In the Phædrus, Socrates likens the soul of the body to be as imprisoned as an oyster is bound to its shell[1] during the discourse on metempsychosis with Phaedrus.
The latter represents both the inner self and its status after corporal death, whereas in the current verse it is used as a synonym of the Jewish word nephesh, in a holistic sense and without any metaphysical dualism.
Archibald Currie (1871) that Christ through Noah preached to "the spirits in prison ;" meaning the eight persons interned in the Ark as in a place of protection.
[16] The concept that the dead await a general resurrection and judgment either in blessed rest or in suffering after a particular judgement at death was a common 1st century Jewish belief (see Lazarus and Dives and bosom of Abraham).
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this verse is used in conjunction with 1 Peter 4:6 to support the belief that in the three days between Christ's death and resurrection, He visited the spirit world and set in motion the work of teaching the gospel to those who didn't receive it during mortality, providing them the opportunity to repent and accept saving ordinances performed on their behalf in Latter-day Saint temples.
Quran exegete Tabari (839–923 CE) commented on sijjin: "it is the seventh and lowest earth (underworld), in which Satan (Iblis) is chained, and in it are the souls (arwah) of the infidels (kufar).