My friend @Tracy Z and I want to visit a few friends in Florida and one of the ladies in our women bible study - Carla had us over for lunch. I got to meet her husband Juan and he and Tracy were discussing this topic and he forwarded his article / research paper. I found it very compelling. What do you think? Very different than what I was taught as a JW and what many believe in Christendom but this makes a lot of sense to me.
Genesis 6:1-7 & 1 Peter 3:18-21
Nephilim, spirits in prison etc.
This paper will cover in depth the idea that many people have about God destroying the world with the flood because angels had sex with human women and created a new race.
This is due to the misunderstanding of several verses in the Old and New Testament.
We must always remember not to try and understand scriptures that were written by a very specific group thousands of years ago with our own definitions from the present. We need to ask ourselves “what did they mean back then” not “what do I think it means today”.
So let’s start with the first verse that people use.
Genesis 6:1-7
Wickedness in the World
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—after the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
In order to understand these verses we need to answer the following questions:
Who are the sons of God?
Who are the Nephilim?
What is the reason for the flood?
First I am going to give you a summary of the meaning of these verses and then I will show you why I have come to these conclusions.
First we have to understand what the context is. The context is about mankind and how wicked it had become. It is not about a new race of angel-humans.
God throughout the Scriptures has always forbidden the Hebrews from inter-marrying pagan people.
The sons of Seth were Godly people (sons of God) and the daughters of man are women of the world such as women that do not follow God’s ways. Women of the flesh. Descendants of Cain (Canaanites) or other groups of ungodly tribes.
Summary:
Godly men saw how beautiful these ungodly women were and married them and had children. The ungodly women brought down the godly men. (Adam and Eve on a grand scale)Their children did not have Fathers or mothers to show them God’s ways and became extremely evil and wicked. They were (fallen ones) or giants of wickedness. Not literal Giants. The entire world became wicked and evil to the point that God regretted creating man. So God he decided to destroy mankind except for Noah and his family who were the only righteous people.
Sons of God: This phrase is used of angels but it is not exclusive to angels. Here is Barnes commentary on these verses, Notice that angels cannot have sex or marry according to Matthew 22:30.
“The phrase "sons of God," means an order of intelligent beings who "retain the purity of moral character" originally communicated, or subsequently restored, by their Creator. They are called the sons of God, because they have his spirit or disposition. The sons of God mentioned in Job 38:7, are an order of rational beings existing before the creation of man, and joining in the symphony of the universe, when the earth and all things were called into being. Then all were holy, for all are styled the sons of God. Such, however, are not meant in the present passage. For they were not created as a race, have no distinction of sex, and therefore no sexual desire; they "neither marry nor are given in marriage" Matthew 22:30. It is contrary to the law of nature for different species even on earth to cohabit in a carnal way; much more for those in the body, and those who have not a body of flesh. Moreover, we are here in the region of humanity, and not in the sphere of superhuman spirits; and the historian has not given the slightest intimation of the existence of spiritual beings different from man.
The sons of God, therefore, are those who are on the Lord's side, who approach him with duly significant offerings, who call upon him by his proper name, and who walk with God in their daily conversation. The figurative use of the word "son" to denote a variety of relations incidental, and moral as well as natural, was not unfamiliar to the early speaker. Thus, Noah is called "the son of five hundred years" Genesis 5:32. Abraham calls Eliezer בן־בותי ben-bēytı̂y, "son of my house" Genesis 15:3. The dying Rachel names her son Ben-oni, "son of my sorrow," while his father called him Benjamin, "son of thy right hand" Genesis 35:18. An obvious parallel to the moral application is presented in the phrases "the seed of the woman" and "the seed of the serpent." The word "generations" תולדות tôledot, Genesis 5:1) exhibits a similar freedom and elasticity of meaning, being applied to the whole doings of a rational being, and even to the physical changes of the material world Genesis 2:4. The occasion for the present designation is furnished in the remark of Eve on the birth of Sheth. God hath given me another seed instead of Habel. Her son Sheth she therefore regarded as the son of God. Accordingly, about the birth of his son Enosh, was begun the custom calling upon the name of the Lord, no doubt in the family circle of Adam, with whom Sheth continued to dwell. And Enok, the seventh from Adam in the same line, exhibited the first striking example of a true believer walking with God in all the intercourse of life. These descendants of Sheth, among whom were also Lamek who spoke of the Lord, and Noah who walked with God, are therefore by a natural transition called the sons of God, the godlike in a moral sense, being born of the Spirit, and walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit Psalm 82:6; Hosea 2:1.
Some take "the daughters of man" to be the daughters of the Cainites only. But it is sufficient to understand by this phrase, the daughters of man in general, without any distinction of a moral or spiritual kind, and therefore including both Cainite and Shethite females. "And they took them wives of all whom they chose." The evil here described is that of promiscuous intermarriage, without regard to spiritual character. The godly took them wives of all; that is, of the ungodly as well as the godly families, without any discrimination. "Whom they chose," not for the godliness of their lives, but for the goodliness of their looks. Ungodly mothers will not train up children in the way they should go; and husbands who have taken the wrong step of marrying ungodly wives cannot prove to be very exemplary or authoritative fathers. Up to this time they may have been consistent as the sons of God in their outward conduct. But a laxity of choice proves a corresponding laxity of principle. The first inlet of sin prepares the way for the flood-gates of iniquity. It is easy to see that now the degeneracy of the whole race will go on at a rapid pace."
Nephilim definition according to Britannica:
The Hebrew word nefilim is sometimes directly translated as “giants” or taken to mean “the fallen ones” (from the Hebrew naphal, “to fall”).
Fallen ones as having fallen away from God.
Genesis 6:4 states:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—after the sons of God went to the daughters of man and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Notice it says that the Nephilim (the fallen ones) appeared AFTER the sons of God had children with the daughters of man. They are called fallen ones because they fell away from God due to the fact that their fathers married outside their faith and fell away from God and his ways.
You could also interpret it as they became giants of wickedness. We refer to people that are the best in their fields as giants. We say,” He is a giant in politics” or “he is a giant in his field”.
In this case the offspring are giants of evil and wickedness which is the actual subject of these verses. They could have been giants (men of renown) because they were kings, such as ungodly wicked kings that led the people astray.
Genesis 6:5 states,
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
The Lord saw the wickedness of the human race, not the wickedness of angels or a hybrid race. He regretted making MAN not angels. Angels are never mentioned anywhere in these verses. This idea will be created because of a couple of New Testament verses which we will cover later. But if you are reading Genesis you will never come to the conclusion that angels had sex with human women and created some new species. The Hebrews never interpreted these verses in that manner.
He wiped humans from the face of the earth, not angels nor a hybrid race.
That is the reason for the flood, mankind had fallen away from God and had become so evil that God regretted making man. So he wiped away the wicked from the world and started over with Noah and his family. The Hebrews never interpreted these verses to mean that angles had sex with women and that is why God flooded the world.
Now let’s look at the verses that people have used to imply that the sons of God were angels and that Christ went in spirit to preach to the angels who had sinned with women in Noah’s time.
1 Peter 3:18-21
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah.” during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
The topic of this verse and the ones that follow is Christian suffering. It states that Christ suffered for the unjust and God’s message of salvation has always been preached even to those in Noah’s time through the prophets (Noah being a prophet). See also 1 Peter 1:10-12.
To understand these verses we need to find out what the following statements mean;
Made alive in the spirit
He also went to preach to the spirits in prison
Being made alive in the spirt does not mean that Jesus resurrected spiritually and went as a spirit to preach to the angels who God had in a prison because they had sex with women in Noah’s time. The people that usually hold to this view say that he did this during the three days that he was dead in the tomb. After that he resurrected bodily.
The problem with this view are many. First, it implies that Jesus was not dead for three days. If you are preaching to spirits then you are alive and so the Bible is now wrong in a multitude of places when it claims that God raised Jesus after three days.
Secondly, is the idea of a spiritual resurrection, which John refutes by saying that anyone who claims this is the anti-christ. This was an actual problem during John’s time. Some people were claiming that Jesus’s resurrection was only spiritual. This is why John wrote these verses in order to refute those ideas.
1 John 3-4
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.
Made alive in the spirit means to be resurrected in a body that is spiritual i.e. a body (mind & heart) that knows and follows the will of God. It is also a special physical body. It is not a Greek style spirit body.
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon states as one of the definitions of “spirit”-
" is the rational part of man, the power of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things, and upon which the Spirit of God exerts its influence; (πνεῦμα, says Luther, "is the highest and noblest part of man, which qualifies him to lay bold of incomprehensible, invisible, eternal things; in short, it is the house where Faith and God's word are at home .
Paul writes in 1 Cor 15:44;
“It is sown weak, it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”
1 Peter 4:2 (same author) states;
“So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human lusts, but for the will of God”
1 Peter 4:6 states;
that though they are judged in the flesh as people, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God
So you either live in the flesh (follow the world) or you live in the spirit (follow the will of God). Living in the spirit means following the will of God.
Jesus was resurrected in a spiritual body, meaning a physical body that is incorruptible in which faith and God’s word are at home. A spiritual body that rejoices in the will of God.
So how did Christ go to preach to the spirits in prison and who are these spirits in prison? Let’s look at these verses;
1 Peter 3:18-21
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah.” during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
The spirits in prison are the people that were disobedient in Noah’s time. All these people died except eight PERSONS. The spirits in prison are persons i.e. people in Noah’s time. This is why it says that out of all the spirits in prison only eight persons were saved. In the scriptures people are often referred to as spirits or souls.
Genesis 6 does not mention anything about spirits or angels.
Jesus preaching to the disobedient in spirit means that the message of the Messiah, of salvation was preached to the disobedient in Noah’s time by Noah.
2 Peter 2:5 states,
“And if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness.”
A herald is someone who brings a message. The ancient world is a world of disobedient people not spirits.
Hebrews 11:7
Noah preached the spirit of redemption and forgiveness
(the spirit of Christ means the message of the Messiah) Remember, Christ is not a name, it is a title. A title does not have a Greek type spirit. Peter could have simply said, “spirit of Jesus” if he wanted, but he chose the title for a reason.
Other prophets also spoke about the future salvation through the Messiah. The spirit of Christ was also in them in that way.
1 Peter 1:10-12 (same author)
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as it predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you…
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers states the following on this verse:
“they were aware that they were speaking of a Messiah, but who the man should be or what period of their history he would arise, this was what they longed to know.”
Luke 1:69-70 speaks of Zechariah prophesying about the Messiah (the message of the Messiah),
“He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”
You can see that the spirit of Christ is with them because they are prophesying the message of grace through a coming Messiah.
Jesus was there in the spirit of the message, not physically. Please think logically, If Jesus had been there physically in Noah’s time, why isn’t the event mentioned in Genesis? That would have been an important event. There is no way that event would not have been recorded in Genesis.
Jesus was there in the spirit of the message with Noah and the other prophets. Noah was prophesying in his time about salvation, but the disobedient would not listen.
Here is a good example in order to understand this concept.
Matthew 17:10-13
And His disciples asked Him, ‘Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ And He answered and said, ‘Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist”
Elijah came as John the Baptist in Spirit. Not as the real Elijah.
So what is this prison language about?
To be in prison, to live in a dungeon, to be blind, to live in darkness are all ways to say that the person is living in sin. They are trapped in a life of sin.
Here is a Messianic prophesy which is specifically stating that the Messiah will bring out captives from prison. It is the same exact language that Peter is using. It is so similar that it leads me to believe that Peter was actually thinking of this verse when he wrote 1 Peter 3:19.
Isaiah 42 1-7:
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” This is what God the Lord says— the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the prison those who sit in darkness.
The spirits in prison are the people who were living in a prison of sin. They could not escape their life of sin and wickedness. They were captives of sin.
The message of salvation, the message of the Messiah (the spirit of Messiah) had been preached by many prophets. Unfortunately, in Noah’s time nobody listened and so the flood came.
Yes I will agree that it is not an easy verse to understand for us in the 21st century. But it was easy for them to understand 2000 years ago.
If we use the idea that angels had sex with women and created a new race which God had to destroy, then we have to ignore the entire context of the chapter and accept that in the middle of a specific thought the author just changes the topic completely and then that topic, which would have been a very serious and important topic is never mentioned again in the entire Bible.
Not to mention that God is a just God. It would be quite unfair for angels to come and have sex with women and then for God to blame mankind and wipe them from the face of the earth. God could simply have prevented the angles from having sex with women.
In the New Testament where fallen angels are mentioned such as in Jude, they are simply the angels that rebelled against God with Satan and were kicked out of heaven. It has nothing to do with angels having sex with humans. Christianity is not Greek philosophy which is where these type of stories come from.
Remember, angels cannot have sex or marry according to Matthew.
God Bless, Juan Baixeras
P.S. If you ever want to see other studies you can go to http://www.originalchristiandoctrines.com
Genesis 6:1-7 & 1 Peter 3:18-21
Nephilim, spirits in prison etc.
This paper will cover in depth the idea that many people have about God destroying the world with the flood because angels had sex with human women and created a new race.
This is due to the misunderstanding of several verses in the Old and New Testament.
We must always remember not to try and understand scriptures that were written by a very specific group thousands of years ago with our own definitions from the present. We need to ask ourselves “what did they mean back then” not “what do I think it means today”.
So let’s start with the first verse that people use.
Genesis 6:1-7
Wickedness in the World
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—after the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
In order to understand these verses we need to answer the following questions:
Who are the sons of God?
Who are the Nephilim?
What is the reason for the flood?
First I am going to give you a summary of the meaning of these verses and then I will show you why I have come to these conclusions.
First we have to understand what the context is. The context is about mankind and how wicked it had become. It is not about a new race of angel-humans.
God throughout the Scriptures has always forbidden the Hebrews from inter-marrying pagan people.
The sons of Seth were Godly people (sons of God) and the daughters of man are women of the world such as women that do not follow God’s ways. Women of the flesh. Descendants of Cain (Canaanites) or other groups of ungodly tribes.
Summary:
Godly men saw how beautiful these ungodly women were and married them and had children. The ungodly women brought down the godly men. (Adam and Eve on a grand scale)Their children did not have Fathers or mothers to show them God’s ways and became extremely evil and wicked. They were (fallen ones) or giants of wickedness. Not literal Giants. The entire world became wicked and evil to the point that God regretted creating man. So God he decided to destroy mankind except for Noah and his family who were the only righteous people.
Sons of God: This phrase is used of angels but it is not exclusive to angels. Here is Barnes commentary on these verses, Notice that angels cannot have sex or marry according to Matthew 22:30.
“The phrase "sons of God," means an order of intelligent beings who "retain the purity of moral character" originally communicated, or subsequently restored, by their Creator. They are called the sons of God, because they have his spirit or disposition. The sons of God mentioned in Job 38:7, are an order of rational beings existing before the creation of man, and joining in the symphony of the universe, when the earth and all things were called into being. Then all were holy, for all are styled the sons of God. Such, however, are not meant in the present passage. For they were not created as a race, have no distinction of sex, and therefore no sexual desire; they "neither marry nor are given in marriage" Matthew 22:30. It is contrary to the law of nature for different species even on earth to cohabit in a carnal way; much more for those in the body, and those who have not a body of flesh. Moreover, we are here in the region of humanity, and not in the sphere of superhuman spirits; and the historian has not given the slightest intimation of the existence of spiritual beings different from man.
The sons of God, therefore, are those who are on the Lord's side, who approach him with duly significant offerings, who call upon him by his proper name, and who walk with God in their daily conversation. The figurative use of the word "son" to denote a variety of relations incidental, and moral as well as natural, was not unfamiliar to the early speaker. Thus, Noah is called "the son of five hundred years" Genesis 5:32. Abraham calls Eliezer בן־בותי ben-bēytı̂y, "son of my house" Genesis 15:3. The dying Rachel names her son Ben-oni, "son of my sorrow," while his father called him Benjamin, "son of thy right hand" Genesis 35:18. An obvious parallel to the moral application is presented in the phrases "the seed of the woman" and "the seed of the serpent." The word "generations" תולדות tôledot, Genesis 5:1) exhibits a similar freedom and elasticity of meaning, being applied to the whole doings of a rational being, and even to the physical changes of the material world Genesis 2:4. The occasion for the present designation is furnished in the remark of Eve on the birth of Sheth. God hath given me another seed instead of Habel. Her son Sheth she therefore regarded as the son of God. Accordingly, about the birth of his son Enosh, was begun the custom calling upon the name of the Lord, no doubt in the family circle of Adam, with whom Sheth continued to dwell. And Enok, the seventh from Adam in the same line, exhibited the first striking example of a true believer walking with God in all the intercourse of life. These descendants of Sheth, among whom were also Lamek who spoke of the Lord, and Noah who walked with God, are therefore by a natural transition called the sons of God, the godlike in a moral sense, being born of the Spirit, and walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit Psalm 82:6; Hosea 2:1.
Some take "the daughters of man" to be the daughters of the Cainites only. But it is sufficient to understand by this phrase, the daughters of man in general, without any distinction of a moral or spiritual kind, and therefore including both Cainite and Shethite females. "And they took them wives of all whom they chose." The evil here described is that of promiscuous intermarriage, without regard to spiritual character. The godly took them wives of all; that is, of the ungodly as well as the godly families, without any discrimination. "Whom they chose," not for the godliness of their lives, but for the goodliness of their looks. Ungodly mothers will not train up children in the way they should go; and husbands who have taken the wrong step of marrying ungodly wives cannot prove to be very exemplary or authoritative fathers. Up to this time they may have been consistent as the sons of God in their outward conduct. But a laxity of choice proves a corresponding laxity of principle. The first inlet of sin prepares the way for the flood-gates of iniquity. It is easy to see that now the degeneracy of the whole race will go on at a rapid pace."
Nephilim definition according to Britannica:
The Hebrew word nefilim is sometimes directly translated as “giants” or taken to mean “the fallen ones” (from the Hebrew naphal, “to fall”).
Fallen ones as having fallen away from God.
Genesis 6:4 states:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—after the sons of God went to the daughters of man and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Notice it says that the Nephilim (the fallen ones) appeared AFTER the sons of God had children with the daughters of man. They are called fallen ones because they fell away from God due to the fact that their fathers married outside their faith and fell away from God and his ways.
You could also interpret it as they became giants of wickedness. We refer to people that are the best in their fields as giants. We say,” He is a giant in politics” or “he is a giant in his field”.
In this case the offspring are giants of evil and wickedness which is the actual subject of these verses. They could have been giants (men of renown) because they were kings, such as ungodly wicked kings that led the people astray.
Genesis 6:5 states,
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
The Lord saw the wickedness of the human race, not the wickedness of angels or a hybrid race. He regretted making MAN not angels. Angels are never mentioned anywhere in these verses. This idea will be created because of a couple of New Testament verses which we will cover later. But if you are reading Genesis you will never come to the conclusion that angels had sex with human women and created some new species. The Hebrews never interpreted these verses in that manner.
He wiped humans from the face of the earth, not angels nor a hybrid race.
That is the reason for the flood, mankind had fallen away from God and had become so evil that God regretted making man. So he wiped away the wicked from the world and started over with Noah and his family. The Hebrews never interpreted these verses to mean that angles had sex with women and that is why God flooded the world.
Now let’s look at the verses that people have used to imply that the sons of God were angels and that Christ went in spirit to preach to the angels who had sinned with women in Noah’s time.
1 Peter 3:18-21
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah.” during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
The topic of this verse and the ones that follow is Christian suffering. It states that Christ suffered for the unjust and God’s message of salvation has always been preached even to those in Noah’s time through the prophets (Noah being a prophet). See also 1 Peter 1:10-12.
To understand these verses we need to find out what the following statements mean;
Made alive in the spirit
He also went to preach to the spirits in prison
Being made alive in the spirt does not mean that Jesus resurrected spiritually and went as a spirit to preach to the angels who God had in a prison because they had sex with women in Noah’s time. The people that usually hold to this view say that he did this during the three days that he was dead in the tomb. After that he resurrected bodily.
The problem with this view are many. First, it implies that Jesus was not dead for three days. If you are preaching to spirits then you are alive and so the Bible is now wrong in a multitude of places when it claims that God raised Jesus after three days.
Secondly, is the idea of a spiritual resurrection, which John refutes by saying that anyone who claims this is the anti-christ. This was an actual problem during John’s time. Some people were claiming that Jesus’s resurrection was only spiritual. This is why John wrote these verses in order to refute those ideas.
1 John 3-4
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.
Made alive in the spirit means to be resurrected in a body that is spiritual i.e. a body (mind & heart) that knows and follows the will of God. It is also a special physical body. It is not a Greek style spirit body.
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon states as one of the definitions of “spirit”-
" is the rational part of man, the power of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things, and upon which the Spirit of God exerts its influence; (πνεῦμα, says Luther, "is the highest and noblest part of man, which qualifies him to lay bold of incomprehensible, invisible, eternal things; in short, it is the house where Faith and God's word are at home .
Paul writes in 1 Cor 15:44;
“It is sown weak, it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”
1 Peter 4:2 (same author) states;
“So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human lusts, but for the will of God”
1 Peter 4:6 states;
that though they are judged in the flesh as people, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God
So you either live in the flesh (follow the world) or you live in the spirit (follow the will of God). Living in the spirit means following the will of God.
Jesus was resurrected in a spiritual body, meaning a physical body that is incorruptible in which faith and God’s word are at home. A spiritual body that rejoices in the will of God.
So how did Christ go to preach to the spirits in prison and who are these spirits in prison? Let’s look at these verses;
1 Peter 3:18-21
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah.” during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
The spirits in prison are the people that were disobedient in Noah’s time. All these people died except eight PERSONS. The spirits in prison are persons i.e. people in Noah’s time. This is why it says that out of all the spirits in prison only eight persons were saved. In the scriptures people are often referred to as spirits or souls.
Genesis 6 does not mention anything about spirits or angels.
Jesus preaching to the disobedient in spirit means that the message of the Messiah, of salvation was preached to the disobedient in Noah’s time by Noah.
2 Peter 2:5 states,
“And if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness.”
A herald is someone who brings a message. The ancient world is a world of disobedient people not spirits.
Hebrews 11:7
Noah preached the spirit of redemption and forgiveness
(the spirit of Christ means the message of the Messiah) Remember, Christ is not a name, it is a title. A title does not have a Greek type spirit. Peter could have simply said, “spirit of Jesus” if he wanted, but he chose the title for a reason.
Other prophets also spoke about the future salvation through the Messiah. The spirit of Christ was also in them in that way.
1 Peter 1:10-12 (same author)
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as it predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you…
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers states the following on this verse:
“they were aware that they were speaking of a Messiah, but who the man should be or what period of their history he would arise, this was what they longed to know.”
Luke 1:69-70 speaks of Zechariah prophesying about the Messiah (the message of the Messiah),
“He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”
You can see that the spirit of Christ is with them because they are prophesying the message of grace through a coming Messiah.
Jesus was there in the spirit of the message, not physically. Please think logically, If Jesus had been there physically in Noah’s time, why isn’t the event mentioned in Genesis? That would have been an important event. There is no way that event would not have been recorded in Genesis.
Jesus was there in the spirit of the message with Noah and the other prophets. Noah was prophesying in his time about salvation, but the disobedient would not listen.
Here is a good example in order to understand this concept.
Matthew 17:10-13
And His disciples asked Him, ‘Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ And He answered and said, ‘Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist”
Elijah came as John the Baptist in Spirit. Not as the real Elijah.
So what is this prison language about?
To be in prison, to live in a dungeon, to be blind, to live in darkness are all ways to say that the person is living in sin. They are trapped in a life of sin.
Here is a Messianic prophesy which is specifically stating that the Messiah will bring out captives from prison. It is the same exact language that Peter is using. It is so similar that it leads me to believe that Peter was actually thinking of this verse when he wrote 1 Peter 3:19.
Isaiah 42 1-7:
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” This is what God the Lord says— the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the prison those who sit in darkness.
The spirits in prison are the people who were living in a prison of sin. They could not escape their life of sin and wickedness. They were captives of sin.
The message of salvation, the message of the Messiah (the spirit of Messiah) had been preached by many prophets. Unfortunately, in Noah’s time nobody listened and so the flood came.
Yes I will agree that it is not an easy verse to understand for us in the 21st century. But it was easy for them to understand 2000 years ago.
If we use the idea that angels had sex with women and created a new race which God had to destroy, then we have to ignore the entire context of the chapter and accept that in the middle of a specific thought the author just changes the topic completely and then that topic, which would have been a very serious and important topic is never mentioned again in the entire Bible.
Not to mention that God is a just God. It would be quite unfair for angels to come and have sex with women and then for God to blame mankind and wipe them from the face of the earth. God could simply have prevented the angles from having sex with women.
In the New Testament where fallen angels are mentioned such as in Jude, they are simply the angels that rebelled against God with Satan and were kicked out of heaven. It has nothing to do with angels having sex with humans. Christianity is not Greek philosophy which is where these type of stories come from.
Remember, angels cannot have sex or marry according to Matthew.
God Bless, Juan Baixeras
P.S. If you ever want to see other studies you can go to http://www.originalchristiandoctrines.com
