ANSWER: In both verses it refers to physical life and death. In verse 5 it is those currently alive and in verse 6 those now dead, who had had the glad tidings preached to them when they were living. As glad tidings were preached, though not in the same way or fullness, in times past to men then living though now dead, as well as to men living now, it was so that they might be judged as men in the flesh if they refused the message, but live (as regards God) in the Spirit if they accepted it. The Jews were apt to slight the judgment of the dead, through their preoccupation with the judgment of the living at the appearing of the Messiah. Hence the Apostle is the more careful to show the believers from among them, not merely, as in chapter 3 the judgment which awaits those formerly disobedient who are kept in prison awaiting their final doom, but the twofold end of the good news in the promises proclaimed to men in the past. It was either judgment as men in the flesh responsible for their works, or living according to God in the Spirit because the word was mixed with faith and issued in righteousness and holiness of truth.