The Spirits in Prison: Dead Humans or Celestial Sinners?

“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: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 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. “ (1 Peter 3:18-20)

​When I was a young teenager, I remember sitting on the pew of the Southern Baptist church my family attended every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and listening to the preacher read that passage while perched behind a pulpit, lifted several feet above all of us in the congregation.  The preacher went on to commentate on this passage and explained that after Jesus was crucified and died, He went to a special compartment of Hell called “sheol”.  This was a place (according to him) that people who either had died prior to Jesus and/or people who were not blatantly evil during their lives, now lived…after they died.

​I was intrigued!!  This was the first I had ever heard of such a thing.  I always assumed (being a good Southern Baptist) that at death, a person was either in heaven or stoking on the fires of hell.  But, THIS…THIS was new information and my curious, questioning mind in rapt attention to learn more details about this event I had never heard of before.

​The preacher described how Jesus Christ (while “dead”) during the “three days and three nights” between the crucifixion and the resurrection was in this fantastical place, among those who had died before Him.  Also, there were people I had heard of such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…John the Baptist too!!  And everyone was silent as Jesus…stood before them…and…preached a sermon!!  Awesome!!  Jesus preached a sermon and not ONLY THAT, but just like my pastor would do every time he closed down a service, Jesus had an altar call.  If any of those folks in this place called “sheol” wanted to believe in Jesus (who wouldn’t?) that person would go to Heaven with Jesus.  The Rich Man (from the very literal account) of The Rich Man and Lazarus fame, was not made this offer (not sure why not) because he was way over on the other side of some great chasm (the preacher called that place, “hades”).  Who knew there were so many possible places to end up when you died?!  My mind was reeling.

​The pastor went on to explain that after this altar call, Jesus took all these newly converted folks to Heaven.  Nice story.  Had I been a student of the scriptures, maybe I would have wondered how those folks went on to heaven then, when Jesus Christ, Himself, didn’t go to heaven for another 40 days after His resurrection.  After all, He met Mary on the road after the resurrection and said, “Touch me not, I am not yet ascended unto my Father…” (John 17:20).  Or, maybe I would have wondered how any of these people went to heaven when John 3:13 has Jesus Christ stating that no one has ascended up heaven except for Him.  Or maybe I would have wondered how any of these people were hearing a sermon being preached or how Jesus Christ was preaching a sermon when countless scriptures state that there is no consciousness in death, no talking in death, no hearing in death, no thoughts, in death, but only silence.  Or maybe I would have wondered how all these people were listening to a sermon when the scriptures constantly used the figure of sleep, to describe what death was like.  But, maybe I wouldn’t have wondered that last part.  After all, as I scanned the congregation and even the choir loft, there were several dead…or asleep.

​But, I didn’t wonder any of those things, because like so many, I never bothered to actually study the scriptures.  I mean, that was what the preacher was for, right?  

​There was one thing that troubled me though.  Why would God give these people what amounted to an undeniable second chance at salvation?  I mean, the preacher always said that you had to make a decision for Christ, now, in this life.  There was no chance after this life.  This struck me as hugely unfair.  I mean, who in his right mind would listen to Jesus Christ preach a sermon and warn that if they don’t believe in Him (Who was standing and talking right in front of them) they were going to burn forever with that poor bastard, the rich man, across the way?!  You’d be a fool to wave that off.

​This always bothered me, but like so many sermons that never quite made sense to me, I assumed the pastor knew what he was talking about (he was the pastor after all).  

​Much water has flowed under the bridge since then, and thanks be to God, a little over six years ago, God pushed me into actually studying the scriptures, after a friend who had actually gone to seminary challenged me with a phrase I never heard in that Southern Baptist church, 

The salvation of ALL.

​If we want (and hopefully we all do) the truth of what scripture teaches in general and on the topic of the “spirits in prison”, in particular, it is key and vital that you have a scriptural understanding of the distinction between the words “spirit” and “soul”.  These two, distinct words are not synonymous and interchangeable, regardless of what various Christian denominations and their pastors teach.  Also, if you currently believe that at death, a person is either “alive” in heaven or “alive” in hell, you also need to do some additional reading, prior to moving forward with this article.  

​I have two articles on my blog, “The Afterlife and Resurrection” and “Soul and the State of Death”, which explain the difference between “spirit” and “soul” and what happens at death.

​Still here? Or, maybe you just finished reading those articles?  

​In the scriptures, we will never see that humans or animals are referred to as “spirits”.  Animals and humans have spirit (the breath of life) but both humans and animals are consistently referred to as “souls” (Strong’s number 5315 “nephesh” in Hebrew and Strong’s number 5590 “psuche” in Greek) in the scriptures.  For example, when speaking of men in Numbers 15:30, we read:

“But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.”

And, of animals, we read in Genesis 1:21:

“And God created great whales, and every living creature(Hebrew #5315 “nephesh” “soul”) that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

On the other hand, God is said to be “Spirit” (John 4:24).  Also, angels and other celestial beings are said to be “spirits”. In 1 Kings 22:21-23, for example, we learn that a “spirit” (Strong’s number 7307 “ruwach” in Hebrew and Strong’s number 4151 “pneuma in Greek) presented himself before The LORD God:

“And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. 22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

​The spirit in the passage above is a being.  You can call this spirit an angel, messenger, principality, or whatever; but of a certainty, the being is a “spirit.  This “spirit” is not a “soul”.

​If we go back and look at our passage in question, 1 Peter 3:18-20 (shown below), we will want to carefully go through this short passage and pay close attention to not only the specific words used, but also the sequence of events and the specific words used with specific events.

​“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: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 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. “ (1 Peter 3:18-20)

​We read that Christ was put to death “in the flesh”.  That probably isn’t a mystery.  This is speaking to His death on the cross.  He was a living person and died; thus, His person died; being fleshly.  

Then, we come across the statement that He was “quickened by the Spirit”.  First, what does it mean to “quicken”?  That exact same Greek word “zoopoieo” (Strong’s #2227) is only used two other times in the New Testament.  See below:

“But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:( 1 Cor. 15:35-36)

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1)

This same Greek word “zoopoieo” is found also in 1 Corinthians 15:22, where it is translated as “made alive”:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

From each of the other usages of this word, we see that “quicken” means (in the context) to be made alive; resurrected.  Specifically, it means to be me made alive beyond the reach of death again.

So, when we read in 1 Peter 3:18 that He was “quickened” “by the Spirit”, we are being informed that after He was put to death in the flesh, He was resurrected/made alive/quickened by the Spirit (God’s Spirit/Holy Spirit).  

Let’s put it together:

“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 [died], but quickened [resurrected/made alive] by the Spirit: 19 By which [in this way] also he went and preached unto the spirits [spirit beings] in prison;…”

 Was Jesus dead when He went to this prison and interacted with these spirits?  No, contrary to what the preacher said, Jesus Christ was resurrected prior to His visit to these spirits.  Why were these spirits in this prison?  Let’s continue at verse 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. “

These spirits were disobedient and Peter ties this disobedience to the time of Noah and the Flood.  Now, notice that when speaking of Noah and his 7 family members, we have the word “soul” used.  “Eight souls [people] were saved by water”.  The implication is that all the other souls, besides these eight, perished in the flood.

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. “

Going back to verse 19, what about this “sermon” that Jesus Christ “preached”?  The Greek word translated as “preached” in this passage is the Greek word “kerusso” and is also translated as “publish” and “proclaim”.  It means generally, “to herald”.  While the gospel can certainly be “heralded” and “preached”, we (and I think my former pastor) tend to inject “sermon” and the concept of “preaching” a sermon into this text.  

If He wasn’t preaching the gospel to these spirits and offering a good old fashioned Baptist “altar call”, what was He “preaching” to them?  We will get to that in a bit.  But first, is there any other witness to my interpretation of this passage?  Yes, and as a matter of fact, it comes from the same writer.  Look at 2 Peter 2:4-5, below:

KJV“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 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;”

I want to offer another translation of this passage as well, due to the sleight of hand, pulled by the translators with respect to the word “hell” in verse 4.  Please see the Concordant Literal Translation below:

“For if God spares not sinning messengers, but thrusting them into the gloomy caverns of Tartarus, gives them up to be kept for chastening judging;" 5 and spares not the ancient world, but guards Noah, an eighth, a herald of righteousness, bringing a deluge on the world of the irreverent;"

Remember how I mentioned that the pastor stated that Jesus Christ went and preached this sermon to dead people in “Sheol”?  When we study the scriptural evidence, “sheol” and “hades” are the same thing, “the grave”.  There is no great gulf or chasm between them and one isn’t for good people, while the other is for the wicked.  Many times, pastors would preach that “hades” was a compartment for the wicked awaiting judgment, because the parable “the rich man and Lazarus” uses the word “hades” to describe where the rich man was.  Many passages in the Old Testament scriptures make reference to the dead patriarchs such as Abraham and Isaac being in “Sheol”.  King David is said to be in “sheol” as well.  But “hades” is simply the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word, “sheol”; both of which, mean “the grave”. The proof that hades is the equivalent of sheol can be easily found in Acts 2:  It turns out, that yes, Jesus Christ was in sheol/hades for 3 days and 3 nights, just as He said He would be, but He was not preaching, but He was dead, in the tomb.  

Verse 4 says:

“For if God spares not sinning messengers [angels]”

“…but thrusting them into the gloomy caverns of Tartarus, gives them up to be kept for chastening judging;…”

Although the words “sheol”, “hades”, and “gehenna” are found multiple times in the scriptures, the word “Tartarus” is only found one time; here, in this verse.  “Tartarus’ is the prison of 1 Peter 3:18-20.  The dead, and certainly no “souls”/”persons” are ever said in scripture to be in this place.  These angels/spirit beings, are the only beings said to be in the place the scriptures call, “Tartarus”.  

In what way did these messengers sin in the time of Noah?  While there is much controversy, on this topic, I believe the evidence of 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, support the narrative of these messengers being, “the sons of God”, the “ B’nai HaElohim” of Genesis 6.  The offspring of this union, is the Hebrew word “nphil” (Strong’s #5303).  See below:

“And it came to pass when men had begun to multiply on the face of the ground and daughters had been born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men! that they were, fair,—so they took to themselves wives of whomsoever they chose, 3 And Yahweh said—My spirit shall not rule in man to times age—abiding, for that, he also, is flesh,—Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. 4 The giants, were in the each in these days, and also, after that, when the sons of God began to go in unto the daughters of men, and sons were born to them, the same, were the heroes that were from age-past times the men of renown. 5 Then Yahweh saw that great, was the wickedness of man in the earth, and that, every purpose of the devices of his heart, was only wicked all the day; 6 and it grieved Yahweh, that he had made man in the earth,—and he took sorrow unto his heart. 7 And Yahweh said—I must wipe off man whom I created from off the face of the ground, from man unto beast unto creeping thing, and unto the bird of the heavens,—for I am grieved that I made them. 8 But, Noah, had found favour in the eyes, of Yahweh.” (Gen. 6:1-8)

As it turns out, in many cultures’ “mythologies”, (particularly the Greek mythologies) it is believed that some of the gods mated with human women, creating what were called “the titans”.  The titans were extremely violent and had superhuman abilities.  Did you notice verse 4, above, “…The giants, were in the each in these days, and also, after that, when the sons of God began to go in unto the daughters of men, and sons were born to them, the same, were the heroes that were from age-past times the men of renown.”?  The ancient “mythologies” certainly made legends of these beings in the ancient times.  In Greek mythology, some of the Titans were, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, and Oceanus.  From, https://www.ancient.eu/Titan/, it may interest you to read the following:

“The Titans were then imprisoned in a great chasm in the deepest, darkest part of the Underworld - Tartarus - which was even deeper than Hades and henceforth became known as a place of punishment.”

Compare that, with what we read earlier in 2 Peter 2:4:

“For if God spares not sinning messengers, but thrusting them into the gloomy caverns of Tartarus, gives them up to be kept for chastening judging;"

You may be saying, “Wow, that is really similar, but in the Greek mythology, the Titans, not the gods, were imprisoned in Tartarus, right?”  That is correct, but keep in mind that stories and legends become corrupted and added to and diminished over time.  

In the scriptures, why did these Elohim/sons of God, mate with human women in the first place?  I think the answer to that question, and thus the answer to why Jesus Christ went to Tartarus to present Himself to these spirits, heralding His victory over the grave is found in Genesis 3 and the prophecy God made to the Serpent, when He cursed him.  

“And enmity, will I put between thee, and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,—He shall crush thy head, but, thou, shalt crush his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)

Beginning with Genesis 6, Satan attempted many times to thwart the Promised Savior’s birth.  The uncorrupted human gene was being carried safely on Noah’s ark.  We see this when we read of the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1.  While the genealogy begins with Abraham, we know that Abraham traced his ancestry back to Noah and one of Noah’s sons.

The Serpent was cursed for what he did in the garden.  God’s promise was that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, thus eventually undoing not only what Adam brought upon the whole earth, but also the works of the devil which began way back in the garden.

Arguably, Satan’s final attempt to thwart this prophecy was when he tempted the Promised One in the wilderness.  He offered Him all the kingdoms of the earth.  See below:

“Again, the adversary taketh him with him, into an exceeding high mountain,—and pointeth out to him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; 9 and said to him, All these things, will I give thee,—if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Withdraw, Satan! for it is written,—The Lord thy God, shalt thou worship, and, to him alone, render divine service. 11 Then, the adversary leaveth him,—and lo! messengers came near, and began ministering unto him.” (Matt. 4:8-11)

I like to think of the appearing of Christ Jesus to these spirits in Tartarus, like the Lord doing an end zone dance.  He did not sin, He was the propitiation for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2), He took away the sin of the world (John 1:29), He is the undoing of Adam, (Romans 5:18 and 1 Cor. 15:22), and in His death, all died (2 Cor. 5:14), He was begotten by God upon His resurrection (Acts 13:33), and in all this, He destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and this victory was what He preached to the spirits in prison.

“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: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 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. “ (1 Peter 3:18-20)