The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism: A Study of 1 Peter 3:19 and Its Context

Bo Ivar Reicke (1914-1987) was born and schooled in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1933 he matriculated in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Stockholm, transferring, however, in 1935 to the University of Uppsala, where in 1937 he received his degree in the areas of the history of religions and classical Greek and philosophy. From 1938 he continued his studies in the Faculty of Theology of the same university. Graduating in 1941, he became ordained in December of the same year as a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden. He immediately continued with doctoral studies, choosing the exegesis of the Old and New Testaments as his field of research. In May 1946 he presented in print and publicly defended his dissertation, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism: A Study of 1 Pet. III.19 and Its Context, [Acta Seminarii Neotestamentici Upsaliensis Edenda Curavit A. Fridrichsen, 13] (Lund 1946). In the official statement to the university, his New Testament teacher, Professor A. Fridrichsen, describes the dissertation as a weighty contribution to the solution of an old exegetical problem and goes on to recommend the author for a position on the Uppsala Faculty. In the following years, Reicke taught New Testament exegesis as assistant professor in his home faculty. In September of 1953 he received the call of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Basel, Switzerland, to fill the chair in New Testament. Moving to Basel with his family, Reicke served there for thirty years until his retirement in 1984. In addition to lecturing around the world and training about forty doctoral students, he was the author of a number of books (see below). Still actively writing and lecturing, Bo Reicke died in Basel in May of 1987.