1 Peter 3:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Having gone into heaven”: see the notes on Mk 16:19, Lk 24:50-51, Acts 1:2-11, and parallels. “He is at the right hand of God”: see the note on Mk 16:19.

“To whom angels,” and so forth, “were made subject”: as to the God-man, Who after His sufferings received, in glorification and according to His human nature, divine authority. Therefore He received supreme authority also over the heavenly spirits (cf. Heb 1:4 and parallels).

The concept of subjection here does not include coercion or violence, but voluntary obedience.

“Angels, Authorities, and Powers” are the names of some of the nine ranks of angels. The teaching about them is developed more fully in the epistles of the holy apostle Paul (Rom 8:38; Eph 1:21; Col 1:10, and others).

These three ranks are named here without doubt in place of all nine, for the God-man received authority over the whole angelic world (Heb 1:4).

The example of the eight souls of Noah’s family saved in the ark should inspire Christians with hope and patience. They too are surrounded by the abyss of a sinful world and seem to sail in an ocean of every trial from the sons of this age.

Baptism, corresponding to this figure, that is, to the floating ark, now saves us also. Its saving power is appropriated by faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He Himself, through suffering, ascended into heaven and abides at the right hand of God. Angels, authorities, and powers have been made subject to Him, that is, also according to His humanity.

Having said that it is better to suffer for good works than for evil (1 Pet 3:17), the holy Apostle Peter adds: “For Christ also once suffered for our 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 also He went and preached to the spirits in prison.”

When reading these apostolic words, the first question that naturally arises is what must be understood by the prison into which Christ descended in His soul, while His body remained in the tomb.

By this prison the Apostle names that region, little known to us, where the souls of departed men go and abide.

The people of the Old Testament called this region by the general name Sheol, or the netherworld, which in Greek is called Hades.

This is not Hades in our sense, as a place of torment for sinners alone, but in the general sense of the kingdom of the dead (Gen 37:35).

By calling this place a prison, or confinement, the Apostle plainly ascribes to it something constraining for the human spirit. It is something that hinders the free manifestation of its powers, and in general something unpleasant and undesirable.

Such was this place before the coming of Christ the Savior for all men who died. Of course, the degree of their righteousness, as also the degree of their impiety, was reflected in corresponding degrees of their confinement in Sheol.

That is, the souls of departed patriarchs and the souls, for example, of those who perished during the Flood, of whom the Apostle speaks in particular, were not in one place and not in one condition.

Why did the Lord descend into Hades? The holy Apostle Peter answers this by saying that Christ, having descended into the prison of spirits, preached. Therefore the Lord descended into this prison for preaching.

The subject of this preaching was surely that the salvation of men had been accomplished. It was that this Savior is He Himself, the Son of Man, who descended into the nether parts of the earth to the prisoners of Hades.

It was also that moral communion with Him had become the one universal means for men’s salvation from there.

Thus “whoever believes in Him,” as the incarnate Son of God, “will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16).

That this truly was the essence of Christ’s preaching in Hades is indicated clearly enough by the Apostle. He calls this preaching the Gospel, or glad tidings, below in 1 Pet 4:6.

We know that the chief aim, or essence, of the evangelical proclamation is this: that men may believe “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they may have life in His name” (Jn 20:31).

To which spirits did Christ preach when He descended into Hades? The Apostle later replaces his expression that Christ’s preaching was addressed to spirits with another expression: “the Gospel of Christ was preached to the dead” (1 Pet 4:6).

Thus, according to the Apostle, only human spirits, that is, the souls of departed men, were instructed by Christ’s preaching, not spirits in general, such as the fallen angelic spirits.

Because these latter spirits lack all good receptivity, preaching to them would have been utterly hopeless, and therefore in vain.

On the same basis one may suppose that even among human spirits only a portion was saved by the radiant preaching of the Resurrection and led out from the strongholds of Hades.

This was the portion in which at least some small receptivity to this preaching and to faith in Christ had been preserved.

Still, it is most consoling that the God-inspired Apostle Peter considerably broadens the realm of those saved by Christ’s preaching.

He points to them even where, according to our human reasoning, it would be hard to suppose them. He points precisely to the realm of people who perished in the waves of the Flood.

These were people “who once were disobedient while God’s longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared” (1 Pet 3:20).

That many of these people were saved is directly declared by the Apostle. Perhaps at the moment of their destruction they recognized their impiety. Who knows? Perhaps they died with cries to God and with repentance.

The Apostle says: “For this reason the Gospel was preached even to the dead, that, having been judged according to men in the flesh,” that is, having perished and suffered in the body, “they might live according to God in the spirit” in the world beyond the grave (1 Pet 4:6).

From this it is clear that a kingdom has also been prepared for those who believe in Jesus Christ. For He said: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also” (Jn 12:26).

Speaking about the feelings with which Christians approached Baptism, seeking in it a conscience cleansed from sins before God, the apostle teaches Christians to preserve the good conscience which they truly received through Baptism (cf. Mt 15:23; Mt 16:1; Acts 23:20).

By pointing to the obedience of the angels to Christ, he shows His immeasurably great power. This power is fully sufficient to be an unshakable support for suffering Christians.

To them He said: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and falsely speak every evil against you for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Mt 5:11-12).