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 the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for certainly he is flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Keep me from the hands of the snare which they have laid for me, and from the snares of the workers of iniquity.
And it shall come to pass that he who shall flee from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that shall come up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: because from on high, windows have been opened, and the foundations of the earth shall shake.
And it shall come to pass that he who shall flee from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that shall come up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: because from on high, windows have been opened, and the foundations of the earth shall shake.
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, when the LORD of the hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and in the presence of his ancients he shall be glorious.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good tidings unto those who are cast down; to bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound;
of his Son (who was born unto him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection from the dead), of Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.
and he came and preached peace unto you who were afar off and to those that were near.
searching when and in what point of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, which announced beforehand the afflictions that were to come upon the Christ, and the glory that should follow them.
But also if ye suffer anything for righteousness' sake, blessed are ye; therefore, be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled,
For it is better (if the will of God so desires) that ye suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For the Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in spirit, read more. in which he also went and preached unto the imprisoned spirits,
For if God did not forgive the angels that sinned, but cast them down into the deepest abyss and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and if he did not forgive the old world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;