σχειν ἢ κακοποιοῦν 4 ς ~ ”
ρὶ ἁμαρτιῶν ἔπαθεν θανατωθεὶς μὲν σαρ
[] ‘ a τας; οτι και Χς
δίκαιος ὑπὲρ ἀδίκω. ἵνα.
κὶ ζωοποιηθεὶς δὲ
Accordingly they are bound and their children slay one another leaving their disembodied spirits to propagate sin in the world even after it has been purged by the Flood. But Christians believed that Christ came to seek and to save the lost and the captives ; all things are to be subjectedto Him. So Peter supplements the tradition which he accepts. For him it was not merely important as connected with the only existing type of the Last Judgment or an alternative explanation of the origin and continuance of sin but also as the greatest proof of the complete victory of Christ over the most obstinate and worst of sinners.—év @ sc. πνεύματι: as a bodiless spirit in the period between the Passion (18) and the Resurrection-Ascension (22).—Kat, even to the typical rebels who had sinned past forgiveness according to pre-Christian notions.—Tots ἐν φυλακῇ wvevp- ασιν, the spirits in prison, i.e., the angels of Gen. l.c. who were identified with my spirit of Gen. vi. 3, and there- fore described as having been sent to the earth by God in one form of the legend (Jubilees, l.c.). The name contains also the point of their offending (Enoch sum- marised above) ; cf. 2 Peter ii. 4 ; *Jude 6; and the prophecy of Isa. Ixi. 1 (which Jesus claimed, Luke iv. 84), κηρΌξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν. These spirits were in ward when Christ preached to them in accordance with Gods sentence, bind them in the depths of the earth (Jub. v. 6).—逫y pvéev = εὐηγγελίσατο, cf. Luke iv. 8. Before Christ came, they had not heard the Gospel of God’s Reign. Enoch’s mediation failed. But at Christ’s preaching they repented like the men of Nineveh ; for it is said that angels sub- jected themselves to Him (22, cf. ὑποτάσ- σεσθαι, throughout the Epistle.—a a e- ιθήσασίν ποτε, their historic dis- obedience or rebellion is latent in the nar- rative of Gen. vi. and expounded by Ἡποσα ο ποσο thle πω hil IDO ἀπ. commonly = rebel «ης - & 1 €- ξεδέχετο . μακροθυμία, God’s long-suffering was waiting. Vhe reading ἅπαξ ἐξεδέχετο is attractive, as. supplying a reference to the present period of waiting which precedes the second and final Judgment (Rom. ii. 4, ix. 22). The tradition lengthens the period of πάρεσις (Rom. iii. 25); but
18---21.
πνεύµατι ' ἐν ᾧ Kat) τοῖς ἐκήρυ
, µακροθυµία
ξεν ἀπειθήσασίν πο ἐν ἡμέραις Νῶε κατα του εἲς ἣν ὀλίγοι του τος" ὃ καὶ ὑμᾶς ἀντίτυπο-
Kos ἀπόθεσις ῥύ