1 Peter 3:20

A long time ago, they didn’t listen to God, and they didn’t do the things God told them to do. That was at the time when Noah lived. God waited at that time, he didn’t punish anyone yet. God waited, and Noah built that big boat. Only 8 people got into that boat. Then God sent a very big rain. Water covered everything, and everyone drowned. God saved only those 8 people that were in the boat.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

19Then Jesus went and talked to the spirits that are locked up like prisoners.

21That water is a picture of the baptism ceremony. Like the time our Christian leaders put us under the water to baptise us. They didn’t do that to wash the dirt off the outside of us. No. It’s like that water washed the shame from inside us. When we asked those leaders to baptise us, we asked God to make us clean on the inside, so that we will not feel shame any more. So God saves us and gives us new life. Yes, we can have new life because, after Jesus died, he came back to life again.

Read all of 1 Peter 3

Cross References

Genesis 6:5God looked at the people on the earth, and he saw them doing lots of bad things. He knew the way they were thinking. They were thinking bad things all the time. God saw that the people were very bad.

Genesis 8:1And then God thought about Noah and the animals with him in that big boat. And he made a strong wind blow on the flood water to help it to go down.

Matthew Henry on 1 Peter 3:19-21

Christ's Sufferings. ( a. d. 66.) 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. Here, I. The example of Christ is proposed as an argument for… Read the whole commentary →

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