1 Peter 3:18-20 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.”
Many assume that the “spirits in prison” were unbelievers who perished in the flood, which is a plausible explanation. However, it seems unlikely that Jesus would address only a particular sect of unbelievers in Hades when there were multitudes who died apart from faith since Creation. Therefore, many scholars believe that the “spirits in prison” were not human but specific demonic spirits mentioned elsewhere in Scripture.
The first clue that the “spirits in prison” were demons and not unbelievers is that Jesus preached something specific to them and not everyone, which is tremendously significant. Although Peter did not disclose the content of Jesus’ message, the Greek word for “preached” means “to proclaim as a herald something that has been done.” Coupled with Colossians 2:15, which says Jesus “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it,” it is likely that Jesus’ message to these specific spirits was one of victory on and through the cross, which will make more sense as we move through the remaining clues.
The second clue that the “spirits in prison” were demons, not unbelievers, comes from something Jude and Peter revealed. Jude 1:6-7 disclosed that certain demonic spirits have been kept in “everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day” because they “did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode,”—having “given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh” like Sodom and Gomorrah. Likewise, 2 Peter 2:4 says, “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
These depictions of certain demons chained in darkness match the description of those Jesus preached to after His crucifixion, namely the “spirits in prison.” These facts about chained demons also lay the foundation for the next intriguing clue.
The third clue that the “spirits in prison” were demons and not unbelievers is that their disobedience occurred before the worldwide flood. This piece of evidence might not seem significant on its own. But Genesis 6 described an exceptionally heinous period of sinful activity preceding the flood that grieved God to the point of eradicating humanity and starting over with Noah and his family.
Genesis 6:1-4 states, “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.”
Many scholars believe that “the sons of God” were demons who impregnated “the daughters of men” to genetically corrupt, contaminate, pollute, and infect the human race to prevent the Messiah’s birth and ultimate death for the world’s sins. Their belief is due, in part, to the phrase, “the sons of God,” which appears only three other times in the Old Testament and always refers to angelic beings, never humans (see Job 1:6-8; 2:1-2, and 38:4-7).
Their belief is also based on Jude’s disclosure that God chained certain demons in darkness for committing sexual sin (Jude 1:6-7) and Peter’s revelation that certain demons have been chained in darkness until final judgment (2 Peter 2:4) when other demons have been allowed to roam free until Judgment Day (see Ephesians 6:12-13).
Taking all three clues into account, it seems plausible that the “spirits in prison” that Jesus preached to after His crucifixion (1 Peter 3:18-20) were the “sons of God” from Genesis 6, whom (scholars believe) Jude and 2 Peter described as those whom God confined to darkness and bound with everlasting chains (Jude 1:6-7 and 2 Peter 2:4).
This conclusion would explain why Jesus proclaimed His glorious victory on Calvary specifically to them after His crucifixion because it declared and pronounced their defeat in trying to prevent it.
I hope this synopsis sheds light on the probable identity of the “spirits in prison” mentioned in 1 Peter 3:18-20 and prompts you to study this fascinating topic further. However, since Scripture does not explicitly identify these spirits as demonic, we cannot be dogmatic about their identity since it is not a problem-free conclusion.
