How can we be sure whether 1 Peter 1:1-6 was intended to speak of those physically dead or as a metaphor for the spiritually dead. I read it over several times in different translations and it makes sense read either way.
Well, he mentions those living "earthly lives," those who would have heard the gospel while they were in the flesh, and he follows with "the gospel was preached also to those who are dead." To me, the contrast alone indicates that he means the physically dead here, not just the spiritually dead.
But there's also another verse of scripture on this, where Saint Paul talks about Jesus descending to the dead in Ephesians 4:9-10: "What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." So if Jesus said the dead would hear his voice and Peter says the gospel was preached to the dead and Paul says that Jesus descended into the earth, it's looking pretty obvious.
If "the dead" means those physically dead, then it is indeed claiming that everyone who ever lived, but died before Jesus died, heard the Gospel somehow (it is not specific in who preached it in this chapter or book). If this is correct, then v.5 says that Jesus stands ready to judge both those who are currently alive, and those who have died in the past, and v.6 makes an unclear statement about a judgement according to "body" and a life according to the "spirit" (which might just be saying that their bodies died (were judged) but their spirits may yet have a chance to live with God.
Yes, everyone who died before Jesus did hear the Gospel, and they heard it they same way that those living on earth first heard it -- Jesus preached it to them himself, just as he said he would do in John 5. That unclear statement about the dead being judged according to men in the flesh, but living according to God in the spirit -- I've always understood it to emphasize that they no longer live in the flesh, but for now, purely in spirit as God is pure spirit; and that they, those who are saved, will live with God. Actually, I've never researched it beyond this understanding, but now that you point it out, it would probably be a good idea.
Jesus is ready to judge the living and the dead, but for now judges each person only after death in a particular judgement. Hebrews 9:27 - "... it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment." At the final judgment at the end of time is when he will judge both the living and the dead.
Personally, I like to entertain the possibility that it was intended to mean both, but I have no irrefutable evidence to suggest one interpretation over the other (let alone a deliberate double meaning). Do you have any particular insight into one meaning over the other?
Jesus restored the union between man and God through the sacrifice of his suffering and death on the Cross for our sake. He did it specifically to free us from spiritual death, which is the separation of the soul from God. This is the death that both God the Father and God the Son are most often referring to when they talk about death, such as when God warned Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2:17: "…For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.” I like the Douay-Rheims translation because "die the death" more clearly indicates that this is not physical death, but something worse. It's the same as in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.”
Those living in the body can be in a state of spiritual death, but as long as they're still in the body, salvation is still available to them. Those who die physically while in a state of spiritual death remain separated from God forever, in hell. Because God wants to save every soul, Jesus preached the gospel of salvation not only to those living on earth, but also to the immortal souls of the dead in Sheol. Afterwards, those of them who were saved went to heaven and those who were not saved went to hell. No one knows the specifics of how that worked. I would suppose that the sinful souls who repented and asked for Christ's mercy were saved. Maybe that's what Jesus meant by "Those who hear [my voice] will live."
By the way, this descending to the dead is expressed in two alternate ways in the Apostles's Creed. One says: He "was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead." An older version says he descended into hell. That's not the hell of the damned; it's not hell at all. It's an inaccurate and unnecessary translation of "Sheol".
It is a bold claim to say that all of the OT characters met Jesus in the grave.
I would be interested in seeing some additional scriptural support of that claim.
With heaven closed to mankind and eternal damnation on hold until after the Crucifixion, where else could they have met him.? Some people do believe that Enoch and Elijah were two exceptions. Some believe Moses was another. Others believe there were no exceptions, because the Bible does not say that any of them were taken to heaven; only that Enoch and Elijah were taken somewhere unspecified, and that Moses was present with Jesus at the transfiguration. We don't really know where they went, but evidently they were not taken body and soul to heaven because John 3:13 says "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."
Here are a few verses illustrating that everyone went to Sheol; both the just and the unjust, the righteous and the wicked.
There were two main parts, which were separated by a chasm. One part was a place of punishment:
Psalm 9:17 - The wicked go down to the realm of the dead… To Sheol the wicked will depart.
Psalm 31:17 - Let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol.
Isaiah 5:14 - Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down…
And a pleasant part -- not just comfortable, but "paradise" (Luke 24:43) Also called "the Bosom of Abraham" (See Luke 16:19-31)
Genesis 37:35 (Jacob mourning for Joseph after being told that he had been killed) - Though his sons and daughters tried to console him, he refused all consolation, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.”
Psalm 88:3-4 - Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is filled with troubles; my life draws near to Sheol.
Isaiah 38:10 (Hezekiah’s Hymn of Thanksgiving) - In the noontime of life I said, I must depart! To the gates of Sheol I have been consigned for the rest of my years.
