"... One of the greatest cruxes of all the passages in the New Testament is the material found in 1 Peter 3 about the spirits in prison. One of the keys to unraveling this text’s meaning is recognizing its intertextual echoes not only of Genesis 6:1–4 but also of the later interpretations of Genesis 6 in 1 Enoch. ... Commentators have long known that there is some connection between 1 Enoch and what is said in 1 Peter 3:18–22, but the exact connections have been vigorously debated. Indeed, so vigorous has the debate been that some have dubbed this passage in 1 Peter the most difficult one in the whole New Testament to understand ... None of this is a surprise when we recognize that 1 Enoch is influential in various of these Jewish Christian eschatological works, for instance Jude not merely refers to the text of 1 Enoch in verses 4, 6, and 13, he even cites it in verses 14–15 of his discourse. 2 Peter as well is directly dependent on 1 Enoch at 2 Peter 2:4 and 3:13 ..."

"... The portrait of Christ in 1 Peter 3:18–22 is modeled on Enoch, his heavenly ascent and condemnation of disobedient angelic spirits. 1 Enoch and 1 Peter 3 illustrate a shift in cosmologies occurring at the turn of the era, conceptions of an ascent through multiple heavenly realms, and a location of imprisoned angelic spirits in one of the lower heavenly realms (rather than under the earth—an earlier view). The disobedient spirits of 1 Peter 3:19 are not the spirits of deceased humans (one traditional view) but are angels that disobeyed God and were imprisoned in the heavens prior to Noah and the flood, as 1 Enoch recounts the myth (6–11, 12–16) ..."