Reference: Spirits in Prison
Fausets
1Pe 3:18-19. The argument is, Be not afraid (1Pe 3:14,17) of suffering for well doing even unto death, for death in the flesh leads to life in the spirit as in Christ's case, who was put to death in the flesh but quickened in spirit (i.e. in virtue of His divine nature: Ro 1:3-4; 1Co 15:45; 2Co 13:4) in which (as distinguished from in person) He went in the person of Noah (compare 1Pe 1:11 "a preacher of righteousness" (2Pe 2:5; He went not locally but as Eph 2:17, "He came and preached peace," namely, by His ministers) and preached unto the spirits in prison, namely, the antediluvian unbelievers; their bodies seemed free, but their spirits were in prison (Ps 141:9) and they like "prisoners shut up in the prison" just as the fallen are judicially regarded as in chains of darkness, though for a time at large on the earth (2Pe 2:4; Isa 24:18,22-23; 61:1; Ge 7:11, referred to in Isa 24:18). "His Spirit" long "strove" with them, but ceased to do so because even the seed of the godly Seth proved "flesh" and quenched the Spirit (Ge 6:3).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And LORD said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he also is flesh. Yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, and from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare. For the windows on high are opened, and the foundations o
And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare. For the windows on high are opened, and the foundations o
And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison. And after many days they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, for LORD of hosts will reign in mount Zion and in Jerusalem. And glory shall be before his elders.
The Spirit of lord LORD is upon me, because LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, {and recovering of sight to the blind (LXX/NT)}, and
concerning his Son who was made from the seed of David according to flesh. He who was designated Son of God in power, according to a spirit of holiness, from a resurrection of the dead--Jesus Christ our Lord--
And after coming he preached good-news, peace to you, to those far off and to those near,
searching for what, or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ in them indicated, predicting the sufferings in Christ, and the glories after these things.
But even if ye should suffer because of righteousness, ye are blessed. But do not fear their terror nor be shaken,
For it is better to suffer doing good, if the will of God desires, than for doing evil. Because Christ also once suffered for sins, a righteous man for unrighteous men, so that he might bring you to God. Having indeed been killed in flesh, but made alive in spirit, read more. in which also, having gone, he preached to the spirits in prison
For if God did not spare heavenly agents who sinned, but delivered them up to chains of darkness, having been cast into hell being reserved for judgment, and he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, the eighth, a herald of righteousness, when he brought on a flood upon the world of the irreverent,