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

CHRIST PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.
In regard to the object of this preaching, Calvin and others
suppose that it was addressed to the good, who were there, as
in a place of lookout, or of safekeeping, (as phulake is variously
rendered,) and made known to them the completion of the great
work of redemption; while to the unbelieving antediluvians and
others the preaching would be only a proclamation of coming
judgment;-just as the preaching of the gospel now is to some
a "savor of life," and to others a "savor of death." Every
reader, however, must feel that such an interpretation is entirely
unsustained by the language of the text.
That it was the gospel that was preached is evident, both from
the uniform meaning of the word E'd pv6ev, and from the use
of the word esetyy E;tz'u2 (" the gospel was preached,") in the
corresponding passage in chap. iv. 6. All that is really taught,
however, is, that Christ preached the gospel to the antediluvians in
Hades, who were once disobedient (unbelieving) in the days of Noah,
while the ark was p2reparing. Everything else is but matter of
elbow, so that each one seemed to lie on the bosom of his neighbor to the left.
Thus John is said to have lain on Jesus' bosom, or been accustomed to occupy the
seat next to him at table. So also with the Jews to lie on Abraham's bosom was to
occupy the seat next to him in the feast of heavenly blessedness. Thus Lazarus
was not only carried by angels to heaven, but to the place of highest honor there.
We must also guard ourselves against the conception of any literal ascending or
descending into the world of spirits, which we know to be astronomnically absurd.
Such language took its rise, doubtless, from the Jewish methods of speaking of
sheol, which primarily meant the grave into which the dead body descends; and in
the obscurity of their conceptions of a spirit as distinct from the body, they were
accustomed to speak of the spirit also as going down to Sheol, as if buried with the
body, and irrespective of its character as fitting it for a happy or a miserable condition. Thus, e. y., Samuel says to Saul, "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be
with me "-in Sheol (I. Sam., xxviii. 19).
The Greeks borrowed their conceptions of Ifades from the Jews, or received them
from a primitive and world-wide tradition, but gave them much more definiteness
of outline, as we find in the parable of the rich man and Lazarns, in which Jewish
ideas are clothed in Grecian imagery. These conceptions and the corresponding
forms of speech passed into the primitive church, and ultimately into the Apostles'
Creed, in the clause "He descended into hell."
It is also in the use of similar imagery that our Saviour says to his disciples, " In
my Father's house are many mansions —I go to prepare a place for you," &c. So
also the ancient believers (see Heb. xi.) are said to have sought "a better country,
even an heavenly," and "God hath prepared for them a city." In all such allusions to the heavenly state, we cannot but find the idea of locality conveyed; but
the very vagueness and variety of the imagery employed should convince us that a
state rather than a definite place of blessedness is intended. On this whole subject,
however, it is best for us to confess our ignorance, and to await the developments
of the future world.
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