1 Peter 3:18-20, Ancient Mythology, and the Intermediate State -- By: John S. Feinberg

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 48:2 (Fall 1986)
Article: 1 Peter 3:18-20, Ancient Mythology, and the Intermediate State
Author: John S. Feinberg


1 Peter 3:18-20, Ancient Mythology, and the Intermediate State

John S. Feinberg

What happened to saints and sinners when they died during the OT economy prior to Christ’s death? The question of the intermediate state for OT individuals is a matter which has occasioned much heat, even if not much light. There are those who argue that the biblical teaching on such matters demands the belief in an underworld to which such people were confined after death. They also claim that once Christ died, he went to preach in the underworld and to transfer OT saints to heaven which was now open as a result of his death. Many who hold these views and variations of it rest at least part of their case on 1 Pet 3:18–20. Such a view is certainly consistent with the writings of many historical figures as well as the Apostles’ Creed. Interestingly enough, as one peruses extrabiblical literature from the centuries immediately preceding and after the time of Christ, he finds the notion of an underworld very firmly entrenched. This is the case whether one is reading Greco-Roman mythology, intertestamental Jewish literature, or apocryphal works written shortly after the time of Christ. Such a coincidence leads one to wonder whether Scripture in general and Peter in particular actually teach that there is an underworld, or whether early Christian interpreters of Scripture, living in a culture permeated by such notions from Greco-Roman and Jewish literature, thought they saw the same concept taught in 1 Pet 3:18–20 and other passages and passed on the idea of Christ preaching in hell to later generations.

All of these issues are of import and interest from the standpoint of theology, biblical criticism and hermeneutic methodology. Unfortunately, not all issues can be handled in this study due to space limitations. In this paper the discussion will be limited to a careful exegesis of 1 Pet 3:18–20 in an

attempt to discern whether it teaches anything about an underworld, anything about Christ preaching in hell for any reason, or anything about his transferring OT saints to heaven. In this study I shall attempt to demonstrate that the passage in question has nothing to do with any of those ideas, but should be understood as a reference to Christ preaching by the Holy Spirit through Noah to the people of Noah’s day. At the time of the writing of 1 Peter the disembodied spirits of those people were imprisoned because of their judgment for rejecting the message Noah preached. Though this position is hardly taken seriously by commentators today, I shall argue that, in fact, it is the b...

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