SPIRITS IN PRISON, the Eng. rendering of the phrase which occurs only in 1 Peter 3:19, ἐν φυλακᾖ πνεύμασιν, which is found nowhere else in Scripture. The phrase cannot be understood unless it is interpreted as part of the whole grammatical construction which begins with the first phrase of v. 18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water” (vv. 18-20). The preponderant difficulty of the phrase is seen in the numerous variants which occur in the MSS and the confusion in the VSS. A number of editors have substituted the name Enoch for Noah, which is of course meaningless. The text is usually thought to be connected to the Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) describing the demigods which late Persianized Judaism assumed were born to women on the basis of a mistaken interpretation of Genesis 6:2 and similar passages (cf. A. Cohen, The Soncino Chumash [1947], 25 for the correct rendering). Such mythological references are unfortunate for they do not elucidate the text. The purpose of the text is to instruct and encourage the believer that his immediate sufferings are not in vain. Peter illustrates this by the suffering of Christ, “Christ also died,” which he associated with the previous salvation brought about by water in the case of Noah. The spirits imprisoned are those imprisoned by their own sins (Isa 42:7; 53:8, et al.) and to whom Jesus preached the Holy Spirit in the days of Noah. This principle is clearly stated in the prelude to the narrative of the Flood (Gen 6:3), “My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh,” and it is made very clear in Hebrews 11:7, that the faithfulness of Noah not only worked for his salvation through the watery ordeal, but for the condemnation of the unbelievers. “By faith Noah...took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he condemned the world....” It was to these through His spirit that Jesus Christ preached. There is no need for pagan fancies, or ancient mythologies to understand the text.