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Results from: Answers On or After: Thu 12/31/70 Author: rhoades Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | who are the spirits in this verse? | 1 Peter | rhoades | 2222 | ||
The key to understanding this passage is in the tense of the verbs. Peter is not saying that Jesus went to Hades and preached to people who were there. V. 19 begins by saying "in which", which refers back to the last phrase of v. 18: "in the spirit." Since "spirit" and "flesh" are contrasted in v. 18, the contrast is between the two very different kinds of realms. The "flesh" is the physical, seen realm in which we commonly live, and the "spirit" is the spiritual, unseen realm in which Jesus was raised and in which we now live. (By my saying that Jesus was raised in the spiritual realm, I am not denying the fact that He was raised physically from the dead. But His resurrection was a supernatural, spiritual act of God.) In the spiritual realm (v. 19 could be paraphrased), Jesus went and made proclamation (past tense) to the spirits (now) in prison). If we can determine when Jesus made the proclamation, then we can determine who the spirits are. Verse 20 tells us when Jesus made the proclamation: "in the days of Noah." To paraphrase, what these verses are teaching is that when Noah was building the ark, Jesus, in the spiritual realm, "went and made proclamation" through the lips of Noah to those "who were disobedient." They, having rejected the message, are now "spirits in prison." This is a difficult passage, and my interpretation is not original with me, but I do believe that it answers the grammatical and theological issues that can be raised. |
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