17/04/2026
Understand the mysteries of the Bible
WHO ARE THE SPIRITS IN PRISON OF 1 PETER 3:19?
1 Peter 3:18 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: 3:19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 3:20 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.
Some have supposed that Christ as a spirit being descended to the underworld to preached to the disobedient people in Noah’s days who having died had become spirits in prison. But cross examination of this verse proves otherwise. For it is said, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 3:19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. By which also he went is obviously referring to the Spirit by whom he was quickened (made alive), not Christ himself. Some think by which means in that state. If it means in that state then Christ went bodily in a resurrected state having been made alive (quickened), not as a spirit of the dead. How could he in a physical body (having be risen from the dead) go back into hell to preach to disembodied spirits? Didn’t scriptures say it is appointed men once to die and the next is judgment? Is there repentance in the grave?
1 Peter 1:10 and 2 Peter 2:5 give us clue to the explanation of the issue in question.
1 Peter 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
2 Peter 2:5 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;
Jesus in 1 Pet 3:18 is said to preach by the Spirit …the Spirit: 3:19 By which also he went and preached…
Analysis of the verse will show us some things:
1. Jesus preached
2. He preached by the Spirit
3. The preaching took place in the days of Noah when the ark was preparing.
Now we know who preached when the ark of God was be prepared was Noah according to 2 Peter 2:5
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;
And Noah was a prophet in whom was the Spirit of Christ, according to 1 Peter 1:10
The Holy Spirit being the Spirit of Christ, when Noah was preaching to the pre-flood generation, Christ was the one Preaching through the person of the Holy Spirit.
It is supported that the people here spoken of are said to have been in prison, in line with the same figure of speech by which the people to whom Christ preach in the days of his flesh are called captives in prison.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Lk 4:18
