SPIRIT (Holy), Testimony of. See Witness of the Holy Ghost.
SPIRIT (Holy), Work of. See Spirit, Holy.
Spirit-rappings. See Spiritualism.
Spirits, Discerning of. See Discerning of
Spiuits.
Spirits in Prison (1 Pet. iii, 18-20). This topic is introduced by the apostle in connection with the suf- ferings of Christians through persecution, as both the context preceding and that following indicate. Under these sufferings they are encouraged by the example of Christ; for although his passion was vicarious, as theirs is not, still the two are parallel in one point — namely, that death in either case is their extreme limit (ver. 18, "once suffered;" iv, 1, " he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin"). Connected with this anal- ogy the apostle presents another which is a favorite one with Paul also (Rom. viii, 10-13) — namely, that the death of carnality is the revival of spirituality, and Christians are consoled in their physical sufferings by this thought, which was the ground -idea of the Re- deemer's passion ( " suffered for sins, to bring us to God"). This central antithesis is pithily expressed in the last clause of 1 Pet. iii, 18, "being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." Some commen- tators insist that this should be rendered "put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit" {^avano^t'is; fih> aapKi, Z,iAjoiToii]SfUQ Si ['■'P] Trrtvfiart), alleging that the strict correspondence of the clauses requires exact parallelism of construction. This, however, ap- pears to us to be far from necessary. 'I'he meaning of the first clause is, of course, unequivocal. Christ died physically. But we are at a loss to conceive what in- telligible idea is conveyed by the expression, if parallel, Christ revived spiritually. All the labored interpreta- tions collected bj' Van Oosterzee, in Lange's Commenta- ry, seem to us either sheer nonsense or pure transcen- dentalism. Nobody imagines that any human being, much less Jesus, could cease to exist in spirit at physi- cal death, or could therefore return to life spiritually. This latter clause is evidently tantamount to the state- ment elsewhere explicitly made, that the body of Jesus was reanimated by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. viii, 11). As the preposition necessary in English to indicate this relation (" in" or " by") is not expressed in the (ireek (the simple dative being used), we are at lib- erty to employ either indifferently ; nor to one thinking after the (ireek idiom is it necessary to distinguish con- sciously between the two. Christ's death, like ours, is stated as the result of a physical attinity; his resurrec- tion was, as ours is also to be, the effect of spiritual re- lationships. The former ensued from his connection with mortal flesh, the latter was accomplished by virtue of his unity with the Holj' Spirit. We therefore obtain a consistent sense by translating, "being put to death by reason of [his] flesh, but (juickened by reason of [his] Spirit." His physical constitution rendered him capable of death, but his divinity was sure to reanimate him. Both clauses can only have reference to the palpable facts on which the Gospel is founded — the bodily death and resurrection of Christ.
In the next clause this relation between Christ's hu-
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SPIRITUAL COURTS
maiiiiy and divijiity is more explicitly expressed in the tJreek by the same case with a preposition (iv tijj), and we tlu-rJlVire render in like manner. " by virtue ol" which [Spirit ) he went," etc. Here all interjireters recognise the idea of a spiritual presence of Christ, but many ex- plain it as that of his disendio.lied spirit. Tliis, again, is to u> simply unintelligible, and the added statement • if "going" (TTo^tiiJUf), upon wliich some lay special stress a.s conlirming the belief in an actual visit to the pLice of departed spirits, appears to lis to Hatly contra- dict it. What sort of a journey a disembodied spirit could make we cannot imagine. The only real mcan- inir is. and must be. that Christ was, in some imaginary, ligurative. or representative sense, present at tlie place in question, tirant that tliis was true by reason of ids divine ubiquity, and by virtue of his special authority on the given occasion, and all becomes clear, consistent, and intelligible. But to suppose or insist that the pres- ence in ((uestlon was merely that of a ghost is to rele- gate the w liole transaction to the sphere of the unknown, if not unknowable.
Hut the main question is, who were "the spirits in l>ris<pn" to w hom he " preached V" That they were the antediluvians tloomed to destruction by the Hood seems exegetically certain from the context, and is generally conceded. The disputed point is, at what time are they spoken of here; while yet living, or after their death? If the transaction were a real one, and not a mere phan- tasm, it .seems to us, and it has seemed also to the good sense of the Church at large, that the former oidy can possibly be meant. Here is a well-known historical fact, and the context evidently refers to it as such — namely, that Noah preached to the antediluvians " while the ark was a-preparing." We see no mystery or difficulty here whatever. But to understand " prison" to be Hades, Sheol, or tiie place of departed spirits, is wholly unwar- ranted by the context, and is repugnant to all that we know of that abode of the lost. It is in vain to appeal to the particles "sometime" (Trurt) and "also" (icai) in support of this purgatorial notion ; they require no such allusinn. l)ut simply indicate that the event in question was anterior to the present time, and in some respects a parallel case. The analogy is substantially that above indicated as underlying this whole paragraph, and it is immediately brought out as consisting in the fact of a tleliverance by means and in the midst of a seeming overthrow. The Hood was the death of the OUl World, and the ark was its renaissance. The same thought is in the next verse expressly termed a "figure," and is applied to ba[)tism as an emblem of Christian redeni))- tiiin: and this is there ex|)liciily referred to Christ's resurrection from tiie dea<l as its potential means. As if to prevent all possible misunderstanding, the Saviour is there re|>resenied as having passed {iropio^iic, again, a bodily traiisferral in space) into the heavens. There is not a woril aiiout his descent <id inferos.