Who are ‘The Dead’ and When was the Gospel Preached to Them?: The Interpretation of 1 Pet 4.6

Abstract

The interpretation of 1 Pet 4.6 which sees 'the dead' as Christians who heard the gospel during their lifetime but who have since died is becoming increasingly widely accepted, especially in recent commentaries in English. William Dalton's monograph Christ's Proclamation to the Spirits has been influential in promoting this view. However, despite its current popularity, there are serious problems with this interpretation, especially in its dependence on assuming a primitive eschatological context for 1 Peter. The view of the verse as referring to a proclamation made to people already dead, on the other hand, is more plausible than recent commentators suggest, and can be defended against their criticisms. IntroductionAmong the difficult passages in 1 Peter, two stand out as particularly enigmatic: 3.18-22 and 4.6. Paul Achtemeier describes the former as 'the most difficult passage in the entire letter', while the latter is also 'replete with difficulties'. 1 Norbert Brox likewise refers to the sentence in 4.6 as 'extremely difficult': 'Er gehört m. E. zu den nicht mehr sicher erklärbaren Texten des 1Petr und ist diesbezüglich noch dunkler als 3, 19-22.' 2 In his review of the history of interpretation of 1 Pet 4.6, William Dalton lists four different proposals. 3 The first is that the verse refers to 'Christ's preaching,  New Test. Stud. , pp. -. Printed in the United Kingdom

Reconsidering the Salvation of Israel in Luke–Acts

“…3.19 and involves the proclamation of the good news of salvation in Christ to the deceased faithful in Israel who awaited salvation is a minority view (Calvin 1855: 77-78, 86-87;Vinson 2010: 201;cf. Bigg 1901: 170-71;Cranfield 1950: 90-91;Goppelt 1993: 257-59;Horrell 2003;Feldmeier 2008: 216). 23 It is noteworthy, however, that in Acts 10.36, the preaching of the good news is directed to Israel.…”