Baptism for the Dead?

[Alex111]

In 1st Cor. 15: 29 it says, “Else what shall they do which are baptised for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptised for the dead?” Can someone explain this scripture passage to me? I understand praying for the dead and masses for the dead, but what is meant by being baptised for the dead? Did the early Church ever do this? Or is it possibly referring to some sort of ritual washing?

 

[BerhaneSelassie]

Some have explained that baptiism for the dead refers to purgatory web.archive.org/web/20071013002858/www.lumengentleman.com/content.asp?id=180 The word baptism in this understanding is taken to mean “suffering” like Jesus used in Luke 12

The Early Christians never baptized dead people, people that are dead are judged for heaven or hell, no post mortum baptism will change that. Some sources says a quasichristian cult in the early church did literally have sort of baptisms for dead people, and that Paul here is alluding to that, but not in the sense so as to approve of the practice

Tertullian c AD 200 explained it:

To be “baptized for the dead” therefore means, in fact, to be baptized for the body; for, as we have shown, it is the body which becomes dead. What, then, shall they do who are baptized for the body, Ephesians 4:5 if the body rises not again? We stand, then, on firm ground (when we say) that the next question which the apostle has discussed equally relates to the body.

 

[BerhaneSelassie]

Here is some early Christian commentary on this passage: books.google.com/books?id=NlHjDL74CEIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=corinthians&cd=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false (page 261 and on)

books.google.com/books?id=OiHKpKh0cVMC&pg=PA42&dq=corinthians&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false (page 162-3)

So some took baptism for the dead to refer to oneself, But clearly some early heretics did misunderstand Paul as saying you need to baptized dead people too

The Cornelius Lapide commentary writes:

Ver. 29.—Else what shall they do? . . . why are they then baptized for the dead? 1. This baptism is metaphorical, the baptism of pain, afflictions, tears, and prayers, which they endure on behalf of the dead, in order to deliver them from the baptism of fire in purgatory. For even those Judaisers are baptized who deny the resurrection, like Cerinthus and others, or, at any rate, their fellow-religionists, the Jews, and this, according to the faith and custom of the Hebrews, who are wont to pray for the dead, as appears from 2 Macc. xii. 43, and from their modern forms of prayer. This meaning best fits in with what follows. Baptism is in other places often used in this sense, (as S. Mark x. 53; S. Luke xii. 50; Ps. xxxii. 6). Throughout Scripture, waters and waves typify tribulations and afflictions.

1. “Baptism” can also be understood of purification before the sacrifices which were offered for the dead. The Jews were in the habit of being purified before sacrifice, prayer, or any Divine service. Cf. S. Mark vii. 9; Heb. vi. 12, and ix. 10.

1. The different interpretations of others are dealt with at length by Bellarmine (de Purgat. lib. i. c. 4) and Suarez (p. 3, qu. 56, disp. 50, sect. 1), and they all are referred to literal baptism.

(a) S. Thomas explains it to mean baptism for washing away sins, which are dead works.

(b) Theodoret thinks that “for the dead” is “like the dead,” when they rise from death, viz., when they are baptized, and emerge from the waters of baptism as from the tomb, they symbolise the resurrection of the dead.

Epiphanius (Hære. 28) takes “for the dead” to mean when death is close at hand, and they are looked on as already dead. For then those who had deferred baptism wished to be baptized in hope and faith in eternal life and resurrection. Hence those to be baptized used to recite the Creed, in which is the Article, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead.”

(d) Claud Guiliaud, a doctor of Paris, thinks that the phrase refers to the martyrs, who suffer for the faith and the article of the resurrection of the dead. This meaning agrees well with the words that follow. “Why stand we in jeopardy every hour?”

(e) Others refer to a custom which the followers of Marcion afterwards observed, and suppose the meaning to be that some, in mistake and out of superstition, received baptism for the dead who had died without baptism. Cf. Ambrose and Irenæus (Hæres. 28), Tertullian (de Resurr. c. 24) and Chrysostom.

(f) Chrysostom proffers and prefers another explanation, viz., that S. Paul’s meaning is: Why do all receive baptism in hope of the resurrection of the dead, or to benefit their state when dead, that it may be well with them after death, if the dead do not rise? Surely, then, in vain do they do this. But this is not credible, for the common faith of all the faithful is that they do rise, so much so, that many of them put off their baptism, even to the end of life, and are baptized on their death-bed, in the hope that, being purified by baptism from all pain and guilt, they may fly to heaven, and obtain a joyful resurrection. Hence we get the name “clinical baptism.” Many canons are extant ordering that such baptism be not refused to those who ask for it.

This last meaning seems the simplest of all, and the one most on the surface, and is taken from the literal meaning of “baptized.” Tertullian says that “for the dead” means, “When the sacrament of baptism is performed over the body, the body is consecrated to immortality.”

 

[kimmielittle]

Hiyas

As to the Biblical interpretation of 1 Corinthians; Chapter 15, line 29.

I think it’s how we interpret the Greek word ‘baptizontai’ …albeit there is no Greek word for ‘they’…this word is indicative, third person, passive, present and plural…the closest word now… would be… ‘they’.

To me, Paul is speaking of the pagan ritual performed - the Christians were not practicing this ritual. But pagans were and Paul was referring to these people…basically saying…‘IF even these people they that baptize the dead ] believe in resurrection…why do you have a problem’

As always, just my thoughts

 

[little_c]

Metaphorically speaking, ‘baptism for the dead’ means, IMHO, witnessing for those that have not come to an understand of the Gospels, yet.

 

[fabricdragon]

well, when i had it explained to me…

the critical word is FOR
as in, FOR the (sake of the) dead not a baptism OF the dead.

and later it explains exactly that people’s baptisms are in vain… a “new birth” and “wiping away sin” are in vain… IF the dead never live again, if they do not rise…if there is no heaven, no resurrection… nothing but the cold grave… whats the point?

My friend Lyn brought me to the church. she died before i was confirmed in the Catholic faith.
you could say i was confirmed in the faith “for the sake of a dead woman”.

 

[little_c]

. . . .My friend Lyn brought me to the church. she died before i was confirmed in the Catholic faith.
you could say i was confirmed in the faith “for the sake of a dead woman”.

I thank you for your explanation. As a matter of providing a different perspective, I would say that you were dead in your sin before your friend Lyn brought you to the Faith (baptism for the dead) and made you alive in Christ. Can you see the difference?