The gospel was preached even to those who are dead. That’s what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 6. It’s an odd passage and not surprisingly it’s led to a number of interpretations. So let me go through three of these interpretations, explain them and explain why I don’t believe they’re correct, and then offer a fourth interpretation. So some people say that chapter 4 is referencing something that Peter talked about in chapter 3 where Christ descended to the spirits who are in prison and there he proclaimed to them. This is the descent to the dead or descent into hell in which Christ preached to these spirits in bondage. A second interpretation is that Peter is saying that even after people die they have a chance to hear the gospel and thus to repent after they’ve left this world. The third interpretation is of what Peter’s talking about is a metaphorical, a metaphorical use of death. He’s talking about the spirits they dead. They have the gospel preached to them and when they believe they are enlivened by the work of the spirit. Now the reason that I don’t believe the first interpretation is correct that this involves Christ descent to preach to the spirits in prison is because first of all there we’re told Christ, cheruso, that’s the Greek verb that’s used there. He proclaimed or he preached. It’s a general verb in Greek. Now what is the content of this proclamation? We are not told. I would argue that he didn’t preach the gospel to the spirits in prison but rather he proclaimed his victory over death. And secondly in chapter four it says the gospel was preached. It doesn’t say Christ preached the gospel to those who are dead. It’s the gospel was preached so it doesn’t specify who did this preaching and the verb that’s used there in Greek is a verb for preaching the gospel, yon galyzo. It’s a very specific kind of preaching, the proclamation of the good news. So I don’t think that chapter three and chapter four are talking about the same kind of preaching. Chapter three is talking about the preaching of Christ victory to these spirits in prison. Chapter four is talking about the preaching of the gospel to whom I’ll get to in just a minute. The weakness of the second interpretation is that nowhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament is there any hope held out for those who have left this life in unbelief. There’s no chance, second chance, after death for a person to hear the preaching of the gospel, to repent and to believe after this life. The book of Hebrews says it’s appointed for man once to die and after that comes the judgment. And the weakness of the third interpretation that this is a metaphorical use of dead, meaning the spiritual dead, is that yes that metaphorical usage is found elsewhere in the New Testament but not in Peter’s writings. He doesn’t talk about unbelievers as the dead or the spiritually dead. So if it’s not in reference to the descent to the spirits in prison to preach to them, if it’s not talking about a second chance after death, and if it’s not talking about those who are spiritually dead, then what is it talking about? Well here I think the NIV translation gets it best where it says the gospel is preached to those who are, the gospel is preached to those who are now dead. Now in Greek the word now is not present, so this is an interpretive word that’s added to that translation. But I believe that interpretive word is a correct interpretation. That is, while people were still alive, those who have now died, they have received the wages of sin, they’ve died just like we all will die because we’re sinners. They have died but before they died, while they’re still alive, they had the gospel preached to them. They believed and therefore they now live with God. So rather than referencing what he talked about in chapter three where Christ descended to the spirits in prison, rather than there being a second chance after death, and rather than this talking about a metaphorical death, a spiritual death that people are rescued from, I believe that Peter is simply referring to those who while they were alive had the gospel preached to them. They believed and so even though they died a physical death, just like we all will as sinners, they now live in the spirit with God because they believed during their lifetime and now that they’re dead, they are alive to God. So that’s my take on 1st Peter chapter 4 verse 6. Feel free to add your own thoughts to this video. Thanks.