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18 Christ’s Victory and Descent to the Netherworld, and Christian Baptism.[a] For Christ also suffered for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but raised to life in the spirit.

19 In the spirit[b] also he went to preach to the spirits in prison, 20 those who had refused to obey long ago while God waited patiently in the days of Noah during the building of the ark. In it only a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Peter 3:18 The author presents the vision of a new world. Christ’s Death and Resurrection have been victorious over sin; the risen Lord dominates the universe and all the good or evil forces in it, e.g., angels, dominations, and powers. Christ truly died and was in the sojourn of the dead, as the New Testament more than once attests (see Mt 12:40; Acts 2:31; Rom 10:7; Eph 4:8-10).
    The intent of this passage is probably to say that nothing human or cosmic can be excluded from the Redemption that Christ effected. It is in this sense that we are to understand the article of the Creed that speaks of Christ “descending into hell.” The story of Noah (see Gen 6:1—7:4) is interpreted as a saving of the righteous and a destruction of sin; it seems to be taken as a symbolic anticipation of Baptism, which at the time was received by immersion.
  2. 1 Peter 3:19 In the spirit. . . . In the spirit: another translation possible is: “by the Spirit . . . through which.”

18 For Christ also suffered once(A) for sins,(B) the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.(C) He was put to death in the body(D) but made alive in the Spirit.(E) 19 After being made alive,[a] he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits(F) 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently(G) in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.(H) In it only a few people, eight in all,(I) were saved(J) through water,

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Peter 3:19 Or but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also