1Pet 3:17-22 (ESV)
… it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, 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 he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
This text has generated a lot of debate and some, to put it mildly, rather fevered interpretations. I don’t intend to interact with these, that is the work of commentaries. I wish rather to present what seems to me to be Peter’s argument and allow you to judge the merits.
The key to any text is context. Peter writes probably to gentile believers (1:20,21; 2:10; 4:3). They are Christians who did not see Christ yet believe (1:8). Their relationship is to a risen Christ in the Spirit, an observation Peter regularly underlines (1:3, 10-12 ; 4:14). As believers they are a small minority. They are experiencing opposition from a corrupt world (2:11; 4:1-5) ripe for impending judgement (1:6; 2:12; 4:5,7, 17,18; 2 Pet 2:1-6; 3:1-6). The message of impending judgement due to corrupt and unrighteous living was no doubt part of the gospel they preached by the Spirit of Christ and for which they were mocked, certainly this is plain in Peter’s second letter (1 Pet 3:14-16; 4:4; 2 Pet 3:1-7). They are themselves suffering because of their commitment to righteousness and a sober life lived in godly fear (1:6; 2:18-24; 3:14; 1:17; 2:17; 3:14).
Given this context, Peter’s parallel with Noah becomes transparent. Noah lived prior to God’s covenant with Abraham; he was a gentile believer. Like those to whom Peter writes, and like all OT saints, he knew Christ not in person but through the Spirit (1 Pet 1:11). Noah was also one of a small minority of believers (only he and his family are saved). He lived righteously (Gen 6:9; 7:1) in a world renowned for its corruption (Gen 6: 5,11,12; 2 Pet 2:5). Indeed a world so corrupt that judgement was impending – only 120 years later God would destroy the world (Gen 6: 2,7,13). During this time the Spirit of God would strive with man through Noah, a preacher of righteousness (Gen 6:3; 2 Pet 2:5). Presumably many mocked since so few believed. Yet, his righteous life lived in the fear of God, building an ark (a place of safety in judgement), was an eloquent if unwelcome reminder to his generation of the coming judgement and a condemnation of their world (Hebs 11:7).
Peter is encouraging the believers to whom he writes that the same Spirit of Christ who lived in Noah and worked through him in a hostile world, ripe for judgement lives in and works through them. Their worlds are parallel and situations similar. Thus Noah is an example of faith to inspire these believers in suffering as they face a world against them.
All ideas of Christ’s spirit entering Hades at death (‘the harrowing of hell’) and preaching to dead spirits imprisoned there prior to his resurrection (either to announce his victory to his own and deliver them or to announce it to his enemies and give them a second chance, sometimes called ‘postmortem evangelism’) are fanciful. Why only spirits from Noah’s day? More, ‘put to death in the flesh and alive in the Spirit‘ is a common NT description of Christ in humiliation and resurrection, in weakness and power (Roms 1:3,4; 1 Tim 3:16; 2 Cor 13:4). It has nothing to do with a disembodied state. No, Peter simply parallels the theology of Ephesians 2. Speaking of Christ, Paul says,
Eph 2:17 (ESV)
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
How did Christ so preach? Not physically, not in person, but by the Spirit. So too in 1 Peter 3.
Peter’s message is one of encouragement to his audience and us. It is a call to embrace suffering for the gospel boldly (3:14), and be undeterred by it (3:16) even if it is unjust; all the more remarkable since in earlier days Peter had strenuously resisted any suggestion that Jesus suffer (Mk 8:32). For Peter, suffering by the righteous is now to be expected. Unjust suffering is actually a sign that we are living out our baptism pledge to die to this age and devote ourselves to Christ (4:1). Moreover, it proves we are on the right side and the winning side. For as God in Christ finally destroyed in Noah’s day all those opposed to him, to righteousness preached, and to his people, and as he brought his people in triumph into a new world, so God will ever destroy all who oppose him and vindicate those who trust. He will guard his people and bring them to a new world. Indeed his victory is already assured in the risen reigning Christ who, though he too once suffered opposition,
‘has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him’.
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