Bible Questions and Answers

A visitor writes,

"Can you explained 1 Peter 3:19? (with references and verses and concise explanation)"

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: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.
Literally Jesus went and preached by the ‘Spirit’ of God to the ‘spirits in prison’ ‘in the days of Noah’.
BUT Jesus wasn’t born in the days of Noah, so it cannot be taken literally. 
Also, ‘spirits’ are not entities, but ‘ways of thinking’ and cannot be literally imprisoned. 
‘Spirits in prison’ must be understood to mean that men are prisoners of sin and death whilst they live. To be released they must believe God’s promise of a redeemer and change the way that they live. Thus, Jesus was preached by the Spirit of God in the words of Noah to his generation.
The promise of a Messiah to save men from sin and death was given by the Spirit of God immediately after Adam and Eve’s disobedience. 
We are told that Noah himself was a preacher of righteousness. Part of the preaching of righteousness was the promise of a future redeemer who would release men from the prison of sin and death.
2 Peter 2:5  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
God promises the advent of Jesus through Isaiah.
Isaiah 42: 6  I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;7  To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
That which released the prisoners was the preaching of the Messiah.
Luke 4:18  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." 20  Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Whilst men live in ignorance of the Gospel, they are ‘spirits in prison’.
By the Spirit of God in Noah’s preaching, men, by belief in the future advent of Christ, could be released from the ‘prison’ of ignorance that ends in eternal death.
In as similar way the ‘Gospel’ was preached to Abraham.
Galatians 3:8  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."
The ‘Gospel’ was also ‘preached’ at the time of Moses:
Hebrews 3:14  For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15  while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." 16  For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17  Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18  And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Many remain ‘imprisoned’ by unbelief.
I hope this helps
God bless,
Glenn