1 peter 3:19 greek
By Silvanus, the faithful brother, as I suppose, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. (3.) I do not believe in these glory-men, or resurrection-men either, without the blood of Jesus; but, on the other hand, as little are we in scripture limited to that most wonderful of all foundations redemption through Christ Jesus our Lord. What the Word of God is speaking in I Peter 3:19 is not about dead people but about spirits, angelic beings that are in a prison, in the Tartarus, bound in everlasting chains under darkness. opinion, that this is meant of the souls of the Old Testament He suffered in other ways; in this He stands alone for us; "that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. Amplified: If you are censured and suffer abuse [because you bear] the name of Christ, blessed [are youhappy, fortunate, to be envied, with life-joy, and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of your outward condition], because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, is resting upon you. only to their responsibility, not to their faith; and if it be responsibility, whether to do the law or to believe the Messiah, it is all one as far as the result in man is concerned. The priestly sacrifices in the Temple have to be repeated daily but Christ made the perfect sacrifice once and for all when he offered himself up ( Hebrews 7:27). May 11, 1986. You'll have a good life. It is, therefore, worthwhile for us to take pains to make them understand that they are honoured for nothing else but only for appearing modest and self-respecting." Is this, you know, do you like this outfit? For over three decades after the Crucifixion, Peter seems to have had significant interaction with those who spoke Greek. At the time of this epistle, it was in due order. Praise to God for a Living Hope 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! were when the apostle wrote: from whence we learn, that Christ "I'm running the show and I don't need you and I don't need anybody else. that generation who was then in being; and who being disobedient, It may well be that when he compares himself with his fellow-men, he has nothing to fear from the comparison. Well, the thing is I know the woman; I know her problems. It is used in the Old Testament of bringing to God those who are to be priests. (ii) He lays it down that that sacrifice was for sin. He tells her something very simple--nothing else than to be a good wife. Here the New Testament speaks with unmistakable definiteness and with almost frightening directness. It was an individual and not a church that was referred to. In Greek this had a specialized meaning. - The ESV Study Bible, Another view is that Christs resurrection and ascension were the proclamation of victory over the most extreme powers of evil the earth has ever known, which these imprisoned spirits represent. manifestation, made known unto them: but though the word may It is argued that what this means is that it was in the time of Noah himself that Christ did this preaching; that in the Spirit long ages before this he made his appeal to the wicked men of Noah's day. More than this, there is full security, spite of our passing through a world filled with hatred and peril, for the Christian above all. Persons ought not to speak unless they have a certainty that what they wish to say is not only true (this is not what is said) but the actual will of God nor the occasion. So they were saved by the water or by the ark in the water. All this time they are not a people; they are dependent on the will of their Gentile masters. He reminds the Christians of Rome that, though they are many, they are one body, and he pleads with them to be of one mind ( Romans 12:4; Romans 12:16). (a) If Christ descended into Hades, then his death was no sham. Anybody could get to Him. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [them] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. On the contrary, He knew quite well before coming that He was not here for a long life, but to die on the cross. If we saw a company of men in prison who had seen better days - a multitude now drunken, and debased, and poor, and riotous - it would not be improper to say that the prospect of wealth and honor was once held out to this ragged and wretched multitude. But in the consideration of the text of any Greek author, scholars sometimes use a process called emendation. (v) When we go beyond these two verses, further into the passage, we can add two more great truths to Peter's view of the work of Christ. You know you get out and rail at someone, this guy's going to pull a gun at you. Peter does not tell the wife to preach or to argue. The prison was death by which men were bound. That we receive the peace we need as Christians is mainly connected, not with His coming out from God, but with His going back to God; as it is said here, "Who by him do believe in God that" what? California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Others, as the Papists, imagine the sense to be, that Christ, at his death, went in his human soul, into a place they call "Limbus Patrum", which they suppose is meant by the prison here, and delivered the souls of the Old Testament saints and patriarchs from thence, and carried them with him to heaven; but this sense is also false, because, as before observed, not the human soul of Christ, but his divine nature, is designed by the Spirit; nor is there any such place as here feigned, in which the souls of Old Testament saints were, before the death of Christ; for they were in peace and rest, in the kingdom of heaven, in Abraham's bosom, inheriting the promises, and not in a prison; besides, the text says not one word of the delivering of these spirits out of prison, only of Christ's preaching to them: add to all this, and which Beza, with others, observes, the apostle speaks of such as had been disobedient, and unbelievers; a character which will not agree with righteous men, and prophets, and patriarchs, under the former dispensation: others think the words are to be understood of Christ's going to preach, by his apostles, to the Gentiles, as in Ephesians 2:17 who were in a most miserable condition, strangers to the covenants of promise, and destitute of the hope of salvation, and sat in darkness, and the shadow of death, and, as it were, at the gates of hell; were in the bonds of iniquity, and dead in sin, and had been for long time past foolish and disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, to which they were in bondage. The very point of Christianity is this, that as to election it is personal strictly individual. When a man is roused to hate his sins through God's testimony reaching him, and convicting him before God, and not in his own eyes, when a man is ashamed of all that he has been in presence of God's grace, ever so little known and understood, still where a real work goes on in the soul, sanctification of the Spirit is true there. Whatever the form, God never gives up His righteous government, though there is His grace also. The outcome of the submission, 1 Peter 3:6b 2. Nevertheless the apostle there claims the most unqualified subjection to the powers that be. The elders are told to feed or shepherd the flock of God which was among them, exercising the oversight, not by necessity, but willingly; not for base gain, but readily, etc. The Jewish conception of the world after death was of this grey world of shadows and forgetfulness, in which men were separated from life and light and God. (4.) But at all cost God's will must be done; "by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." It symbolizes that which has already transpired in my heart. They would rather have placed the sprinkling of the blood first, and obedience next. The idea is, that to those spirits who were then in prison who had formerly lived in the days of Noah, the message had been in fact delivered. Now practical holiness follows our being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ, whereas the sanctification of the Spirit of which Peter here treats precedes it. C. E. B. Cranfield writes so finely of this that we cannot do other than quote his whole comment in full, lengthy though it is: "The New Testament never treats this agreeing in Christ as an unnecessary though highly desirable spiritual luxury, but as something essential to the true being of the Church. What, then, is Peter's advice in such a case? He went and preached By the ministry of Noah, one hundred and twenty years. Christ the sufferer has become Christ the victor; Christ the crucified has become Christ the crowned. righteousness, and preached both by words and deeds, by the But here the apostle speaks of none of these things, but only of the Spirit separating the saints to obey as Jesus obeyed, and to be sprinkled with His blood. Seek peace, pursue it." In Christ Jesus the dividing walls are down, and Jew and Greek are united into one ( Ephesians 2:13-14). Perhaps it is needless to say how the heart is tried. And preached - The word used here ( ekeruxen) is of a general character, meaning to make a proclamation of any kind, as a crier does, or to deliver a message, and does not necessarily imply that it was the gospel which was preached, nor does it determine anything in regard to the nature of the message. And this is exceedingly interesting, because if the prophet be compared, it will be seen to illustrate what has been remarked before the difference between the present accomplishment made good in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and the future fulfilment of the prophecies. spirits that were then in it when he preached, but to persons If persons take the actual application as the fulfilment of the prophecies, it in fact not only nullifies the future of scripture, but destroys the beauty and point of the present; for what the apostle intimates is, that they had obtained mercy now, though none were yet sown in the earth. God is so patient that he waited for 120 years before sending the Flood in Noahs day (Genesis 6:3). In point of fact Christ is the life of the believer; and we can well understand, therefore, that the life of Christ, whether viewed in all its perfection in Him, or whether it is seen modified in ourselves, is nevertheless just the same life, in our case hindered alas! the covenants of promise, and destitute of the hope of salvation, That is a magnificent picture. It is into this very snare that unbelief has brought men in Christendom. It is the instinct of that new nature, of life in the believer, who, being born of God, has this necessary feeling of the new nature, the desire to do the will of God. Christianity accordingly, it will be observed, comes in between these two extremes after the first, and before the second, coming of Christ; and this is exactly what Peter shows us in this epistle. The effect of sin is always alienation from God. Seminar. It is a capital offense to convert a Moslem. It really is founded on the death of Christ; and therein further our due place is shown us by His resurrection. Not my wife, I'm not thinking about her. For a wife to change her religion while her husband did not was unthinkable. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious; to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." I am not speaking of a particular doctrine. Ministry, then, is clearly in itself a distinct thing from speaking; it is another kind of service to which he is called of God. WELLINGTON, July 9 But in the destruction by the flood eight people--Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives--were brought to safety in the ark. Having been made alive by the Holy Ghost Christ went "In the spirit," that is, in the spiritual form of life, in that part that cannot be put to death, in this way he "entered upon a journey" to accomplish a particular task. It was an imprecation of death on themselves from God if they violated His commandments. The more he shows his love, the easier she finds it to submit to him.Now he may be stupid, he may lose everything, but he's here and he loves me and, you know we're together, we'll make it. But there's an interesting proverb that says, "A soft answer turns away wrath" ( Proverbs 15:1 ). It is worth while to collect together the great New Testament passages about unity, in order to see how great a place it occupies in New Testament thought. This is precisely what those who contend against the truth of election always feel most: they will allow a sort of body in a general way to be elect, and then that the individuals who compose that body must be brought in, as it were, conditionally, according to their good conduct. 2 Peter 2:4) and that they were disobedient in the days of Noah (1 Peter 3:20). The ritual itself cannot save me. Will it tell of thy faithfulness?" In regard to the inquiry, then, who these spirits were, there can be no difference of opinion. I definitely believe in water baptism and I personally believe in water baptism by full immersion. To restrict yourself to it would be a wrong, not so much to your own soul as to God's grace; and if there be any difference, especially to Him who suffered all things for God's glory and for our own infinite blessing. So then, according to Jewish legend, Enoch did go to Hades and preach doom to the fallen angels. They did not think in terms of heaven and of hell but of a shadowy world, where the spirits of men moved like grey ghosts in an everlasting twilight and where there was neither strength nor joy. Take, for instance, the duty of obedience; the value of a gracious, peaceful walk here below; the degree of confidence in God. There is no Scriptural reason whatever for not referring to that whole generation which rejected the preaching of Noah as "the souls in prison"; however, Peter wrote, "spirits in prison"; and, for that reason, we must refer the words "spirits in prison" to their present status at the time of Peter's writing. (ii) Peter goes on to speak about the Christian attitude to suffering. (3.) They were tempted by the beauty of mortal women; they came to earth, seduced them and begat children; and because of their action, it is inferred, the wickedness of man was great and his thoughts were always evil. With this he is intended to start as a Christian; he begins his career with that blessed shelter which tells him that, although he has entered on the path of Christian obedience, he is a forgiven and justified man in the sight of God. But there is need also of present strength from God to those who look to Him. It speaks of the descent into Hades and the very word descent suggests a three-storey universe in which heaven is localized above the sky and Hades beneath the earth. The coming of Jesus might be misunderstood, as being a much more comprehensive term than His appearing or revelation. Purple was the favourite colour for clothes. There are those who guide, and it is a most proper thing. And then he takes up what is distinctly spiritual power, which should be used not in charity only but with conscience before God, and for His glory through our Lord Jesus. in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. But then, to what are they sanctified of the Holy Ghost thus? of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." But there is that which never fails, "the power of God through faith," by which the believer is kept to the end. In any presentation of the Christian case and in any argument for the Christian faith, the accent should be the accent of love. "Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning with the fancy hairstyles, the wearing of gold, putting on of fancy apparel.". What, then, must have been the problems of the wife who became a Christian while her husband remained faithful to the ancestral gods? 3:15b-16 Always be prepared to make your defence to anyone who calls you to account concerning the hope that is in you; but do so with gentleness and reverence. Without Jesus' death for our sins on the cross, we could not come to God. How does Moffatt arrive at this translation? Are thy wonders known in the darkness, or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?" The Jews were all familiar with a ransom price that used to be paid in silver. How could one hope for One who was here, however different His estate from what was longed for and expected? Their story is told in Genesis 6:1-8. All on which one could look with delight and praise was concentrated in His own person. Supposing God only gave the believer according to his own thoughts (often meagre); supposing one believed in the power of the precious blood of Jesus ever so truly, and had nothing more than this our real portion by the Spirit, such an one, I maintain, would be a sorry Christian indeed. Nor is there any reason to fear that silence in such a case would inflict a real loss on the church of God. 3:17-18a For, it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be the will of God, than to suffer for doing wrong. "She that was at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you." I will set down his own words: Le sentiment qui veut que Jesus Christ soit descendu aux enfers, pour annoncer sa venue aux anciens patriarches, et pour les tirer de cette espece de prison, ou ils Pattendoient si long tems, est indubitable; et nous le regardons comme un article de notre foi: mais on peut douter que ce soit le sens de Saint Pierre en cet endroit. It was when He who died went to heaven that Christianity appeared in its full force; and accordingly then came out faith in its finest and truest character. It was necessary to its existence that Jesus should go. Cato the Censor insisted on simplicity; Lucius Valerius answered: "Why should men grudge women their ornaments and their dress? And when it is working, it becomes a beautiful combination, and your lives can be enriched and your prayers effective. 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 or the expiration of the respite, that the punishment pronounced might be inflicted. It may appear singular that in this passage Peter should make mention of those who were unbelieving in the days of Noah, and of baptism as the antitype of the water of the deluge; but this may be explained from the circumstance that . No such words are used, nor is this what he means. And the apostle guards against the wrong conclusion, that, because in certain things we stand contrasted with the Old Testament saints, there are no grounds in common. Why did Peter mention Noah? From the time that this new nature is given, the purpose of the heart is to obey. If he suffered, to expiate sins, why should not we be content when our sufferings are only for trial and correction, but not for expiation? that Christ also, under the Old Testament, acted the part of a So Ephesians 2:17, And came and preached peace, etc. This may be in various measures, and therefore no more is meant than so far as want of faith is allowed to work. So long as the self is the most important thing in the world, there can be no such thing as sympathy; sympathy depends on the willingness to forget self and to identify oneself with the pains and sorrows of others. In Greek civilization the duty of the woman was "to remain indoors and to be obedient to her husband." Although this passage is one of the most difficult in the New Testament, it begins with something which anyone can understand. Hairbands, pins and combs were made of ivory, and boxwood, and tortoiseshell; and sometimes of gold, studded with gems. 1 Peter 3:19. Still others hold that He announced good news to the saved among them. This is because the wife's position was far more difficult than that of the husband. The consequence is that when minds get disturbed, it may be, about their position, then all sorts of difficulties come in. When a man for instance turns to God, when he has faith in Jesus, when he repents towards God, even though it may be faith but little developed or exercised, and although the repentance may be comparatively superficial (yet I am supposing now real faith and repentance through the action of the Holy Ghost), these are the tokens of the Spirit's sanctification. He is the expiation for our sins ( 1 John 2:2). 2 Peter 2:4 speaks of these sinning angels as being imprisoned in hell, awaiting judgment. That which God values, the meek, the quiet spirit which in the sight of God is very valuable. And this is a point that Peter presses on them, a startling thought for a Jew, yet they had only to reflect in order to know how true it is: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." His spirit, instead of being bound by those forces that lead to eternal condemnation, entered into fuller life. Bear in mind that the one is just as truly Christian as the other. [Note: E.g., Michaels, pp. Others, as the Papists, imagine the sense to be, that At first sight, perhaps, these words may be startling to some, that is, to such as think that the sense of "salvation" is weakened thereby. Why even your dog has a will; and I am sure you have a will yourselves. But it is so easy to rail back. But there is also the suffering in which we may be involved because of our Christianity. In the top line in italic print, we have set down, the Greek of the passage in English lettering and beneath each, thanatotheis ( G2289) men ( G3303) sarki ( G4561), zoopoietheis ( G2227) de ( G1161) pneumati ( G4151), en ( G1722) ho ( G3588) kai ( G2532) tois ( G3588), en ( G1722) phulake ( G5438) pneumasi ( G4151). them all; and whose spirits, or separate souls, were then in the This is Christianity. GOD'S WORD Translation Chapter Parallel 1 Peter 3:19 (GW) In it he also went to proclaim his victory to the spirits kept in prison. 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