The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (273 page)

3:7 husbands, live considerately:
Christian husbands must be respectful and understanding toward their wives. Paul makes the additional demand that husbands should be models of Christ's sacrificial love (Eph 5:25).
the weaker sex:
The statement is made in reference to a woman's physical constitution, not her moral character or intellectual ability. Because a man's natural strength exceeds that of a woman, the husband is called to honor his bride, lest he misuse his physical advantage to intimidate or abuse her.
joint heirs:
Men and women are persons of equal dignity in God's eyes, for they are equal recipients of his salvation and love (Gal 3:28).
prayers . . . hindered:
A husband's prayers will go unanswered if he fails to honor and cherish his wife (3:12). He can expect the same result if he prays with doubt (Jas 1:5-8) or selfish motives (Jas 4:3) or cherishes iniquity in his heart (Ps 66:18). 
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3:9 Do not return evil:
The summons to bless those who curse you is made several times in the NT (Lk 6:28; Rom 12:14, 17; 1 Thess 5:15). 
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3:10-12
A quotation from Ps 34:12-16. • Blessings are promised to those who shun evil, for the Lord is good to those who fear him, seek him, and direct their prayers to him. Peter offers these words of encouragement to readers being persecuted for their faith (3:14). 
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3:14 suffer for righteousness' sake:
Echoes the eighth beatitude given by Jesus in Mt 5:10. 
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3:15 make a defense:
I.e., make a reasoned articulation of the faith and be ready to disarm any attacks mounted against it. Essential to the task is an attitude of calm self-composure, so that the truth will always be honored and spoken in love (Eph 4:15). The word "defense" (Gk.
apologia
) often refers to a legal case presented before a judge and jury (Acts 25:16; 2 Tim 4:16). It is the basis of the word "apologetics", which involves explaining and defending Christian truth (Acts 22:1). 
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3:18-20
On these verses, see essay:
Christ and "the Spirits in Prison"
at 1 Pet 3:18-20. 
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3:21 Baptism . . . saves you:
The clearest statement in the NT that Baptism brings us salvation. It is not only a sign of forgiveness and renewal, but an instrument of grace that actually regenerates (Jn 3:5; Tit 3:5). The Greek word translated as
corresponds
means "the fulfillment of a type" (Gk.
antitypos
). See word study:
Type
at Rom 5:14. • The flood is a type of Baptism: the raging waters that cleansed the earth of wickedness (Gen 7:17-24) prefigure the sacramental waters that cleanse the believer of sin (Acts 2:38; 22:16). In both cases, the water that brings judgment on sin is also the water that saves. It is unclear how far Peter intends us to see parallels beyond this basic level of correspondence. Certainly the story line itself is meaningful in a Christian context: Noah and his family, having built the ark in faith, passed through the waters of judgment (1 Pet 3:20) into a new life and a new covenant with God (Gen 9:8-17). So, too, Baptism is the sacrament of faith (Mk 16:16) that brings us new life (Rom 6:4) and makes us members of the New Covenant (CCC 1219).
not as a removal of dirt:
This clarification makes it certain that Peter is referring to the Sacrament of Baptism, an actual washing of the body that could be misunderstood because its effects on the soul are unseen (Heb 10:22). Some scholars read this statement as an allusion to circumcision, which entails the removal of flesh from the body as something unclean (Gen 17:9-14). In this case, Peter would be setting forth a contrast between the physical effect of circumcision and the spiritual effect of Baptism, much as Paul did in Col 2:11-13. 
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3:22 right hand:
An allusion to Ps 110:1, which envisions the enthronement of the Messiah (Lord) in heaven beside Yahweh (Lord). Every hostile opponent is then trampled underfoot—an idea that Peter connects with the subjugation of demons from the ranks of the
angels,
the
authorities,
and the
powers
(1 Cor 15:24-25; CCC 671).
See note on Eph 1:21
. 
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Word Study

Appeal
(
1 Pet 3:21
)

Eperōtēma
(Gk.) refers to an "answer", "decision", or "pledge". The term is rarely used in the Bible, only once in the Greek OT (Dan 4:17, Theodotian) and once in the NT (1 Pet 3:21). In secular Greek, it often refers to the formal acceptance of a contract or covenant using solemn words. The procedure followed a question-and-answer format that involved the terms of the agreement being spoken and the appropriate party pledging his compliance. In early Christian times, a similar procedure was used in the liturgy of Baptism. Most likely, this is the background of its use in 1 Pet 3:21, where the "appeal" to God for a clear conscience is best understood as a "pledge" made to God at Baptism to maintain a clear conscience by living in accord with the gospel. Thus, the sacrament not only cleanses the conscience of evil (Heb 10:22), but it entails a solemn commitment to follow a Christian way of life (for possible allusions to such a pledge, see Pliny the Younger,
Epistles
10, 96; St. Justin Martyr,
First Apology
61; St. Jerome,
Letters
14, 2). Peter thus equates "good behavior in Christ" with the effort to "keep your conscience clear" (1 Pet 3:16).

CHRIST AND "THE SPIRITS IN PRISON"

F
EW
passages of the NT are as difficult to interpret as 1 Pet 3:18-20. The history of interpretation, beginning in patristic times, has witnessed numerous attempts to unravel its meaning. In the early third century, St. Clement of Alexandria took these verses to mean that Christ, during the silence of Holy Saturday, descended to the dead to make a final offer of salvation to the deceased sinners of Noah's day (
Stromata
6, 6, 44-46). In the fifth century, St. Augustine proposed a different interpretation: Christ, by an exercise of his preexistent divinity, preached to the ancient world through the person of Noah, urging the wicked to repent before the floodwaters of judgment came to sweep them away (
Letters
164). Much later, near the turn of the seventeenth century, St. Robert Bellarmine reconnected the passage with Holy Saturday, only he proposed that Christ descended to the dead to announce his salvation to those sinners who had privately repented just before the onset of the flood (
Disputations on Christ
2, 4, 13). Modern times have seen the rise of yet another interpretation: the passage concerns, not the descent of Christ to the realm of the dead, but his Ascension into glory. On his way up, it is said that he presented himself as Victor and Conqueror to a company of demons imprisoned in the lower heavens.

In view of this diversity of opinion, even among great theologians of the Church, a definitive interpretation of the passage seems out of the question. Still, it is worthwhile to wrestle with the difficulties of the text and to offer a reasonable judgment as to its meaning. This might best be achieved by keeping one eye on the history of interpretation and the other on contemporary insights of biblical scholarship. Below is a brief examination of these verses and the challenges they present to the interpreter.

1 Peter 3:18

It is clear that Peter refers to the Crucifixion when he says that Jesus was "put to death in the flesh". What is more difficult to interpret is the statement that he was "made alive in the spirit". At first sight, this would seem to refer to the Resurrection, for this is how the verb "make alive" (Gk.
zōopoieō
) is often used in the New Testament (Jn 5:21; Rom 8:11; 1 Cor 15:22). Not all agree, however. Given the tradition that links these passages with the descent of Jesus into Hades (i.e., Sheol, the realm of the dead, visualized as a chamber of souls hidden deep in the underworld), some take the expression "made alive in the spirit" to mean that Christ was "kept alive in his soul". The question is whether Peter is talking about the activity of Jesus on Holy Saturday, when his soul descended to the dead without his body, or at some time subsequent to Easter Sunday, when his body and soul were forever reunited. No firm answer can be given until we consider what follows.

1 Peter 3:19-20

Here we come to the crux of the matter, to the question of when and where Christ went to preach "to the spirits in prison" (1 Pet 3:19) who were disobedient "in the days of Noah" (1 Pet 3:20). Historically, the spirits in this verse have been identified with the souls of the wicked that perished in the flood. The problem, however, is that "spirits" (Gk.
pneumata
) is not a word that is normally used in Scripture for the souls of the dead (the lone exception is Heb 12:23). Beyond that, it is difficult to see why Jesus should single out these particular sinners as his audience for preaching in Hades. Surely they could not experience a saving conversion after death, and none of the ancient texts or traditions known to us indicates that any of Noah's contemporaries repented at the last moment. On the contrary, the generation that drowned in the flood is taken as an example of a generation condemned by God (Lk 17:2627; 2 Pet 2:5).

Modern scholarship has, thankfully, recovered Jewish traditions about the flood that had long been forgotten, traditions that were no doubt known to the earliest Jewish Christians. These ancient accounts have since helped to bring the picture of Christ's preaching to the spirits into focus. The main element of interest concerns an interpretation of the "sons of God" mentioned in Gen 6:2. According to several Jewish texts, these are rebel angels (called "the Watchers") who corrupted the world of men before the flood (
1 Enoch
6-21;
Jubilees
5, 1-11). Being spirits, they could not be destroyed by the waters of the deluge, so the Lord thrust them into the prisons of the underworld to await their final doom (
1 Enoch
14, 5 and 18, 14). One tradition has them locked up, not in the depths of the earth, but in the lower heavens (
2 Enoch
7, 1-3).

The benefit of retrieving this forgotten perspective is obvious for interpreting 1 Pet 3:18-20. It seems now that "the spirits in prison" are not human souls at all, but fallen angels whose wickedness was closely connected with the flood in Jewish tradition. This accords well with the frequent use of "spirits" for angels in the NT (Mt 12:45; Lk 10:20; Heb 1:14). The question remains whether Peter locates these demons in heaven above or in the netherworld below. Some, as stated above, connect these verses with the Ascension; the idea would be that Christ proclaimed himself Victor over evil as he passed by the spirits bound in the lower regions of heaven. More likely, however, Peter is referring to Christ's descent into the darkness and gloom of Hades, for that is where the disobedient angels are kept in chains, according to other biblical texts that allude to this Jewish tradition (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6). Thus, in addition to liberating the righteous dead of the OT for entrance into heaven, he also proclaimed himself Conqueror of evil to the infernal spirits whose power had just been shattered by his redeeming death.