Room 19 of 20
1 Corinthians 15:29
Baptized for the dead
Verse
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
Why they use it
They say Paul was mocking baptism for the dead — not teaching it.
Why they are wrong
Paul uses baptism for the dead as proof of resurrection. He does not roll his eyes at it.
Translation note
Greek: hyper (ὑπέρ)
on behalf of / in place of
Not “because of the dead’s example.” On behalf of. That is proxy. Early break-off groups kept doing it. Joseph did not invent the instinct.
The room (aka the context)
- Who wrote it
- Paul.
- Who is in the room
- Corinth — some saying there is no resurrection.
- Who is speaking
- Paul, in the middle of his resurrection chapter.
- What is going on
- He stacks arguments that the dead rise. One of them: why are people being baptized for the dead if the dead are not raised? He does not say “those weird people over there.” He treats it as a practice that only makes sense if resurrection is real.
- What they already believe
- Christ rose. The dead will rise. Baptism is about death and life.
- How they would hear these words
- Proxy baptism is already in the room. Later Christians tried to make it a metaphor. The Greek is on-behalf-of. FAIR: the claims that Paul disapproves are indefensible. He builds on it.
Clarifying verse
1 Peter 3:18–19
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
The dead are not a closed country. Christ preached in prison. Paul mentions the ordinance. Restoration put the two together. FAIR’s early-Christianity page is the dossier.
Gal1:8 topic →Mark it
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