Spirits in prison


The spirits in prison is a recurrent but minor subject in the writings of Christianity. The concept has its origins in Platonism, and it is introduced in the Phædrus with the idea that the soul is imprisoned within the body.

Greek philosophy

In Plato's Phædrus, Socrates likens the soul of the body to be as imprisoned as an oyster is bound to its shell during the discourse on metempsychosis with Phaedrus.

Christianity

First Epistle of Peter

The subject takes its starting point from chapter 3 of the First Epistle of Peter:
However, the Greek word ψυχαι, used in 1 Peter 3:20, may also be translated as "person" and not as "soul". The latter represents both the inner self and its status after corporal death, whereas in this verse it is used as a synonym of the Jewish word nephesh, in a holistic sense and without any metaphysical dualism. The word psyche is applied by St. Peter uniquely to humans and not for animals.

Early Christian interpretations

According to Augustine of Hippo the spirits are the unbelieving contemporaries of Noah, to whom the spirit of Christ in Noah preached, or to whom the pre-existent Christ himself preached.

Enlightenment views

Unitarians such as Thomas Belsham consider that the spirits in prison were simply gentiles in the prison of ignorance to whom Christ preached through his apostles.

Modern Christian interpretations

Wayne Grudem identifies five commonly held views on the interpretation of this verse:
These views revolve around the identity of the spirits in prison, the time in which the preaching took place, and the content of the preaching:

View 1. Augustinian interpretation

This is also found in Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. A variant of this view is the view of the Rev. Archibald Currie that Christ through Noah preached to "the spirits in prison", meaning the eight persons interned in the Ark as in a place of protection.

View 2. Harrowing of Hell

The Anglican Edward Hayes Plumptre, Dean of Wells, in The Spirits in Prison starting from the verse in Peter argued for revival in the belief in the harrowing of Hell and the spirit of Christ preaching to the souls of the dead in Hades while his body was in the grave.

View 3. Proclaiming triumph

This is a variant of the harrowing of Hell idea, except that Christ only proclaims triumph.

View 4. Release from purgatory

This view originates with Robert Bellarmine and has been followed by some Catholic Church commentators in relation to a belief in Purgatory.

View 5. The spirits in prison are angels

Support for the understanding that the spirits in prison are angelic beings and not people is thought to be confirmed by II Peter 2:4–5 and Jude 6, which refer to rebellious angels punished by God with imprisonment. Just like I Pet. 3, II Pet. 2 also refers to the time of Noah's flood, including the number of people saved in the ark. However, the text in 2 Peter uses a different word for the location of the angels than I Peter does. in 2 Peter 2, the word used is, otherwise known as Tartarus. In I Peter 3:19, the word is, meaning prison.
Friedrich Spitta, Joachim Jeremias and others suggested that Peter was making a first reference to Enochic traditions, such as found again in the Second Epistle of Peter chapter 2 and the Epistle of Jude. Stanley E. Porter considers that the broad influence of this interpretation today is due to the support of Edward Selwyn.

Human souls

The concept that the dead await a general resurrection and judgment either in blessed rest or in suffering after a particular judgement at death was a common first century Jewish belief. A similar concept is taught in the Eastern Orthodox churches and is reflected in some Early Church Fathers, and was championed by John Calvin.

Other religious traditions

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this verse is used in conjunction with 1 Peter 4:6 to support the belief that in the three days between Christ's death and resurrection, he visited the spirit world and set in motion the work of teaching the gospel to those who did not receive it during mortality, providing them the opportunity to repent and accept saving ordinances performed on their behalf in Latter-day Saint temples.
In Islamic tradition, a place called Sijjin is known to be the prison of unbelieving souls. It is also the place of Satan and his fellow devils. Quran exegete Tabari commented on sijjin: "it is the seventh and lowest earth, in which Satan is chained, and in it are the souls of the infidels, while Suyuti describes it as place of Iblis and his soldiers with the infidels imprisoned.