Verse nineteen
The words “by which” in the Greek text are en hoi (ἐν οἱ), a preposition and a relative pronoun, the latter either in the locative or the instrumental cases, since the preposition is used with both cases. The pronoun is either masculine or neuter, and there being a neuter noun “spirit” immediately preceding it, the word “which” according to the rules of Greek grammar, refers back to the word “spirit.” One could translate either “in which spirit,” or “by means of which spirit.” The word “went” is a translation of poreuomai (πορευομαι), a word that is used of one travelling, going on a journey. The translation reads now, “in which (human) spirit having proceeded,” or, “by means of which human spirit having proceeded.” This speaks of our Lord in His disembodied state after He had spoken the words, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). His human body was laid in Joseph’s tomb, but He as the Man Christ Jesus, possessing His human soul and human spirit, departed this life. It is clear that our Lord as the Man Christ Jesus went to the place of the departed dead called in the Old Testament “sheol” and in the New Testament, “hell” (Acts 2:27), the word “hell” being the translation of the Greek word “Hades.” But Peter is not speaking of that here. Peter says “in which” or “by means of which (human) spirit also having proceeded, He preached unto the spirits in prison.” The word “also” speaks of the fact that it was in His human spirit as made alive by the Holy Spirit that our Lord proceeded.
The question before us now is, “Who are these spirits?” They cannot be human beings, for a careful study of the Greek word “spirit” pneuma (πνευμα) in the Greek New Testament will reveal the fact that in no place is the word used as a designation of a human being when the writer has in mind a human being considered as a free moral agent in a distinctive category or class of created beings. The word is used where a human being is said to have a spirit, referring to that part of a person which enables him to have God-consciousness and which constitutes him a religious being (Luke 1:47). It is used of the disembodied state of human beings in the phrase, “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23). But in this latter phrase, it does not designate the human being as a class, distinct in the order of created beings, but speaks of the disembodied state of that human being. Our Lord in His glorified humanity is spoken of as “a quickening spirit” (I Cor. 15:45). This again refers not to Him as an individual but to His new position and condition resultant upon His resurrection. The context speaks of the natural body and the spiritual body, the body before death, and the resurrected body. It is the glorified state of our Lord which was in Paul’s mind as he wrote the words “a quickening spirit.” Observe with what meticulous care the inspired writer of the letter to the Hebrews uses the word pneuma (πνευμα) in 12:23. He uses the word as a designation of angels in 1:7, 14. In 12:22 he uses the word “angels” when referring to the myriads of heavenly beings, and in connection with them he speaks of the saints in heaven in the words “spirits of just men made perfect.” He seems to feel that the word pneuma (πνευμα) here needs some qualifying phrase to indicate to the reader that he is not referring to a created intelligence as such and considered as belonging to a distinct category, but to saints in heaven who were spirits only in the sense that they as human beings are temporarily without their physical bodies. It would seem therefore that if the word “spirits” pneuma (πνευμα) in I Peter 3:18 referred to human beings in their disembodied state, the apostle Peter, inspired by the same Holy Spirit in His work of guiding the Bible writers as they wrote down in God-chosen words the truth of God, would have also qualified the word.
The word pneuma (πνευμα) is used as a designation of just two classes of free moral agents in the New Testament, of angels (Heb. 1:7, 14), and of demons (Matt. 8:16; Luke 10:17, 20), the word “devils” being the translation of daimonion (δαιμονιον) in the a.v., but should be “demons,” the word “devil” being the correct translation of diabolos (διαβολος), a name of Satan. We must be careful to differentiate angels from demons. Acts 23:8, 9, is enough to show us that the Jews made a difference between them. One thing that clearly distinguishes them in the New Testament is the fact that demons take up their residence in the physical bodies of men and women, and have no rest until they do so (Matt. 12:43–45). This clearly infers that at one time they had physical bodies, and being deprived of them through some judgment of God, they try to satisfy their innate desire for a physical existence in that way. This is not true of angels.
But are the spirits of our First Peter passage angels or demons? Peter tells us that these spirits were in prison. There are just two prisons in the unseen world where evil spirits are confined, Tartarus (II Peter 2:4, “hell” tartarosas (ταρταροσας)) where fallen angels are kept; and the Bottomless Pit (Rev. 9:1–12). When our Lord was about to cast out the demons from the maniac of Gadara, they besought Him not to cast them into the deep, the abusson (ἀβυσσον) (Luke 8:31). The words “bottomless pit” of Revelation 9:1 are literally “the well of the abusson (ἀβυσσον),” same Greek word as used in Luke 8:31, which fixes the Bottomless Pit as the prison house of demons. To which place did our Lord go and preach? Peter in his first epistle (3:19, 20) and in his second epistle (2:4, 5) links spirits and angels with the flood and states that they sinned at that time. The inference should be clear that he is referring to the same beings, for Hebrews uses the words “angels” and “spirits” as designating the same created beings, and Peter is just following the practice of other inspired writers.
Our Lord therefore, between His death on the Cross and His resurrection from Joseph’s tomb, preached to the fallen angels in Tartarus. But what did He preach to them? The word translated “preached” here is kerusso (κερυσσο). The word was used in secular Greek of an official announcement or proclamation made by a representative of a government. The word in itself does not indicate the content of the message. A qualifying phrase must be used for that purpose. In the New Testament, the word is used either with a qualifying phrase such as “the gospel” (Mark 16:15), or the contents of the proclamation are given as in Revelation 5:2, or it is used alone without the contents of the message being given as in Romans 10:15. Thus, one cannot say that our Lord preached the gospel to these fallen angels. There is a distinct word used in the Greek New Testament which means “to preach the gospel,” euaggelizomai (εὐαγγελιζομαι). In Luke 4:18 we have, “to preach the gospel to the poor,” where the words, “preach the gospel” are the translation of the one word euaggelizomai (εὐαγγελιζομαι). The word is made up of aggello (ἀγγελλο) “to bring a message,” and eu (εὐ) “well” or “good,” thus, “a message of good,” thus, “to bring good news.” The word “gospel” means “good news.” But this word is not used here. Our Lord made an official proclamation to these fallen angels. It was not the gospel. Angels are not included among those for whom Christ died. Hebrews 2:16 says, “For verily He took not hold of angels: but He took hold of the seed of Abraham.” In perfect righteousness, God in justice passed by fallen angels, and in infinite mercy, procured for fallen man a salvation at Calvary, purchased by His own precious blood (Acts 20:28). As to a suggestion regarding the possible content of the proclamation, that must await our treatment of the subject concerning the nature of the disobedience of these fallen angels.
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 97–101.
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