1 Corinthians 15:29

αὐτῶν אABDEFG Vetus Lat. Vulg. τῶν νεκρῶν rec. with Peshito.

29. From hence to 1 Corinthians 15:34 arguments are drawn from the practice of baptism for the dead and from St Paul’s daily life of suffering, and the section winds up with an exhortation to greater holiness of life.

ἐπεί. Here and in ch. 1 Corinthians 14:16, the conclusion involved in ἐπεί seems to be derived from what follows, whereas in Romans 3:6, where it also ushers in a question, it clearly refers to what precedes. The sense here more nearly approaches to our ‘again.’

οἱ βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν. St Paul now abruptly changes the subject, and appeals to the conduct of Christians as a witness to their belief. This is again a passage of extreme difficulty, and it would be impossible to notice one tithe of the explanations which have been proposed of it. We will only touch on three: (1) the natural and obvious explanation that the Apostle was here referring to a practice, prevalent in his day, of persons permitting themselves to be baptized on behalf of their dead relatives and friends. This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that Tertullian, in the third century, mentions such a practice as existing in his time. But there is great force in Robertson’s objection: ‘There is an immense improbability that Paul could have sustained a superstition so abject, even by an allusion. He could not have spoken of it without anger.’ The custom never obtained in the Church, and though mentioned by Tertullian, is as likely to have been a consequence of this passage as its cause. Then there is (2) the suggestion of Chrysostom, that inasmuch as baptism was a death unto sin and a resurrection unto righteousness, everyone who was baptized was baptized for the dead, i.e. for himself spiritually dead in trespasses and sins; and not only for himself, but for others, inasmuch as he proclaimed openly his faith in that Resurrection of Christ which was as efficacious on others’ behalf as on his own. There remains (3) an interpretation suggested by some commentators and supported by the context, which would refer it to the baptism of trial and suffering through which the disciples of Christ were called upon to go, which would be utterly useless and absurd if it had been, and continued to be, undergone for the dying and for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:6; 1 Corinthians 15:18). The use of the present tense in the verb baptized, the close connection of the second member of the sentence with the first, and the use of the word ‘baptized’ in this sense in Matthew 3:11 and Mark 10:38-39, are the grounds on which this interpretation may be maintained. See Appendix II.

εἰ ὅλως. This is connected by the punctuation in the text (as well as in R.V.) with what follows, not (as A.V.) with what precedes.

τί καὶ βαπτίζονται. The repeated τί καί brings this clause into close connection with what follows, thus suggesting a closer relation between the present and the next verse than appears at first sight.

APPENDIX II

CH. 1 Corinthians 15:29

IT is useless to append a catena of interpretations of this passage. A question of this kind was not one to which the early writers of the Church paid much attention, and they either pass it by altogether, or give an unsatisfactory explanation. Tertullian, however (Adv. Marc. 1 Corinthians 15:10), propounds one which is as likely to be true as any other. To be baptized for the dead, he says, is to be baptized for our bodies, for if they do not rise again they are as good as dead. And this gives a very good sense. The passage would then mean, ‘What will they do who are being baptized on behalf of persons virtually dead?’ Baptism is a mystical resurrection to life (Romans 6:4). But what resurrection to life can there be said to be in a person who is doomed to eternal death? One of the two great Sacraments of the Gospel, from this point of view, becomes an absurdity. The arguments in favour of interpretation (3) in the note are certainly strong. Yet the argument from the apparently close connection between the first and second half of the verse is minimized by St Paul’s habit of breaking off suddenly into another topic when he grows impassioned. Cf. ch. 1 Corinthians 4:8; 1 Corinthians 6:12-14; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 1 Corinthians 11:21-23; 1 Corinthians 11:32-34 &c. So that one of the earliest interpretations of this passage may be said to be one of the most probable.

30. τί καὶ ἡμεῖς κινδυνεύομεν. Not only those who were daily being baptized for the dead witnessed to the universal belief among Christians in a resurrection, but the lives of daily peril in which St Paul and the other missionaries of the Gospel lived were sufficient evidence that they did not conceive all their hopes to be summed up in this life.