Nothing in the verse states that Jesus preached the gospel.
1 Peter 3:19-20
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. |
Here are some options for who the spirits in prison are and what was preached to them:
(1 Pet. 3:19-20) Where did Jesus go during the three days in the grave?
WHOM did he preach to?
OPTION #1: Jesus preached to the humans in Noah’s day. Under this view, when Peter refers to “spirits” now in prison, Peter could have been referring to those disobedient people from Noah’s day, who are in hell. If Jesus was preaching through Noah (2 Pet. 2:5), then he could have been preaching repentance to these people. However, the Greek word for “spirits” (pneuma) almost always refers to “malevolent supernatural beings.” Typically, the word used for dead humans is the Greek word psychē, which Peter does not use here.
OPTION #2: Jesus preached to the evil spirits of Noah’s day. Peter is referring to the evil spirits, who produced the nephilim (Gen. 6:4; c.f. 2 Pet. 2:4). However, other interpreters ask why Jesus would only preach to these spirits from Noah’s generation and not others.
WHAT did he preach?
OPTION #1: Jesus preached a message of forgiveness. If Jesus was preaching through Noah to the people of his day, then this could refer to a message of forgiveness and repentance.
OPTION #2: Jesus preached a message of judgment or victory over Satan. If Jesus was preaching after his resurrection to demons, then this would be a message of victory over Satan—not forgiveness—because the Bible doesn’t teach demon-salvation (Heb. 2:16). Advocates of this view note that Jesus merely “went and made proclamation” (v.19). Peter uses the Greek word kēryssō here for “proclamation,” rather than the typical term euangelizō—used for gospel preaching (as in 4:6). Since this doesn’t explicitly say what type of proclamation was made, it’s equally possible that this was a proclamation of judgment over the demonic realm (Col. 2:15).
Conclusion
Because this is such an unclear passage, we shouldn’t build any serious doctrines on it. It is a hermeneutical rule that we should interpret the unclear in light of the clear.