Dave wrote:
>I think that the key to it is the tenses of the verbs …
>
>1 Pet 3:19
>19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
>(KJV)
>
>Allow me to elaborate a bit …
>
>1 Pet 3:19
>19 By which (that is, in the Spirit — Jesus did not preach directly, but
>by the Spirit that was in Noah)
>
>also he went and preached (past tense — in the time of Noah)
>
>unto the spirits [that are now] in prison (present tense — they are now in
>prison — they were not in prison when Jesus through Noah preached to
>them.)
>
James replies:
You are supplying a verb and tense that are not in the text. It says, “He
went and preached”. Both of those verbs are past tense. I don’t find any
present tense verbs. You are supplying them. V20 indicates that the
preaching happened after the death of the Ante-Diluvians. It says the
spirits were in prision when the preaching occurred, and they had been
disobedient in the days of Noah. Their spirits were not in prison when Noah
preached to them, but the spirits were in prison when Jesus in His
disembodied spirit form went and preached to them. Noah did not preach to
spirits in prison, but Jesus did.
