death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he
went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 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."[1344]

The disobedient who had lived on earth in the Noachian period are
especially mentioned as beneficiaries of the Lord's ministry in the
spirit world. They had been guilty of gross offenses, and had wantonly
rejected the teachings and admonitions of Noah, the earthly minister of
Jehovah. For their flagrant sin they had been destroyed in the flesh,
and their spirits had endured in a condition of imprisonment, without
hope, from the time of their death to the advent of Christ, who came as
a Spirit amongst them. We are not to assume from Peter's illustrative
mention of the disobedient antediluvians that they alone were included
in the blessed opportunities offered through Christ's ministry in the
spirit realm; on the contrary, we conclude in reason and consistency
that all whose wickedness in the flesh had brought their spirits into
the prison house were sharers in the possibilities of expiation,
repentance, and release. Justice demanded that the gospel be preached
among the dead as it had been and was to be yet more widely preached
among the living. Let us consider the further affirmation of Peter, as
part of his pastoral admonition to the members of the Primitive Church:
"Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the
dead. For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the spirit."[1345]

That Jesus knew, while yet in the body, that His mission as the
universal Redeemer and Savior of the race would not be complete when He
came to die is sufficiently demonstrated by His words to the casuistical
Jews, following the Sabbath day healing at Bethesda: "Verily, verily, I
say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the
Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in
himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come
forth; they