the gospel. Jesus announced their

doom and his victory over all angels and

authorities.

Praise God. And it's likely that at this

same time Christ led captivity captive

as Ephesians 4:18 refers to it, rescuing

the godly souls that were in sh or hades

and he took them to heaven. And that's

all laid out in Luke 16:es 19 to31 if

you want to get into the background

there.

The main point, whichever view you take

of this passage, let's understand this.

There's not one hint here or actually

anywhere else in scripture of anyone

having a second chance to be saved after

death.

There may be sanctification occurs to

the saved people after death. That's a

whole study of the millennium and what

may be going on there. But at death, you

are either you either you're either

saved or not. And there's never anywhere

in the scripture a hint of

revising that. That's why it's so

critical. That's what this lifetime is

all about.

>> So this is an important fact to take

note of that there's nowhere in the

scripture that alludes to an opportunity

to accept salvation after death. This is

where the idea of Jesus preaching to the

souls of man starts to fall apart. There

just isn't any contextual evidence that

a soul can be converted from the

underworld. But speaking of context, I

want you to see this clip of Dr. Michael

Heiser explaining his take on this

particular verse because he draws our

attention to Peter's use of the book of

Enoch and how this was meant to portray

a distinct image of Jesus proclaiming

his victory to the fallen angels from

Genesis 6. Let's check it out. The

authors of the New Testament, as you

pointed out in previous conversations,

had the the the book that we call the

book of Enoch, book of first Enoch, more

specifically, in mind when they were

composing what we know of as the books

of the New Testament today.

>> Um, but there is there there's some

theological implications that that,

you know, I never thought about, didn't

even frame a reference for before we

started talking about this book. uh for

for example the uh the New Testament

concept of water baptism.

>> What does that have to do with the sin

of the watchers from back in Genesis 6?

>> Yeah. I wish Peter were sitting here.

He'd do a better job of answering.

No, but it it actually comes from first

Peter. And in that particular chapter, I

focus on 1 Peter 3. And it for those

again who can't you know completely

recall it this is the chapter where

Peter bundles

the you know the angels the flood the

spirits in prison baptism Noah the ark

the resurrection it's like blows it all

out right put it in the blender and see

what comes out you know

>> that's a lot of stuff to think about for

a guy who was a career fisherman up

until the point that Jesus said come

follow me

>> right it it's like what are you thinking

here you know where'd this come from and

it it's a great passage passage is one

of my favorites. I uh in the unseen

realm, I actually tell a story and it's

a true story about when I was in

graduate school looking for a church. Me

and my wife were church hopping and we

wound up at a place where the guy did a

really good job. He was going through

First Peter and then we thought, "Yeah,

this is probably it." And then we went

away for a while and came back and we

and we landed back in there when it was

first Peter 3 time, you know, and I

thought, "Yeah, this is going to clench

it. This is going to be it." and he

literally got up into the pulpit and

said, "Now, you know, we've been going

through First Peter for x number of

weeks, and here we are in 1 Peter 3, you

know, 14-22, and we're just going to

skip this."

>> Oh, wow.

>> He said, he said, "It's so weird. I

don't have any idea what it means."

>> At least he was honest about it.

>> We're just going to skip it. And I'm

like, I'm like stunned. You know, I have

never seen anybody be that honest.

you're like, "Wow,

>> we're just we're just going to pretend

it's not there."

>> And needless to say, we didn't go back,

you know, but it was really

disappointing because this is a great

passage. And the the key to

understanding it really is first Enoch.

It's the Enochian story of of the sin of

the watchers. Because

what Peter is doing is he's referencing

Enoch and his story in that book like

Paul references Adam.

>> Now, we're familiar with Romans 5, you

know, some other passages in Romans

where Adam is referred to as a tupas, as

a type of Jesus or the antitype in this

case. And for those who who aren't

familiar with typology, think of verbal

prophecy. A prophet gets up and, you

know, verbally utter, you know, utters

some prediction of things to come. A

type is a nonverbal prophecy where a

person or an event or an institution

like Passover,

something happens, you know, some some

part of Israel's history that prefigures

something to come.

>> And so for Paul, Adam becomes a

prefigurement of Jesus. Adam is a type

of Christ. Okay. Well, if you can

understand that when you go over to

first Peter 3, Enoch is for Peter what

Adam, okay, was for Paul. So Enoch

becomes a type of Jesus for Peter.

>> Oh wow.

>> And to to understand what what Peter's

thinking, you have to know the story of

Enoch given in first Enoch. And what's

the story? Well, again, for those who

haven't read the book of Enoch, here's

the short version. We have the Watchers

again transgress with with the human

women. They produce the Nephilim, the

giants. And God is angry. And he says to

his other archangels, "Hey, throw those

guys in the abyss. Throw them in jail."

And and and he do. And the Watchers are

repentant. You know, they they're like,

"Boy, we we really made a mistake here.

This is, you know, this is terrible. we

don't want to, you know, you know, spend

the rest of our existence here until the

end of days and who knows what that

means. And so they say, well, you know,

God likes Enoch. You know, he took Enoch

to heaven with him. So, let's contact

Enoch. And we're not told how they do

it, but but they get a hold of Enoch and

they say, "Will you go to God and

intercede for us? Those

>> those of us, you know, these spirits, us

in prison,

>> okay? will you go to God and say we're

sorry and and ask God to change his

mind? So Enoch says,"Yeah, I'll do

that." So he goes, he gets the message

from God. Of course, the answer is not a

good one if you're a watcher.

>> And he and he now catch this. Enoch

ascends to heaven, gets the answer from

God, and then he descends to the spirits

in prison,

>> and he he lowers the boom, and he says,

"Well, I talked to God." and you're

toast. You're not getting out of here.

>> Wow.

>> Okay. He's not changing his mind.

>> Mhm.

>> And so Peter takes this episode and he

sees an analogy to Jesus,

>> right,

>> with the whole ascension, you know,

because we have other passages that talk

about when Jesus was in the grave, he

goes and he preaches to the spirits in

prison in in Peter and and you have

other language like that. And so what

what what's going on in Peter's mind is

that when Jesus dies, he goes into the

underworld, okay, which is where they're

in prison, the realm of the dead, cuz

he's dead. Where else would you go?

>> Okay, so he goes down there and instead

of the scene being, you know, this talk

about the watchers about, okay, God

knows you're sorry, but sorry anyway,

you know, you're still going to stay

here. Instead, he's preaching now to the

denisens, the spiritual denisens of the

underworld. Okay. Hell. And what does he

announce to them?

Okay. You're still losers.

>> Okay. You think that now that I've shown

up here, I'm dead.

>> You think you've won. You and those who

agree with you, the the other spiritual

rebels that the Old Testament talks

about that that this is a done deal now.

The the pursuit of the kingdom of God,

the re reinstitution of Eden, it's it's

game over. I mean, God has lost because

I'm here and you know who I am. But

instead, he's like, "Okay, I'm here. I'm

not going to be here for long."

In other words, I'm going to get out of

here. I'm going to rise from the dead,

and you will still be here.

>> This is absolutely fascinating when we

realize that Enoch was a prevalent text

at the time of the writing of First

Peter. The big picture starts to come

into view. And that's the importance of

not only researching the original

languages in which the scriptures were

written, but also learning the

historical and societal context of the

biblical authors. Peter was undoubtedly

familiar with the book of Enoch and had

this in his mind when he was writing

this particular passage, much like Jude

does in his epistle.

But the thought I want us to take away

from this study is that Jesus did

something absolutely incredible when he

descended into the abyss. He overcame

death and Hades for us. He stripped the

authority of death away from Satan. And

because of that, we literally have

nothing to fear. Remember when Paul

quoted the prophet Hosea in 1

Corinthians 15:55,

"Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave,

where is thy victory?"

Through Jesus Christ, we have victory

over death, the grave, shol, Hades, and

all the other byproducts of the fall.

But at any rate, I pray that this video

has been a blessing to you. And if

you've made it this far, please like

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David, and leave a comment that says

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shine his face upon you and give you

peace.

Heat. Hey, Heat.