p. 24 | Baptized for the Dead

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 16, 1879

Baptized for the Dead.

A CORRESPONDENT asks us to explain 1 Cor. 15:29: “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?”

Paul’s subject is the resurrection of the dead; and baptism is referred to as an act by which we show our faith in the resurrection. But if the dead rise not at all, why do we perform this act? Why are we then baptized in hope of the resurrection of the dead, or to show our faith in such an event?

Dr. Clarke says on this verse: “But as they receive baptism as an emblem of death in voluntarily going under the water, so they receive it as an emblem of the resurrection unto eternal life, in coming up out of the water; thus they are baptized for the dead, in perfect faith of the resurrection. The three following verses seem to confirm this sense.”

Macknight considers the passage as elliptical, and reads it, “Baptized for [the resurrection of] the dead.” “In Rob. Wahl the passage is thus paraphrased: If the dead do not rise, of what avail is it to expose ourselves to so many dangers in hope of a future reward.”—Bagster.

Jenks says: “Thus the sense will be: ‘baptized in the confidence and expectation of a resurrection from the dead.’ . . . Chrysostom establishes this interpretation beyond all doubt.”

Bloomfield says: “Now this [the true interpretation], if I mistake not, will apply to an interpretation most early adopted, namely, that of Chrysostom and the Greek commentators, and the generality of expositors in modern times, including some very eminent names, as Hamm., Burkitt, Wets., and Pyle, who explain: ‘What will they be doing, i. e., what will they benefit themselves, who are baptized for the sake of, i. e., in hope of, the resurrection of the dead. They will be no better for it, either in this world or the next.’”