* Hort takes the words Ive/unr ἀσοκαλυφθδῆνα (15) to refer to the immediately preceding εἰς rernpiar, and interprets ἐν saps dew as incaning ‘in @ season of extremity.’ But (1) it is ΕἾΤΑ t to disconnect ἐσχάτῳ here from ἐπ ἰσχάτον τῶν χρόνων in 1%; and καιρός is common in eschatological phrases in Daniel and NT, 4g. 417, Rev 19; ῷ the ‘inheritance’ is the main subject of the passage, and for se ewrnpiar (standing alone) comp. the same phrase in 27; (3) ἑτοίμην ἀσεκαλνῴδηναι, (αἱ. 51) is correlative to τυτυρπμένην ἐν οὐρανοῖς,
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referring either (1) to an antediluvian mission of Christ, or (2) to an evangelization of the angels who fell (Jude*, 2 P 2‘), appear (in view of the context, the zrammatical construction, and the parallel in 4%) to be quite untenable. What appears to be the simple and natural view of the passages is given in the paraphrase above. It may further be observed (a) that the apostle necessarily uses the language of human experience (πορευθείς ; οἵ. v.™), though narrating events tran- scending human experience; (4) that the phrase τοῖν ἐν φυλακῇ πνεύμασιν in reference to Hades is quite natural language for a Jew; comp. Apoc. Bar xxiii. 4 ‘a place was prepared where the living might dwell and the dead might be guarded, 2 τατος μὴν (c) that it is ποῦ impossible that the apostle’s language (ἐκήρυξε... φυλακῇ) was sug- gested by Is 61 427 49°, The emphasis of the
assage rests on the Person of the κῆρυξ. The later passage (4°) differs from the earlier in three important respects: (a) the reference is not limited to the dead belonging to one generation. The anarthrous καὶ νεκροῖς is not in itself necessarily universal in scope, but here it must be interpreted in the light of the preceding words (r@ . . . xplvorrs ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούτ) ; (8) the main point here (accord- ing to the requirements of the context) is the ae fact that the gospel was preached to the dead, not (as in 3'*) the agent in its proclamation ; hence the difference of wording (ἐκήρυξεν, εὐηγγε- λίσθη) is no argument that the two passages have not a common reference to a single occasion ; (y) while in 3” nothing is said as to the aim or effect of the proclamation, here its object is distinctly stated. It is important to notice that this sentence, in which the purpose is described, is one in which “μέν and δέ oppose two clauses, whereof one is really subordinate to the other’ (Liddell and Scott sub voce μέν ii. 5). The purpose of the preaching was not that the dead should be judged, but that though judged . . . they yet might live. . The aorist (κριθῶσι) points to the one seasxm of the judgment; the contrasted present (ζῶσι), to the continuous life κατὰ θεόν (cf. 1.8. The two pas- sages taken together appear unquestionably to assert that at the supreme crisis of redemption the Redeemer Himself proclaimed the gospel to the dead, those a open ia in the Flood being articularly specified, and that therefore such ἘΞ Σ the gospel as are not confined to this earthly order were offered to them.
Apart from possible allusions to the subject in three passages of St. Paul (Ro 107 14°, Eph 4"), no writer in the NT refers to the descensus ad inferos, with the significant exception of St. Peter (cf. Ac 27-81), who may well have learned the ape facts of which he speaks from the lips of the Risen Lord Himself. The simplicity and reticence of St. Peter’s disclosure are remarkable. On references to the descensus in early Christian literature see Lightfoot on Ign. Magn, ix. (add to the passages collected Gospel of Peter ix.). It appears certain that these early references are not based upon the
assages in 1P. ‘No direct appeal is made to St. eter in any of the numerous references to the Descent ; the earliest quotation of 1 P 4* we have been able to find isin i ince Testimonia’ (Swete, Apostles’ Creed p. 58). Hence in these passages we have expansions of a primitive Christian tradition, independent of St. Peter’s written words.
Additional note on the name ‘ Peter.’ — Dr. Schechter, in the Jewish Quarterly Review for April 1900, p. 428f., writes thus: ‘Besides the epithets ‘‘the God-fearing"” Abraham or Abraham “the friend of God," Abraham also bears in Rab- binic literature the title of ‘the Rock.” ... The Rabbinic passage forms an illustration of Nu 23° ‘‘For from the top of the rocks I see him,” and runs
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thus: There was a king who desired to build, and to lay foundations; he dug constantly deeper, but found only aswamp. At last he dug and found a petra (this is the very word the Rabbi uses). He said, ‘‘On this spot I shall build and lay the foundations.” So the Holy One, blessed be he, desired to create the world, but meditating upon the generations of Enoch and the Deluge, he said, “ How shall I create the world whilst those wicked men will only provoke me?” But as soon as God perceived that there would rise an Abraham, he said, ‘‘ Behold I have found the petra upon which to build and to lay foundations.” Therefore he called Abraham Rock [7s], as it is said, ‘‘ Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn. Look unto Abraham your father” (Is δ1}- 3. Yalkut i. 766. See Dr. Taylor’s Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, ed. 2, p. 160.’ Lrrsnators. —See at the end of the article on 2 Peter.