After the crucifixion, he ‘preached the souls in prison’.
They were the people who’d died before He came.
“After the crucifixion, he ‘preached the souls in prison’.
They were the people who’d died before He came.”
1Pe 3:18-20 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (19) By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (20) Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
The spirits “in prison” here is in reference to the antediluvians, which “sometime were disobedient... in the days of Noah...” NOT to those who died before the time of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the word “preached” is not euangelizo, but is ekeruxen, which is a more general proclamation as opposed to Gospel preaching. The meaning is that Christ “preached” to those who (now, but not then) are spirits in prison, whom Christ with “longsuffering... waited in the days of Noah.” In other words, the preaching mentioned in the previous verse, is the “longsuffering” wait of God in the latter verse that took place in the days of Noah.
The ones 'in prison' are the Fallen Ones... The Fallen Angels or Watchers who 'left their first estate' (gen 6), to lay with the daughters of men. And I don't think it was preaching - It was a declaration.
The good who died before the coming of Messiah were in a place of comfort called 'The Bosom of Abraham' which is now empty - These souls were presented to the Father by Yeshua upon the Resurrection as the 'First Fruits' offering that wonderful Sunday morning.