1 Peter 3:20

1 Peter 3:20. aforetime disobedient. The ‘disobedient' means here again, as in 1 Peter 2:7-8; 1 Peter 3:1 disbelieving, refusing belief and withstanding truth. The clause may describe the ‘spirits' according to the conduct which made them spirits ‘in prison.' So it is understood by most. It may, however, also indicate the date of the disobedience. The latter view is more in harmony with the specification of time which immediately follows, the ‘when' giving a more exact definition of the' aforetime. We should thus translate it: ‘when of old they were disobedient, to wit, at the time when the long-suffering of God,' etc., rather than (with the R. V., etc.), ‘which aforetime were disobedient,' etc.

when the long-suffering of God was waiting. The ‘once' which is inserted by the A. V. has very little documentary evidence, and is supposed to have been due to a conjecture of Erasmus. The ‘waiting' is given in the imperfect tense to bring out its lengthened continuance. It is expressed, too, by a verb for which Paul has a particular fondness, and which conveys the idea of the intenseness or patience of the waiting. It is applied to the ‘earnest expectation' of the creation (Romans 8:19), the ‘waiting' of those who have the first-fruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23; Romans 8:25), the waiting for ‘the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Corinthians 1:7), or for ‘the hope of righteousness by faith' (Galatians 5:5), the looking ‘for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ' (Philippians 3:20). Outside Paul it occurs only here and in Hebrews 9:28.

in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. Both the date and the duration at once of the Divine waiting and of the men's disobedience are thus more clearly defined, the date being identified with the times immediately prior to the flood, and the duration with the whole period of warning afforded by the construction of the Ark, which is indicated to have extended to 120 years (Genesis 6:3). in which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. Literally it is ‘ into which,' i.e =by entering into which, etc. By ‘souls' are meant here individuals or persons. The word ‘soul,' meaning life or the principle of life, comes to mean life embodied, or the living individual. Occasionally, however (see above on ‘spirits'), it designates the departed. The mention of the precise number saved serves to throw into still stronger light both the disobedience to which the long-suffering of God addressed itself, and the grace that failed not to separate the believing few. There is considerable difference of opinion as to what is meant by the ‘saved through water.' The ‘through,' which the A. V. renders ‘by,' may have either a local sense or an instrumental. In the former case the idea will be either that those few were saved by passing through the water, or that they were brought safely through water into the ark. This latter seems favoured in the margin of the Revised Version, which gives ‘into which few, that is, eight souls, were brought safely through water.' In favour of this local sense (which is preferred by Bengel, de Wette, etc.) we have the analogous phrase ‘saved, yet so as by (or, through) fire'(1 Corinthians 3:15). But we are left thus with no obvious connection between this mention of water and the following notice of a salvation by water. Most interpreters, therefore, accept the instrumental sense, taking the thought to be that water was the means by which these few were saved. As Huther rightly observes, however, there is nothing to suggest that Peter meant that the same water which was the means of destruction to the mass was the means of safety to the few. All that he has in view is (as the indefinite ‘water,' not ‘ the water,' indicates) that it was by means of water that the few entering the ark which floated thereon were preserved. And this relation of water to the preservation of the righteous at the time of the Flood is introduced in view of what is to be said of the relation of water, namely that of Baptism, to the salvation of Christian believers now.