Some more evidence Baptism for the Dead was practiced by early Christians:
In the fourth century Epiphanius describes the Marcionite rite as follows:
*In this country–I mean Asia–and even in Galatia, their school flourished eminently and a traditional fact concerning them has reached us, that when any of them had died without baptism, they used to baptize others in their name, lest in the resurrection they should suffer punishment as unbaptized. * (Heresies 8:7)
*St. Chrysostom tells of how the Marcionites, when one of their catechumens died without baptism, would place a living person under the dead man’s bed and ask whether he desired to be baptized. The living person would respond in the affirmative and was then baptized as a proxy for the deceased * (Homily XL on 1 Corinthians 15).
From *Baptism for the Dead: the Coptic Rationale * by John A Tvedtnes
*That baptism for the dead was indeed practiced in some orthodox Christian circles is indicated by the decisions of two late fourth century councils. The fourth canon of the Synod of Hippo held in 393, declares, “The Eucharist shall not be given to dead bodies, nor baptism conferred upon them.” The ruling was confirmed four years later in the sixth canon of the Third Council of Carthage.
The monophysitic church of Egypt was not represented at these minor councils and hence did not feel bound to discontinue the practice. To my knowledge, only two Christian congregations have continued to practice proxy baptisms for the dead through the centuries. These are the Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran and the Copts of Egypt. Two modern churches–The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and some of the Neo-Apostolic congregations of Europe–have revived the practice during the last century and a half.
The vast majority of Christianity, however, rejected proxy baptism. In some cases, as in the Roman Catholic faith, it was replaced by prayers and masses for the dead. As early as the fourth century, prayers of this nature were known, as evidenced by the Lectures on the Mysteries by Cyril of Jerusalem.
The Acta Pilati, in its present form from the fifth century, has a later appendage (Part II, The Descent into Hell) that probably predates the first sections. It tells how, when Christ descended into hell, he removed therefrom the spirits of the righteous and of the repentant. The latter were then baptized in the Jordan River.
The Gospel of Bartholomew, extant only in Coptic, tells of how Siophanes, son of the apostle Thomas, had died. His soul was taken to heaven by Michael, who washed him three times in the Acherusian lake beforehand. This lake plays a similar role in other pseudepigraphal works. E.g., in the Apocalypse of Moses 37:3, we read that when Adam died, “one of the six-winged seraphim came and carried Adam off to the Lake of Acheron and washed him three times in the presence of God.” He was then conducted to the third heaven (vss. 5-6) *
NOTE: “third heaven” sounds a lot like the LDS celestial kingdom or third degree of glory.
*A similar idea is found in the Apocalypse of Peter, known from both Ethiopic and from a 5th century Greek text in the Bodelian Library. A portion of the Greek version was also found at Akhmim and is now called the Gizeh Manuscript. Though the latter breaks off before the others, the original text reads of the judgment day, when men are brought before God and receive a baptism in the “field of Akrosja.”
Prof. Hugh Nibley has dealt with the subject of baptism for the dead in Coptic pseudepigrapha, notably in the third century document known as Pistis Sophia. This esoteric work, describing the afterworld, notes:
They will all test that soul to find their signs in it, as well as their seals and their baptisms and their anointing. And the virgin of the Light will seal that soul, and the workers will baptize it and give it the spiritual anointing.
Nibley further notes that the document speaks of how those who remain in the place of testing, the “in-between” place (i.e., the earth) should perform the ordinances of baptism, anointing and sealing for those who died without the opportunity to receive them in this life.
Viewed in this light, one can see why the Copts, of all the early Christian churches, retained baptism for the dead.*
