1 Peter 3:18-22 by John MacArthur

[The vast majority of this material comes from Dr. MacArthur with added insight from Hiebert, Kistemaker, Blum, Dalton, and Kelly. I am simply the editor.]


1 Peter 3:18-22

“This paragraph is notoriously obscure and difficult to interpret. A study of this much-debated portion readily brings to mind the Petrine comment concerning the Pauline epistles, ‘His letters contain some things hard to be understood’ (2 Peter 3:16)” (Hiebert)

“These and the following verses present the most difficult and controversial problems in the letter.” (Kelly)

Theme: The Triumph of Christ’s suffering


Peter is writing this epistle to encourage Christians that are suffering unjustly.

We like Christ, can triumph in our suffering. Peter teaches, that you may suffer unjustly but in it all, God can provide victory and accomplish a holy purpose.

4 areas Christ Triumphed in His death. (From the example of Christ)

1. Triumphant sin bearing (v. 18a)
2. Triumphant sermon (v. 18b-20a)
3. Triumphant salvation (v.21)
4. Triumphant supremacy (became His). (v.22)

Christ physically suffered and died on the cross but was made alive in the spirit. (v. 18b). At the cross, though dead in flesh Christ was made alive in the Spirit. (God is eternal). Christ’s separation from God was the way in which He “spiritually died”.
When Jesus died on the cross, His physical body went to the tomb, but while His body was dead, His spirit was alive!! He was moving freely in the spiritual realm.

V. 19 “In which” “There can be no real doubt that it refers back to ‘in the spirit’ (v. 18) as the antecedent.” (Kelly)

Q1 Where did He go (this living spirit?) This question is answered in verse 19.
“He went and made proclamation.”
(“Made proclamation”) This verb (ekeruxen) means to preach, to make a proclamation, to announce a victory, or to herald a triumph. (Jonah 1:2, 3:4)
Jesus Christ went somewhere to announce His victory over sin, death, hell, demons, and Satan. He overcame and triumphed in His suffering.
**That is what the context of 1 Peter is all about. (Triumphing in the midst of unjust suffering.)**

Q2 Who was this proclamation made to? “to the spirits now in prison,”
The NT always uses the term “spirits” to refer to angels; never to men (without a qualifying genitive). “This noun pneuma, alone and w/o qualification, occurs nowhere else in the NT with this sense.” (Kelly)
(Fallen) Angels clearly are in view here, they are also present in the broader context (see v. 22).

The spirits in this context were “in prison” leading us to conclude these must have been demons (fallen angels). Christ went to declare His victory sermon over demons! This could not be a message of salvation because demons are forever damned. (Heb. 2:16)
“Christ announced his triumph over evil, which was bad news for the spirits. For Peter’s readers, however it meant comfort and encouragement.” (Hiebert)
“We understand the verb preached to mean that Christ proclaimed victory over His adversities.” (Kistemaker)

Q3 Why preach a victory sermon to demons? Because since the beginning when Satan fell, he has been at war with the purposes of God and the work of Christ.

There is conflict between the holy angels and the fallen angels (e.g. Job, Daniel, Revelation). The demons of hell may have been celebrating momentarily when Christ died. They may have thought they had won until Christ (in spirit) arrives!!!

Q4 Where is this place He went? “to the spirits now in prison,”
“Nowhere in Scripture are the souls of men ever said to be ‘in prison.’” (MacArthur) “Incidentally, Scripture nowhere states that the souls of men are kept in prison.” (Kistemaker)
This is not a condition, it is a location, a place! Not all demons are in the prison. There are holy angels and fallen angels; of the fallen angels there are two kinds, loose and bound; of the bound there are two kinds, permanently bound and temporally bound… Angels, fallen, bound, permanently is what we are dealing with here.
{See Luke 8:31, Kittle on the word “abyss”, & Matt 8:29}

Q5 How did this spirits get bound to this place? Verse 20 tell us!!
They overstepped even God’s limitations for demons. During Noah’s time the demon spirits were having a field day. (Gen 6:5) They had corrupted all of the human race except 8 people.

Q6When was this? V. 20 “in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark.” The ark took 120 years to build during which Noah preached judgment sermons to a vile people and constructed this massive floating device.
This must have been very familiar information with Peter’s readers, because he makes minimal comment and expects his readers to understand the background of vs. 19-20.

Read 2 Peter 2:4-7!! It is highly likely that these events are all connected. The book of Enoch (which Jude makes reverence to, even though it was not a biblical book) discusses this account. 1 Enoch 14:4-5. “In 2 Peter 2, the reference to the imprisonment of sinning angels is immediately followed by a reference to the Flood.” (Hiebert)


Q3What sin did these fallen angels commit??
Jude 1:6 “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” These angels are kept in eternal chains and are permanently bound. Jude 1:7, says that the evil people of Sodom engaged in “gross immorality” and went after “strange flesh”. (Genesis 19 has the story of Lot)
Whatever these angels did (to get sent to the permanent pit) is similar to the gross immorality that was attempted by the men of Sodom!!! (according to Jude 6-7).

Q7 What did these “spirits” do? See Genesis 6:1-5. It appears that fallen angels, who came down and took on human bodies in some form, cohabited with women and produced some kind of a demonic hybrid. (Possibly called the “Nephilim”). They tried to create some kind of unredeemable race (of ‘demon-men’). (“Sons of God” refers to angels in the OT. Early church held this view until the 4th century.)
In Sodom, men went after angels; Here, angels went after women!!

See Colossians 2:14-15….(Paul may be referring to the same thing as Peter) So Jesus in the midst of suffering, triumphs over death, sin, Satan, and demons!

Jesus Christ went to the abyss to preach a victory sermon and announce His glorious triumph! The announcement is of His victory and of the spirit’s certain doom that has come through His death on the cross and (His soon) resurrection.
This fits perfectly in the context of 1 Peter as Kelly writes, “Peter’s readers can reflect that the neighbors who persecute and bully them are merely reproducing the rebellious character of the demonic powers (v. 20) whose agents they are, and will surely share their destruction.”
Anyone who opposes Christ will be defeated. (Col 2:15, 2 Thess 1:6-8, 1 John 3:8).

I strongly hold this interpretation and it seems (in general) to be the preferred view of MacArthur, Hiebert, Kelly, Dalton, Kistemaker, the early church Fathers (up until the 4th century) and most importantly, (I believe) of the apostles Peter and Jude!!!



Yours for the Master,
Caleb Kolstad


Death ( v 18)
Proclamation (v 19)
Resurrection ( v 21)
Ascension (v 22)