1 Peter 3:19

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
By	ἐν en	G1722	"in · preposition
which	ᾧ hō	G3739	the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun · relative pronoun — dative singular neuter
also	καὶ kai	G2532	and · conjunction
went	πορευθεὶς poreutheis	G4198	to traverse · verb — aorist passive deponent participle, nominative singular masculine
preached	ἐκήρυξεν ekēruxen	G2784	to herald (as a public crier) · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
spirits	πνεύμασιν pneumasin	G4151	a current of air · noun — dative plural neuter
in	ἐν en	G1722	"in · preposition
prison	φυλακῇ phulakēa	G5438	a guarding or (concretely · noun — dative singular feminine

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

1 Peter 4:6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live acc…
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up th…
Isaiah 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Isaiah 49:9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastu…
Nehemiah 9:30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore g…
Revelation 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
1 Peter 1:11-12 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Ch…
Revelation 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the te…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Peter 3:18-20

Here, I. The example of Christ is proposed as an argument for patience under sufferings, the strength of which will be discerned if we consider the several points contained in the words; observe therefore, 1. Jesus Christ himself was not exempted from sufferings in this life, though he had no guilt of his own and could have declined all suffering if he had pleased. 2. The reason or meritorious cause of Christ's suffering was the sins of men: Christ suffered for sins. The sufferings of Christ were a true and proper punishment; this punishment was suffered to expiate and to make an atonement for sin; and it extends to all sin. 3. In the case of our Lord's suffering, it was the just that suffer…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Peter 3:18

Confirmation of Pe1 3:17, by the glorious results of Christ's suffering innocently. For--"Because." That is "better," Pe1 3:17, means of which we are rendered more like to Christ in death and in life; for His death brought the best issue to Himself and to us [BENGEL]. Christ--the Anointed Holy One of God; the Holy suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust. also--as well as yourselves (Pe1 3:17). Compare Pe1 2:21; there His suffering was brought forward as an example to us; here, as a proof of the blessedness of suffering for well-doing. once--for all; never again to suffer. It is "better" for us also once to suffer with Christ, than for ever without Christ We now are suffering our "…

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Adam Clarke on 1 Peter 3:19

By which - Spirit, his own Divine energy and authority. He went and preached - By the ministry of Noah, one hundred and twenty years. Unto the spirits in prison - The inhabitants of the antediluvian world, who, having been disobedient, and convicted of the most flagrant transgressions against God, were sentenced by his just law to destruction. But their punishment was delayed to see if they would repent; and the long-suffering of God waited one hundred and twenty years, which were granted to them for this purpose; during which time, as criminals tried and convicted, they are represented as being in prison - detained under the arrest of Divine justice, which waited either for their repentance…

The Church Fathers

He [John the Baptist] also first preached to those in Hades, becoming a forerunner there when he was put to death by Herod, that there too he might intimate that the Saviour would descend to ransom the souls of the saints from the hand of death.
— Hippolytus of Rome, On Christ and Antichrist, Section 45

"In which also." Here, ἐν ᾧ is taken causally for "therefore." For when Peter had said that he died for us, the unjust, and from this had shown that he endured death for the salvation of all men, he now says that for this reason also he preached to those who were held in Hades.
— Oecumenius, Commentary on 1 Peter

That the dead might know salvation, who in limbo long had dwelt, Into hell with love he entered; to him yield the broken gates As the bolts and massive hinges fall asunder at his word. Now the door of ready entrance, but forbidding all return Outward swings as bars are loosened and sends forth the prisoned souls By reversal of the mandate, treading its threshold once more.
— Prudentius, HYMNS 9.70-75

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Hell — Derived from the Saxon helan, to cover; hence the covered or the invisible place. In Scripture there are three words so rendered: (1.) Sheol, occurring in the Old Testament sixty-five times. This…
Noah — Rest, (Heb. Noah) the grandson of Methuselah (Gen. 5:25-29), who was for two hundred and fifty years contemporary with Adam, and the son of Lamech, who was about fifty years old at the time of Adam’s…
Antediluvians · Noah preaches to — Noah preaches to
Deluge, The · The wicked warned of — The wicked warned of
Hell · Which Christ visited — Which Christ visited

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

1 Peter 3:19

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Peter 3:18-20

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Peter 3:18

Adam Clarke on 1 Peter 3:19

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

1 Peter 3:19

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Peter 3:18-20

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Peter 3:18

Adam Clarke on 1 Peter 3:19

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on 1 Peter 3:19

John Calvin on 1 Peter 3:19–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Peter 3:19-20