1 Peter 3:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Yet by their inclination to vanity they despised it. At a time when the number of people was countless, only eight souls obeyed the preaching and were saved in the ark that had been prepared.

Since salvation came in water, he fittingly refers this to holy baptism and says that this water pointed to our baptism. For baptism also destroys the disobedient demons and saves those who come with faith into the ark, that is, into the Church.

As water washes away impurity, so also does baptism. Only baptism effects the removal not of bodily impurity, but, through an outward sign, the washing away of the defilement of the soul.

It is, as it were, a pledge and entrusting of a good conscience before God.

For this reason the Holy Church, as the initiate of God’s love, boldly sings today in honor of her Bridegroom: “Hades reigns, but it does not reign eternally over the human race.

For Thou wast laid in the tomb, O Mighty One, and didst break the keys of death. Thou didst proclaim sure deliverance to those sleeping there from the ages.”

What was the subject of the preaching in Hades? The apostle does not say directly. Yet what else could have been the subject of the Savior’s preaching except salvation?

The end of the work shows its essence. For the most obstinate souls, such as Noah’s contemporaries, the end of the preaching in Hades had to be this, according to the apostle’s clear and exact testimony.

They had been “judged according to men in the flesh” during the flood, but now, after Christ’s preaching, they were to “live according to God in the spirit” (1 Pet 4:6).

Those who came alive in the spirit could no longer be left in the dwelling of death. The Conqueror of death, having descended alone into Hades, had to lead many out with Himself.

If anyone hesitated to give full credence to Hades when it complains that, on this occasion, it “lost all the dead over whom it had reigned from the ages,” he cannot doubt the testimony of the Church.

She sings without hesitation that, by the descent of her divine Bridegroom into Hades, “all the kingdoms of Hades were emptied.”

Judge for yourselves, brethren, what joy must have accompanied the departure from the dreadful “prison of spirits,” when even those freed from earthly prisons often lose themselves for joy.

Then the Savior’s saying was revealed in all its power: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mt 9:13).

Then the whole world learned how the Seed of the woman crushes the very head of the serpent. For the great Conqueror of death, the destruction of the strongholds of Hades and the liberation of its prisoners was surely the most delightful of all His works.

If the accomplishment of human salvation according to the will of the Father was for Him, by His own words, “food” (Jn 4:34), then on this occasion He tasted manna.

The Lord is in Hades. Let us also descend after Him in thought into Hades, so that we may not one day descend there in deed. Let us place ourselves for a time in the state of those confined in the prison of spirits.

Let us learn to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Those who lived before the manifestation of Christ in the flesh saw Him in Hades.

Who will guarantee that those will see Him there who voluntarily descend into Hades after Christ’s ascension into heaven?

The present preaching of Christ in Hades is plainly a preaching not repeated. For the separation of His soul from His body is not repeated.

Therefore it is best and safest of all to work out one’s salvation “while it is day.” For “the night” will come for each, in which, according to the word of the unceasing Worker Himself, “no one can work” (Jn 9:4).

A) Almost everyone agrees that the expression "in which" (ε̉ν ώ) refers to "spirit" (πνεύματι) in verse 18. But they disagree about what spirit is meant here: the human spirit, that is, the soul of Christ, or the Spirit of God.

On the basis of the contrast between flesh and spirit in the preceding verse, verse 18, one must understand here the human spirit of Jesus Christ, His soul, and not the Spirit of God.

Otherwise, the descent of Jesus Christ into Hades by the Spirit of God, and not by His own soul, would in the strict sense be the descent of the Holy Spirit into Hades, and not of the Son of God.

The Church hymn says precisely this: "In the tomb bodily, in Hades with Thy soul as God, Thou wast, O Christ" (troparion at the Paschal Hours).

B) The place of the descent of Jesus Christ is called by the Apostle φυλακὴ, carcer, the prison of spirits.

From the comparison of this expression with another place in the same epistle (1 Pet 4:6), it is clear that what is meant here is the kingdom of the dead, ά̉δης, in Hebrew sheol.

To this place descended the souls of all people who died before the coming of Christ, not only the evil, but also the righteous.

At the same time, one must note that Catholic writers divide Hades itself into two halves. These are the bosom of the forefathers and Gehenna, or the place of torment of the devil, the evil spirits, and evil people.

On the basis of the Savior's parable (Lk 14:23, 26), they see between them a great gulf. Across this gulf, they suppose, even Jesus Christ Himself had no need to pass, since He descended only into the forecourt of Hades, or the bosom of the fathers.

But such an opinion contradicts the Apostle's clear indication that Jesus Christ descended into Hades.

The faith of the Church, founded on the same Holy Scripture, affirms that the Son of God descended into Hades in order to strike the devil on the head and destroy his kingdom to its foundations.

He descended to free from it all the captives who awaited His coming with faith, without distinction between good and evil. He could not have done this if He had descended only into the forecourt of Hades, the bosom of the forefathers.

The hymns of the Church present the descent of Jesus Christ into Hades precisely in this way.

"Thou didst descend into the lowest parts of the earth," the Orthodox Church sings solemnly on the day of Christ's Resurrection, "and Thou didst shatter the eternal bars that held the prisoners, O Christ" (irmos of the sixth ode of the Paschal canon).

"Today the Master has despoiled Hades, raising the prisoners whom it had held from the ages in bitter bondage" (refrain to the ninth ode of the same canon).

"Those held by the bonds of Hades, seeing Thy boundless compassion, went toward the light with joyful feet, O Christ, praising the eternal Pascha" (troparion of the fifth ode).

"We celebrate the death of death, the destruction of Hades" (troparion of the seventh ode), and the like.

C) The persons to whom the preaching is addressed are called spirits, πνεύματα. That is, they are not ordinary living people.

The designation "dead" (1 Pet 4:6) sharply separates them from the evil spirits. Their relation to those who disobeyed Noah's preaching directly points to the souls of people who perished during the flood.

The holy martyr Justin (Apolog. 2, p. 83), Clement of Alexandria (Strom. lib. 6, p. 637), and Saint Epiphanius (Haeres. 46) think that Jesus Christ descended into Hades with the preaching of His coming to the Gentiles.

They especially mean the philosophers, those who, knowing God, did not glorify Him as God (Rom 1:21). In Hades they believed in the Messiah who had descended there and were saved.

Blessed Augustine (de Genes. ad litter. L. 12, c. 33) and Saint John of Damascus (De fide orthod. 4:9) consider that He descended there to free the souls of all those tormented in Hades who were capable of receiving His preaching.

Origen (C. Cels. 2, p. 438), affirming the same opinion, even sends John the Forerunner there before Him (troparion to the Forerunner, January 7). He also sends Moses and Elijah there after the Transfiguration of Christ (Orig. hom. 4 in Luc.; Comm. in 1 Reg. et in Matth. 12).

Finally, there were interpreters who supposed that Jesus Christ led out of Hades not only those who believed in Him, but everyone who was there.

It would certainly be erroneous to suppose that all the souls of the dead who were in Hades were led out from there by Jesus Christ when He appeared in Hades with preaching to sinners.

On the other hand, one cannot allow that the preaching of the Son of God remained without effect merely because there can be no repentance after death, and because in Hades there could be neither confession (Ps 6:6) nor conversion.

In Hades, indeed, there is no repentance, but only because there is no preaching there. Yet at the time of the Son of God's descent into Hades, there was preaching.

Therefore there was also the possibility of repentance and conversion for the prisoners held in Hades.

Otherwise, there would be no reason to preach where preaching would bring no benefit to those to whom it is preached.

Nor could full victory over the devil be ascribed to Jesus Christ Himself if He had not destroyed his kingdom and freed the captives from his bonds.

The extraordinary and unique manifestation of the Son of God in Hades, His complete victory over the devil and death, and the preaching of salvation could certainly dispose even the gravest sinners to repentance.

It could compel them to bend the knee before the Victor over Hades.

This opinion is confirmed both by the fact that the Apostle calls the preaching of Jesus Christ in Hades the gospel (1 Pet 4:6), and by his indication concerning those to whom Christ preached salvation.

These were the sinners who once resisted God's longsuffering during the building of the ark and perished in the waters of the flood.

Yet probably, in the moments of their destruction during the forty-day rain, they had occasion to offer God true repentance for their disobedience to His will.

This, however, does not exclude the possibility of supposing that, just as during the preaching of the God-man on earth there were unbelievers and opponents of the truth, so in Hades there could also be sons of perdition.

There could be desperate men and mockers, who remained unbelieving and unrepentant. They trembled before the unbearable light of God's condescension and grew hardened, but did not turn to Him with a plea to be led out of the darkness of Hades.

Such as these remained in Hades together with the evil spirit, kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 6).

It remains to resolve the question why the Apostle Peter, speaking of the preaching of the Son of God in Hades, presents this preaching as addressed exclusively to the people of the first, antediluvian world.

They had not obeyed Noah's preaching. It is as though Peter forgot about other sinners who lived after the flood.

To explain this seeming strangeness, one must pay attention to the fact that the Apostle Peter distinguishes two worlds. The first ended with the flood, while the present or contemporary world is appointed for destruction by fire (2 Pet 2:5; 2 Pet 3:6, 7).

He joins all postdiluvian people into one world, which still continues to exist. In the few persons contemporary with Jesus Christ and the Apostles, this world heard the preaching of salvation from the mouth of the Savior Himself.

Before His coming, it heard this preaching from the prophets, who preached by the same Spirit of Christ.

But all who lived before the flood belong to the first world. This world, separated from Jesus Christ by whole millennia, was not deprived of this preaching.

Jesus Christ even descended into Hades in order to preach to it about His coming.

Thus the Apostle had in mind here to speak about the universality of the preaching of salvation. He meant its extension even to the first world, which seemed least of all able to hear this preaching.

At the same time, the Apostle wishes to indicate the Lord's boundless compassion. Even in the most rejected and destroyed world, He sees at least small remnants of good.

He sends His Son to lead out from Hades itself those who, in the waters of the flood, washed away their sin of resistance to God's will by bringing repentance for it.

No. Christ preached the Gospel of His Kingdom to all who were in Hades. In the expressions under consideration, the Apostle’s thought is that this preaching was offered even to the spirits of the most disobedient men.

It was offered even to the most stubborn opponents of God’s will, such as the unbelieving contemporaries of Noah. If this preaching was offered even to them, then certainly it was offered to all others, less stubborn and disobedient.

Why does the Apostle set forth Noah’s contemporaries precisely as an example of stubborn and disobedient men toward God’s will?

First, they truly showed extreme stubbornness and disobedience. They did not believe the direct and clear revelation of God, spoken through Noah, that God would destroy the whole world by the Flood for its impiety unless they repented.

This stubbornness continued for a full hundred and twenty years. It continued even when they saw Noah, at God’s command, building an ark for his salvation from the Flood.

This plainly indicated the certainty of the approaching punishment of the impious world, with which God threatened it through righteous Noah.

Second, in the image of Noah, saved from the Flood with his household, the Apostle intends to show the salvation of Christians through baptism. Therefore this example closely suited the aim of the Apostle’s following discourse.

Third, perhaps the Apostle wished to show the believing Jews, to whom the Epistle was written, that Christ’s preaching in Hades extended not only to Jews.

They could mistakenly have imagined this, as they had earlier mistakenly imagined that the Messiah would come to earth particularly for the Jews.

The Apostle says that Christ’s preaching in Hades extended to all without exception, including Gentiles, even to such stubborn and disobedient men as Noah’s contemporaries.

Fourth, Noah’s times are generally presented as typical of later Christian times in various respects; compare 2 Pet 2:5; 2 Pet 3:6-7; Mt 24:37 and following. The Apostle gives occasion to reflect on this.

“Disobedient while God’s longsuffering waited for them.” The mercy of God, by which God long restrains Himself from bringing judgment upon the impious and sending them their deserved punishment, is called God’s longsuffering.

He waits for their conversion, repentance, and amendment. God showed such longsuffering also in Noah’s days.

He did not punish the human race, which had become utterly corrupt, by the Flood suddenly and without warning. Instead, He gave it one hundred and twenty years for repentance (Gen 6:3).

“While the ark was being prepared.” The Greek expression indicates the difficulty and duration of the construction, begun and completed before the eyes of the unbelieving and disobedient contemporaries.

“In which a few were saved.” This expression serves as a transition and connection to the chief thought of the section under consideration, concerning the bringing of all to God through Christ (1 Pet 3:18).

It indicates how this is accomplished, using the image of the Flood now from its saving side, not its punitive side.

“A few,” that is, eight souls: namely, Noah with his wife, and his three sons with their wives (Gen 7:13).

“They were saved from water.” More precisely, they were saved by water, or through water.

The Apostle’s thought is not merely that they were saved from being drowned by water. It is also that they were saved from drowning by means of water, δι’ water.

The water bore the ark that saved them from drowning. Therefore the water itself was the means through which, διά, those in the ark were saved from drowning by that same water.

By this turn of speech the Apostle wishes to indicate more precisely the relation of the water of the Flood to the water of baptism in their saving character. The former was a type of the latter (1 Pet 3:21).

Some interpreters have expressed perplexity about why salvation was proclaimed to those who did not obey the Lord in the days of Noah, since repentance is impossible after death.

But one must remember, first, that some of those who had not repented during the building of the ark repented during the flood itself.

Second, Jesus Christ proclaimed Himself to all who were in Hades: to some for consolation and joy, and to others for punishment and fear (see 1 Pet 4:6).

Why, from among all, the apostle singles out those who perished in the days of Noah is clear from his following words about the flood.