Note 228 — Quest. XLIX., L.

1 Peter iii. 18. describes the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ, as encouragement for the suffering saints. There are no prepositions before σαρκς, and πνευματι (flesh and spirit:) our translators have taken the former as the dative of the part affected, the latter as the dative of the cause; and have expressed the former by in, the latter by by. Some preposition, or prepositions must be inserted in the translation. It is said, to preserve the antithesis, the same should be repeated, and so it will be; “Was quickened in the Spirit,” which will refer to his human soul. But his human soul was not dead, and could not be quickened. And it is absurd to substitute the adjective quick, (as Dr. Horseley has done) for this is to make, not translate scripture. Nor could his human soul quicken his body; it was the power of God, whether we understand by Spirit his divine nature, the person of the Father, or of the Holy Spirit. Now as the word Spirit here cannot mean his human soul, this passage will not prove that it went to any place, or prison, whatever.

By which, (ver. 19.) relates to the Divine Spirit: he, that is, Christ, went (πορευθεις having gone,) preached (this is also the indefinite past tense) to the spirits in prison. The omission of the substantive verb makes the present tense; and the spirits here spoken of were still in prison, at the time of the writing this epistle, and therefore whether good or evil, they had not been set at large by Christ from their imprisonment. The word disobedient is also the indefinite participle. Went, preached, and disobedient, are all the same tense; and, coming together, evidently relate to the same time. Ποτε οτε connect them with, and pin them down to the time of the verb waited, which is the unfinished action, was waiting, the tense, which is most definite, and in this case actually connected with absolute time, to wit, “in the days of Noah.” The going forth, the preaching, and the disobedience, were therefore all, as well as the waiting of God, in the days of Noah, and not between the death, and resurrection of Christ.

The reason that the Apostle fixes on the fearful example of rejecting divine instructions in the days of Noah, was probably that Noah had been called in scripture a preacher of righteousness: the Lord had also said of that generation, that his Spirit should not always strive with man, which implies, that his Spirit did go forth with the preaching of that age; and their disobedience was proved by their destruction by the deluge; and their death in impenitency was a proof of their everlasting punishment.