1 Peter 4:5-6

1 Peter 4:5-6 who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead. For unto this end was the gospel preached, even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

Expanded Translation

These wicked persons shall render an account (report) to him (Christ) who is ready and prepared to judge those living and those dead. For unto this purpose was the good news (of salvation) preached also to those (now) dead, in order that they might be judged (condemned?) in accordance with (the judgment proper for) men who live in the realm of the flesh, but that (others) might live in harmony with God, and his will in the realm of the Spirit.

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who shall give account

ACCOUNTlogos, usually rendered word in the Scriptures, is translated reason in 1 Peter 3:15. Here it means account, report; an answer or explanation.

to him that is ready to judge

That is, Christ: John 5:22-23, Acts 17:31.

the living and the dead

A phrase which has been variously interpreted.
Some believe the terms living and dead are to be understood of one's spiritual state. And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins ((Ephesians 2:1).. thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou are dead (Revelation 3:1). But she that giveth herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth (1 Timothy 5:6).

Most scholars, however, have simply understood the phrase as referring to the universality or comprehensiveness of the judgment, as in 2 Timothy 4:18. Many are familiar with the committal which concludes concerning the body in the grave:

... there to await the day of resurrection
When the earth and sea will give up their dead,
To appear before our Lord Jesus Christ,
The Righteous Judge of the living and the dead.

See 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20:12-13.

for to this end was the gospel preached, even to the dead

If we have placed the right construction on the phrase living and dead, then the gospel must have been preached to many who were, at the time of Peter's epistle, in their tombs. The thought here is so similar to that expressed in 1 Peter 3:19 that we dare not separate them. The spirits in prison there, is equivalent to the dead here.

We have commonly limited the term preach the gospel to the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and the fact that salvation is offered by this One who is the Son of God. True, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 does so define the Gospel, and this message of salvation through the resurrected Christ is by far the most frequent usage of the word evangelidzo in the New Testament. Peter himself so uses it in 1 Peter 1:12; 1 Peter 1:25, and the noun form (euangelion, gospel) in 1 Peter 4:17.

But this specific definition of the term is only an application of its basic meaning: to proclaim or announce good tidings. Several times in the Septuagint, and in a number of New Testament passages it is used in this basic sense (Revelation 10:7; Revelation 14:6; Matthew 11:5). Sometimes the writer obviously did not have salvation through the resurrected Christ, as such, in mind, but simply the message of salvation, which is surely good news, whether preached in the Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christian dispensation.

But they (the Jews) did not all hearken to the glad tidings, For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report (Romans 10:16).

Again the Apostle Paul speaks of the disobedient Jews, this time during the days of Moses:

Seeing therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto, and they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:6).

The message to those of a previous era which provided salvation, then, may Scripturally be called good tidings, joyful message, good news, glad tidings, or gospel. This, I believe, was the gospel preached even to the dead, including the antediluvians (1 Peter 3:19-20), who were, at the time Peter wrote, dead, and whose spirits were in prison. They did not, for the most part, accept this gospel, but it was preached to them nevertheless. Caton pointedly remarks that if all are to be judged by the Gospel of Christ as promulgated by the Apostles, then there must be a post-mortem preaching of the same, or else there would be a failure of justice on the part of God.

that they (the dead) might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh

Referring to those who had refused to believe, accept, and obey the Gospel, the message of salvation.

The fact that they had the good news proclaimed to them but refused it, made their condemnation even more justifiable. Knatchbull translates, that they who live according to men in the flesh may be condemned. a quite frequent sense of judged in the New Testament; and a definite possibility here.

but live according to God in the Spirit

Or but (they who live) according to God in the Spirit may live. The words Indeed. but. (men. de) represent a definite contrast in the original: on the one hand. on the other. The contrast is between people who live in two realms or spheres, the flesh and Spirit. Though men living in the realm of the flesh condemned them and abused them by their evil-speaking, they were living in the spirit-realm with the approbation of God upon their lives.