the persons to whom the preaching was addressed are given specifically as “spirits in prison,” and are connected with Noah’s generation; in the latter they are simply dead persons, without explanation of their number or their date. In the former, too, the time of the preaching is defined—according to one view as the time between Christ’s death and resurrection; according to another as the time after Christ’s resurrection; according to a third as the time when the disobedience took place, namely,