Christ Preaching to the Spirits in Prison [pp. 636-650]

CHRIST PREA.CHING TO THE SPIRITS INi PRISON.
We tihus find ourselves in the very midst of the labyrintlh to
which tihe obvious exegesis of the passage oconducts us. Is there
any clue by which we may extricate ourselves? But let us feel
our way sa long further.
Tile Ospirits who are preached to are,said to be in "prison"
(gv (/vkr), *i.e., in a place or condition of confinement or safekeeping-for such is the uniformn meaning of the phrase. It
seems to imply that those to whom Christ preached in spirit,
were not in hell (y?'vvx), but, as it were, in some place or state
of detention where they were awaiting their final judgment, just
e. y. as Peter is said in Acts xii. 4 to have been put it phtilake by
Hered, wVho expected to bring him forth the next day to the people. That this prison or place of detention of departed spirits,
was in some part of that invisible region called Hades, or the
world of the dead, whither the spirit of Christ went, is all that
we know about it.
We cannot, however, but comnapare this passage with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi), and the imagery
there employed. Hactdes is there represented as being divided
into two great regions, with a great gulf between them, the abode
of the good being on the one side, and called "Abraham's
Bosom," and the abode of the wicked on the other. The spirit
of the rich man was in a "place of torment," or in that part of
Hades which is elsewhere called jyehenna, or hell proper, the same
perhaps as the lowest hell; while there seemIs to be required a
sort of intermediate region where the spirits of the antediluvians
to whom Christ preached were confined, an(-l and to which Peter
here gives the name of,utzila7e.
In Acts ii. 27, 31, this sam.e Peter, whose words we are now
considering, quoting Psalmn xvi. 10, spelaks of Chlrist s spirit not
being left in Hades," vlwhich our transl.ators hiave very unfortunately rendered'in hell,"' and which has given rise to that ecqlually
unfortunately clause in the so-c,ellod Apos,tles' Creed, " Le de
spirit to spir,ts And th; -i its bein:' le;ribed as having been sometire, or for rofly, disobedient,:-.( p linly impl I iat the period Lof dis o,be ciene wav.s a prior
onle to tht-it t) i 1) rh Ulg 1! ci, (IL, p. 30t., anhd
note.
But haen t, 1!i,,e('ed athor goes na Lfterwards to Cay that "Christ's spirit
pilC,r/Uf- )J,i',' 5.j't eerj ~u:,'(~e i~/,){ gfo9ry,' and'-tt"is is, the onily kind of preaching
whlich the a:e oatmits af, cw canno t but i-el that he all o has olen into the error
of t wistiu, he piasms int:),,fl liln unatul see.
[-.Oct.
640