1 Cor. 15:29 (Baptism of the death)

1 Cor. 15:29 (Baptism of the death)

When Christians confront with difficult passages in the Bible, there are a few good approaches we can resolve the problem. Normally, we would resort to reading the context in details; refer to other teachings in the Bible, consult Bible commentary, or research deep down into Hebrew and Greek. 

But for 1 Cor. 15:29, the verse has been for centuries the most baffling saying of Apostle Paul. The problem is from the fact that nowhere else in the entire Bible do we read of a Baptism for the dead. Reading the context in this epistle does not only give us no clue to the meaning of death baptism, it seems there is a conflicting idea with Pauline teaching elsewhere. Paul clearly identifies baptism is for the living not the dead in Rome 6:3.    

In the early church, we read from church history that there was no such rite being practice in the Christian Church. Chrysostom maintains that only heretics took the words literally and practiced it the resurrection death. In other words, the dead Christians were being baptized in anticipation of their resurrection. This is exactly what Mormonism is practicing today.

Later, there was suggestion that the baptism refers to the practice of vicarious baptism on behalf of dead Christians who for a reason had not been baptized. Some had suggested on the basis of 1 Cor. 1:14-17 to affirm that a great number of the Corinthian Christians had not been baptized and died subsequently. Hence, there was a dead baptism, so that in a sense they too will not be missed out in baptism.

It has also been interpretation in referring to the experience of people became believers and was baptized because of the love for those who died. A similar interpretation suggests that the verse refers to new converts were being baptized to fill the ranks of Christians who had died.

Some interpreters have suggested that the Corinthians was wrongly practicing a pagan dead baptism in the church. Paul, while disagreed with the practice, used it as an argument in support of his resurrection teaching. In other words, Paul is saying, “How on earth can the Corinthians say there is no resurrection but practicing a symbolic resurrection baptism?”

Throughout the history of Christianity, there have been at least hundreds of different attempted explanations of this difficult passage. But none of them are being widely accepted by majority Christians or Churches. Probably, this ambiguous passage will never be understood and always remain obscure.

At any rate, we can safely refer 1 Cor. 15:29 to substantiate the resurrection of the dead, but without necessarily approving of such peculiar practice.