The spirits
in prison mentioned in 1Peter 3:19, who
are they?By
Jack Kettler
Are these spirits in prison,
those
who get a second chance at salvation? Are
these the spirits of men, or angels
or demons? These two are the main questions
we will seek an answer to. As in
previous studies, we will look at
definitions, scriptures, commentary
evidence,
and confessional support for the purpose to
glorify God in how we live.
Scripture
“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.” (1Peter 3:19-20)
ΠΕΤΡΟΥ Α΄
3:19 Greek NT: Stephanus Textus
Receptus
1550
This passage of Scripture has
been
the subject of much speculation. We will
look at an older historical
interpretation and then a contemporary
commentary entry - first, the older
commentary entry.
First, from Ellicott's
Commentary
for English Readers on 1Peter 3:19:
“(19) By which.—If “by the
Spirit”
had been right in the former verse, this
translation might have stood here,
though the word is literally in; for “in” is
often used to mean “in the power
of,” “on the strength of:” e.g., Romans
8:15. But as that former rendering is
untenable, we must here keep strictly to in
which—i.e., in spirit. This might
mean either of two things: (1) “spiritually
speaking,” “so far as thought and
sympathy goes,” as, for instance,
1Corinthians 5:3, Colossians 2:5; or else
(2)
“in spirit,” as opposed to “in the
body”—i.e., “out of the body” (2Corinthians
12:2; comp. Revelation 1:10), as a
disembodied spirit. We adopt the latter
rendering without hesitation, for reasons,
which will be clearer in the next
Note.
He went and preached unto the
spirits in prison.—There are two main ways
of interpreting this mysterious
passage. (1) The spirits are understood as
being now in prison, in consequence
of having rejected His preaching to them
while they were still on earth.
According to this interpretation—which has
the support of such names as
Pearson, Hammond, Barrow, and Leighton
(though he afterwards modified his
opinion). among ourselves, besides divers
great theologians of other countries,
including St. Thomas Aquinas on the one hand
and Beza on the other—it was “in
spirit,” i.e., mystically speaking, our Lord
Himself who, in and through the
person of Noah, preached repentance to the
old world. Thus the passage is
altogether dissociated from the doctrine of
the descent into hell; and the
sense (though not the Greek) would be better
expressed by writing, He had gone
and preached unto the spirits (now) in
prison. In this case, however, it is
difficult to see the purpose of the
digression, or what could have brought the
subject into St. Peter’s mind. (2) The
second interpretation—which is that of
(practically) all the Fathers, and of
Calvin, Luther (finally), Bellarmine,
Bengel, and of most modern scholars—refers
the passage to what our Lord did
while His body was dead. This is the most
natural construction to put upon the
words “in which also” (i.e., in spirit). It
thus gives point to the saying that
He was “quickened in spirit,” which would
otherwise be left very meaningless.
The “spirits” here will thus correspond with
“in spirit” there. It is the only
way to assign any intelligible meaning to
the words “He went and” to suppose
that He “went” straight from His quickening
in spirit—i.e., from His death. It
is far the most natural thing to suppose
that the spirits were in prison at the
time when Christ went and preached to them.
We take it, then, to mean that,
directly Christ’s human spirit was
disengaged from the body, He gave proof of
the new powers of purely spiritual action
thus acquired by going off to the
place, or state, in which other disembodied
spirits were (who would have been
incapable of receiving direct impressions
from Him had He not Himself been in
the purely spiritual condition), and
conveyed to them certain tidings: He
“preached” unto them. What was the substance
of this preaching we are not here
told, the word itself (which is not the same
as, e.g., in 1Peter 1:25) only
means to publish or proclaim like a crier or
herald; and as the spirits are
said to have been disobedient and in prison,
some have thought that Christ went
to proclaim to them the certainty of their
damnation! The notion has but to be
mentioned to be rejected with horror; but it
may be pointed out also that in
1Peter 4:6, which refers back to this
passage, it is distinctly called a
“gospel;” and it would be too grim to call
that a gospel which (in Calvin’s
words) “made it more clear and patent to
them that they were shut out from all
salvation!” He brought good tidings,
therefore, of some kind to the “prison”
and the spirits in it. And this “prison”
must not be understood (with Bp.
Browne, Articles, p. 95) as merely “a place
of safe keeping,” where good
spirits might be as well as bad, though
etymologically this is imaginable. The
word occurs thirty-eight times in the New
Testament in the undoubted sense of a
“prison,” and not once in that of a place of
protection, though twice
(Revelation 18:2) it is used in the derived
sense of ‘a cage.’” (1)
Next, from
Simon J. Kistemaker’s, New Testament Commentary
provides a contemporary interpretation of
Spirits from 1Peter 3:19–20a:
“Verse 19 is difficult to
interpret,
for in this relatively short sentence the
meaning of each word varies. D.
Edmond Hiebert observes, “Each of the nine
words in the original has been
differently understood.” Accordingly, we
cannot expect unanimity in the
interpretation
of this passage; concurrence eludes us.
Here is the
reading of the New International Version:
19. Through whom also he went
and
preached to the spirits in prison 20a. Who
disobeyed long ago when God waited
patiently in the days of Noah while the ark
was being built.
What does this text say? Let us
look
at the component parts, explain them
sequentially, and view the text in its
context.
a. “Through whom.” The
antecedent of
the word whom is the term spirit (either
with or without a capital letter). If
we take the relative pronoun whom to relate
to the nearest antecedent, then we
understand that it refers to the Holy Spirit
(see the preceding verse). Through
the instrumentality of the Spirit of God,
Jesus Christ after his resurrection
“went and preached to the spirits in
prison.” Note that in his epistle Peter
mentions the Spirit a few times: “the
sanctifying work of the Spirit” (1:2),
“the Spirit of Christ” (1:11), and the
preaching of the gospel “by the Holy
Spirit” (1:12).
We can also relate the phrase
through whom to the word spirit without the
capital letter. If we interpret the
phrase in this sense, its meaning actually
is “in which” or “in the resurrected
state.” The relative pronoun, then, relates
to the spiritual state of Christ
after his resurrection.
Some interpreters suggest the
translation in the course of which. The
antecedent of “which” then seems to be
the general context. However, the connection
between the relative phrase
through whom and the nearest term spirit is
unmistakable and thus preferred.
b. “Also he went and preached.”
What
is meant by the word also? Apparently Peter
wants us to understand it in the
sequence of the verbs put to death and made
alive. The words he went and
preached follow this sequence in the
preceding verse. We understand, then, that
after his resurrection Jesus went to preach
to the spirits in prison.
In the Greek, the same word
(“went”)
is used in verse 19 as in verse 22 (“who has
gone into heaven”). We assume that
if Peter speaks about the ascension of Jesus
in the one verse, by implication
he does so in the other (also see Acts
1:10–11). We have no certainty, however,
because the word went as such is indefinite
and means, “to go elsewhere.” But
if we interpret Paul’s remark about the
“spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12) spatially, then
the verb went can mean “to go up”
and can refer to Christ’s ascension. Also,
the sequence of verses 18 and 19
indicates that Christ went to preach in his
resurrected state.
Does the statement he went and
preached mean that Jesus descended into
hell? No, it does not, because evidence
for this assumption is lacking. Scripture
nowhere teaches that Christ after his
resurrection and prior to his ascension
descended into hell. Moreover, we have
difficulty in accepting the explanation that
Christ in his spirit went to
preach to Noah’s contemporaries. But before
we continue this point, we must ask
this question:
What is meant by the word
preached?
The verb stands by itself, so that we are
unable to determine the content of
preaching. In brief, only the fact of
preaching, not the message, is important.
That is, we understand the verb preached to
mean that Christ proclaimed victory
over his adversaries. In his brevity, Peter
refrains from telling us the
context of Christ’s proclamation. We would
be adding to the text if we should
interpret the word preached to signify the
preaching of the gospel. “Hence we
may suppose with reason that it is the
victory of Christ over His adversaries
which is emphasized in 3:19, not the
conversion or evangelization of the
disobedient spirits.”
c. “To the spirits in prison.”
Do
the spirits belong to human beings or to
fallen angels or to both? In this
passage Peter gives the word spirit two
qualifications. First, the spirits are
kept in prison. In Revelation, 20:7 John
writes that Satan “will be released
from his prison” (see also vv. 1–3). And in
his second epistle, Peter writes
that God sent angels that sinned “into
gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment”
(2 Peter 2:4; compare Jude 6). Incidentally,
Scripture nowhere states that the
souls of men are kept in prison.
Next, Peter says that the
spirits
are those “who disobeyed long ago” (v. 20a).
He writes, “the spirits … who
disobeyed.” He does not say, “the spirits of
those who disobeyed.” If this were
the case, Peter could mean the souls of
departed men who had been disobedient
during their lifetime. However, the word
spirits as Peter qualifies it refers
to supernatural beings. Peter’s use of this
word agrees with the connotation in
the Gospels, where it refers to “evil
spirits” (see, e.g., Mark 3:11). This
usage also agrees with intertestamental
literature, in which the term spirits
designates angels or demons.
According to the writer of
Hebrews,
Christ does not help angels (2:16). Rather,
he redeems the spiritual
descendants of Abraham. Furthermore, if we
would interpret the word spirits to
be those of men, we should realize that
Peter’s qualification regarding
disobedient spirits points to willful
rejection of God’s authority. Scripture
teaches that there is no forgiveness for the
sin of deliberate disobedience
(Heb. 6:4–6; 10:26). Last, no scriptural
doctrine teaches that man has a second
chance for repentance after death. When the
curtain is drawn between time and
eternity, man’s destiny is sealed, and the
period of grace and repentance has
ended (read the parable of the rich man and
Lazarus [Luke 16:19–31]).
Consequently, I interpret the phrase the
spirits in prison to refer to
supernatural beings and not to the souls of
men.
d. “God waited patiently.” A
literal
translation of this part of the verse is,
“when the patience of God kept
waiting.” That is, God’s forbearance lasted
120 years before he destroyed
humanity, eight persons excepted, with the
flood. The construction, translated
“God waited patiently,” stresses the
leniency of God before he executed his
sentence on the human race (compare Gen.
6:3). From the time of Adam to the day
when Noah entered the ark, God exercised
patience. Noah’s contemporaries were
notoriously wicked and served as agents of
demonic spirits in their rebellion
against God. There is no other time in
history in which the contrast between
faith and unbelief, obedience and
disobedience, was as pronounced as in the
days of Noah. The rebellious spirits seemed
to control the human race with the
exception of Noah and his family.
Greek Words,
Phrases, and Constructions in 3:19–20a
Verse 19
ἐν ᾧ καί—in
1902 British New Testament scholar J. Rendel
Harris popularized a conjecture
that had been suggested by J. Bowyer in
1763. Harris conjectured that the
reading of the first part of verse 19 should
be ἐν ᾧ καὶ Ἐνώχ (in which
Enoch [went and preached]). Although
the suggestion proved to be attractive,
scholars applied the rule that for a
conjecture to be acceptable, it must fulfill
two conditions: the text must be
incomprehensible without the conjecture and
the conjecture must improve our
understanding
of that text. Examining the evidence,
however, they concluded that the
conjecture was unable to satisfy these two
conditions and therefore had to be
dismissed.
ἐν θυλακῇ—although
the noun prison is not explained in the
text, its position is emphatic. The
prepositional phrase in prison is placed
between the definite article the and
the noun spirits.
Verse 20a
ἀπειθήσασιν—this
aorist active participle in the neuter
dative plural clarifies the noun πνεύμασιν
(spirits). The participle
derives from the verb ἀπειθειω
(I
disobey). In the aorist tense, it points to
sins committed in the past. The
position of the participle is predicate. We
translate noun and participle as
“spirits who disobeyed.”
ἀπεξεδέχετο—this
compound verb is in the imperfect tense and
in the middle (deponent) voice. It
expresses continued action in the past
tense. Because of the compound, this
verb is intensive or perfective. It means
“to wait patiently for” or “to wait
it out.”
κατασκευαζομέης—the
present passive participle in the genitive
case with κιβωτοῦ (ark) in the same
case constitutes the genitive absolute
construction.
Note that the use of the present tense
denotes duration; from use of the
passive voice we infer that a work force was
needed to build the ark.
Additional
comments on 3:19–20a:
Interpretations of this
particular
text are many. Here are some of them listed
in chronological sequence.
a. Clement of Alexandria, about
a.d.
200, taught that Christ went to hell in his
spirit to proclaim the message of
salvation to the souls of sinners who were
imprisoned there since the flood
(Stromateis 6.6).
b. Augustine, about a.d. 400,
said
that the preexistent Christ proclaimed
salvation through Noah to the people who
lived before the flood (Epistolae 164).
c. In the last half of the
sixteenth
century, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine
introduced a view that has been held by
many Roman Catholics: in his spirit Christ
went to release the souls of the
righteous who repented before the flood and
had been kept in Limbo, that is,
the place between heaven and hell where,
Bellarmine said, the souls of the Old
Testament saints were kept (De
Controversiis 2.4, 13).
d. An interpretation
promulgated by
Friedrich Spitta in the last decade of the
nineteenth century is this: After
his death and before his resurrection,
Christ preached to fallen angels, also
known as “sons of God,” who during Noah’s
time had married “daughters of men”
(Gen. 6:2; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6).
e. Contemporary commentators
teach
that the resurrected Christ, when he
ascended into heaven, proclaimed to
imprisoned spirits his victory over deaths.
Although space prevents me from
commenting on all the strengths and
weaknesses of these views, I select a few
of the major objections. And although it is
virtually impossible to achieve
unanimity in understanding the text, I call
attention to the view that many
theologians favor.
The first view is the one of
Clement
of Alexandria. He taught that Christ went to
hell in his spirit to proclaim the
message of salvation to the souls of sinners
who were imprisoned there since
the flood. Two basic objections can be
voiced against Clement’s interpretation:
one, Scripture is silent on imprisonment of
souls condemned by God, and two,
Augustine’s doctrine that there is no
conversion after death repudiates
Clement’s view.
Next, Augustine said that the
preexistent Christ proclaimed salvation
through Noah to the people who lived
before the flood. No one disputes the fact
that the Spirit of Christ was active
in the time between Adam’s fall into sin and
the birth of Jesus (see Peter’s
comment in 1:11). The objection to
Augustine’s view is that he departs from the
wording of 1Peter 3:19. Augustine speaks of
the pre-incarnate Christ and not of
the Christ who “was put to death in the body
but made alive by the Spirit.”
Augustine’s interpretation dominated the
theological scene for centuries until
the doctrinal view of Bellarmine displaced
it in the Roman Catholic Church.
Third, Bellarmine taught that
even
though Christ’s body died on the cross, his
soul remained alive. Thus in his
spirit Christ went to release the souls of
the righteous who repented before
the flood and were in Limbo. Bellarmine’s
interpretation has been rejected by
Protestants, because they point out that
Scripture teaches that the Old
Testament saints are in heaven (see, e.g.,
Heb. 11:5, 16, 40; 12:23).
Then there is the
interpretation of
Spitta. He said that Christ after his death
and before his resurrection
preached to fallen angels who during Noah’s
time had married “daughters of
men.” But this view faces a serious
objection. Answering the Sadducees who
asked him about the resurrection, Jesus
asserted that angels neither marry nor
are given in marriage (Matt. 22:30). We have
difficulty understanding how
fallen angels, who are spirits, can have
sexual relations with women.
Last, recent commentators
teach
that the resurrected Christ, during his
ascension to heaven, proclaimed to
imprisoned spirits his victory over death.
The exalted Christ passed through
the realm where the fallen angels are kept
and proclaimed his triumph over them
(Eph. 6:12; Col. 2:15). This interpretation
has met favorable response in
Protestant and Roman Catholic circles and is
in harmony with the teaching of
the Petrine passage and the rest of
Scripture.” (2)
Next, helpful
entries from two encyclopedia
dictionaries:
First, from
the International
Standard
Bible Encyclopedia:
PRISON, SPIRITS IN
“The phrase occurs in the
much-disputed passage, 1 Peter 3:18-20,
where the apostle, exhorting Christians
to endurance under suffering for well-doing,
says:
“Because Christ also suffered
for
sins once, the righteous for the
unrighteous, that he might bring us to God;
being put to death in the flesh, but made
alive in the spirit; in which also he
went and preached unto the spirits in
prison, that aforetime were disobedient,
when the longsuffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight
souls, were saved through water.” It is
plain that in this context “the spirits in
prison” (tois en phulake pneumasin)
denote the generation who were
disobedient in the days of Noah, while the
words “spirits” and “in prison”
refer to their present disembodied condition
in a place of judgment in the
unseen world (compare 2 Peter 2:4-9). The
crucial point in the passage lies in
what is said of Christ's preaching to these
spirits in prison. The
interpretation which strikes one most
naturally is that Christ, put to death in
the flesh, and made alive again in the
spirit, went in this spiritual
(disembodied) state, and preached to these
spirits, who once had been
disobedient, but are viewed as now possibly
receptive of His message This is
the idea of the passage taken by the
majority of modern exegetes, and it finds
support in what is said in 1 Peter 4:6, “For
unto this end was the gospel
preached even to the dead, that they might
be judged indeed according to men in
the flesh, but live according to God in the
spirit.” On this basis is now often
reared a mass of doctrine or conjecture
respecting “second probation,”
“restoration,”
etc.--in part going back to patristic
times--for which the passage, even so
taken, affords a very narrow foundation (see
on this view, Plumptre, The
Spirits in Prison; Dorner, System
of
Christian Doctrine, IV, 130-32; E.
White, Life in Christ, chapter xxii). It
must be admitted, however, that, on closer
examination, the above plausible
explanation is compassed with many
difficulties. A preaching of Christ in Hades
is referred to in no other passage of
Scripture, while Peter appears to be
speaking to his readers of something with
which they are familiar; it seems
strange that these antediluvians should be
singled out as the sole objects of
this preaching in the spiritual world; the
word “made alive” does not
exegetically refer to a disembodied state,
but to the resurrection of Christ in
the body, etc. Another line of
interpretation is therefore preferred by
many,
who take the words “in which also he went,”
to refer, not to a disembodied
manifestation, but to the historical
preaching to the antediluvian generation
through Noah while they yet lived. In favor
of this view is the fact that the
apostle in 1Peter 1:11 regards the earlier
prophetic preaching as a testifying
of “the Spirit of Christ,” that God's
long-suffering with Noah's generation is
described in Genesis 6:5, which Peter has
doubtless in his mind, as a striving
of God's Spirit, and that in 2 Peter 2:5
there is another allusion to these
events, and Noah is described as “a preacher
of righteousness.” The passage,
1Peter 4:6, may have the more general
meaning that Christians who have died are
at no disadvantage in the judgment as
compared with those who shall be alive at
the Parousia (compare 1Thessalonians
4:15-18). (For an exposition of this view,
with a full account of the interpretations
and literature on the subject,
compare Salmond's Christian Doctrine of
Immortality, 4th edition, 364-87.)” James
Orr (3)
Second, from
Baker’s
Evangelical
Dictionary of Biblical Theology:
Spirits in Prison
“The spirits in prison are
referred
to in 1Peter 3:19-20, where Peter declares
that they disobeyed in the time of
Noah and that Christ went and preached to
them in prison. This passage has
often been identified as one of the most
obscure in the entire New Testament.
Other passages are often used to interpret
this one, but it must be understood
in its own literary context and ideological
environment.
Verses 19-21 appear in the
middle of
a christological confession of the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ (v.
18) and his exaltation to the right hand of
the Father (v. 22 cf. 1Tim 3:16 ).
Verses 19-21 declare his triumphant
declaration to the evil spirits, and
contrasts them with Noah, who was saved
through water — a type of Christian
baptism.
Peter used this confession and
triumphant journey of Christ to encourage
his readers, who were suffering
ridicule and persecution as a result of
their conversion (1:6; 4:4. In particular,
it follows 3:13-17, which explains how they
should respond to unreasonable
abuse, especially when they have been
zealous in living an honorable life
before their accusers (2:11-3:12). And their
participation in the triumph of
Christ is assured by their pledge of a good
conscience in baptism (v. 21).
This journey of Christ took
place after
the resurrection rather than between his
death and resurrection, since the
description follows the resurrection in
verse 18, and the relative clause “in
which” (en ho)
refers either to his
resurrected spiritual state, or “at that
time,” that is, after his death and
resurrection. Since the very same form of
the participle (poreutheis, “going,” or
“traveling”) is used in both verse 19 and
verse 22, it is most likely that this is a
single journey of Christ through the
heavens to the right hand of the Father (v.
22).
The distinctive characteristic
of
these spirits is that they were in prison
when Christ traveled to them, since
the prepositional phrase is in the
attributive position (tois en phulake pneumasin,
“the in prison spirits”).
That these spirits are the evil
angels of Genesis 6:1-4 (or their offspring)
is indicated by their being in
prison, their disobedience in the time of
Noah, their mention in 2 Peter 2:4
and Jude 6, and the New Testament use of the
plural noun (“spirits,” pneumasin)
as a reference to evil
spirits unless otherwise qualified. This is
further supported by contemporary
Jewish literature (1Enoch 6:1-8; 12:1-16:4;
19:1; 2Baruch 56:12), which
describes these evil angels in the same way
as the passage in 1Peter.” Norman R.
Ericson (4)
In closing:
As seen by the older Bible
commentator
Charles John Ellicott, and the older International
Standard
Bible Encyclopedia entries the
difficulty in understanding the
text in 1Peter 3:19.
Simon J. Kistemaker in his New
Testament Commentary and Baker’s
Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical
Theology have the advantage of the
most recent tools of scholarship. While
the older views on the passage should not be
dismissed out of hand, the newer
interpretation seems more plausible.
It is safe to
say:
The spirits in prison are not
men,
but fallen angels. Support for this is in
2Peter 2:4–5 and Jude 1:6.
“For if God did not spare
angels
when they sinned, but cast them into hell
and committed them to chains of
gloomy darkness to be kept until the
judgment; if he did not spare the ancient
world, but preserved Noah, a herald of
righteousness, with seven others, when
he brought a flood upon the world of the
ungodly.” (2Peter 2:4-5 ESV)
“And the angels who did not
stay
within their own position of authority, but
left their proper dwelling, he has
kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness
until the judgment of the great
day.” (Jude 1:6 ESV)
Both of these texts speak of
the
fallen angels being in chains until the
judgment.
Simon J. Kistemaker’s
commentary
entry on 1Peter 3:19 is convincing when he
argues that the spirits are fallen
angelic spiritual beings and not fallen men.
In addition, Kistemaker reasons
that Peter cannot be talking about men.
Fallen men do not get a second chance
at salvation.
Then Kistemaker cites Hebrews
11:5 that
speaks of Enoch to show that godly men in
the Old Testament went to heaven, not
to prison. Godly men before the resurrection
of Christ did not go to spirit
prison. This account of Enoch parallels the
thief on the cross (Matthew 27:38).
Both went to be with Christ.
As a
necessary aside. The spirit prison is not
Abraham's
Bosom:
Abraham's Bosom
“Unique phrase found in a
parable of
Jesus describing the place where Lazarus
went after death (Luke 16:19-31). It
is a figurative phrase that appears to have
been drawn from a popular belief
that the righteous would rest by Abraham's
side in the world to come, an
opinion described in Jewish literature at
the time of Christ. The word kolpos
[kovlpo] literally refers to
the side or lap of a person.
Figuratively, as in this case, it refers to
a place of honor reserved for a
special guest, similar to its usage in John
13:23. In the case of Lazarus, the
reserved place is special because it is
beside Abraham, the father of all the
righteous. The phrase may be synonymous to
the paradise promised to the thief
on the cross (Luke 23:43). Together these
passages support the conviction that
a believer enjoys immediate bliss at the
moment of physical death.” Sam
Hamstra, Jr. (5)
In the
beginning, two questions were asked:
To answer the starting question
about the possibility of 1Peter 3:19 talking
about spirits of men awaiting a
second chance for salvation. It can be said
with Scriptural certainty; this is
impossible in light of “And as it is
appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) In
addition, “For he saith, I have heard thee
in a time accepted, and in the day of
salvation have I succoured thee: behold,
now is the accepted time; behold, now is the
day of salvation.” (2Corinthians
6:2)
In answer to
the second question at the beginning of
this
study, it is safe to conclude:
God punished the disobedient
angels
with imprisonment. When Jesus died, He went
spiritually and proclaimed as
Ellicott said like “a crier or herald” to
these spirits in prison. Jesus proclaimed
His victory to the fallen angels imprisoned
there. “And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a shew of
them openly, triumphing over them
in it.” (Colossians 2:15) Amen!
Notes:
1.Charles
John Ellicott, Bible
Commentary for
English Readers, 1Peter, Vol.8,
(London, England, Cassell and Company), p.
420-421.
2.Simon
J. Kistemaker, New
Testament Commentary,
Peter, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker
Book House, 1986), pp. 141-146.
3.Orr,
James, M.A., D.D. General Editor, “Entry for
'PRISON, SPIRITS IN,'” International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, reprinted
1986), p. 2456.
4.Walter
A. Elwell, Editor, Baker’s
Evangelical
Dictionary of Biblical Theology,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book
House), p. 745-746.
5.Walter
A. Elwell, Editor, Baker’s
Evangelical
Dictionary of Biblical Theology,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book
House), p. 7-8.
“To
God, only
wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.
Amen.” (Romans 16:27) and “heirs
according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28,
29)
Mr. Kettler
has
previously published articles in the Chalcedon
Report and Contra
Mundum. He and
his wife Marea attend the Westminster, CO,
RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler is the
author of the book defending the Reformed
Faith against attacks, titled: The
Religion That Started in a Hat.
Available at: http://www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com