The Meaning of Baptism for the Dead in 1 Corinthians 15:29

One of the most perplexing verses in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 15:29: “Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If actually the dead are not raised, why even be baptized for them?” What does this verse mean?

The passage has a long history of interpretation beginning with patristic writers who find its original meaning evasive, though they attribute its malpractice to heretical sects. John Chrysostom, for example, says that Marcionite heresy does such a practice, and he calls it a disease (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 40.1).

Context and Two Views

As to be expected, context is important regarding our understanding of this verse. In the macro-context, Paul is attempting to support belief in bodily resurrection in the face of Corinthian denial (1 Cor 15:12).

In 15:29–34 he raises four questions aimed at persuading against resurrection denial. For Paul this denial encourages unethical behavior, and so he includes some moral imperatives in this section. The first and second questions relate to baptism: “what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not actually raised, why even be baptized for them? Among the numerous speculations about the meaning of this passage, two options stand out in my view.*

View One: Baptism on account of the dead

One perspective interprets the preposition hyper (ὑπέρ) in 1 Cor 15:29 as causal. It has the meaning of baptism “on account of” the dead.

This view imagines unbaptized individuals who are perhaps at funerals of those who believe in Jesus Christ. They decide to get baptized in order to be reunited after death with their deceased loved ones who were baptized believers.

Despite any mixed motives for doing so, they get baptized “on account of” or because of the influence of these dead believers.

Paul would seem to bring up this point only if he already knew the Corinthians would agree with him on the issue.

View Two: Baptism for the dead

The second view is that the preposition hyper (ὑπέρ) means “for.” It suggests vicarious baptism “in place of” another person who has already died.

The believer is baptized again in proxy of an unbaptized dead person, so that the unbaptized person might be saved and it go well with him or her after death.

If this is the correct interpretation, there are some caveats that must be included. First, neither Paul nor other apostles teach “baptism for the dead.” Paul identifies the practitioners as “they”—not “we” or “us”—pointing to another group distinct from his colleagues and himself.

Among the various factions in the Corinthian congregation it seems that certain Corinthians apparently practice this type of proxy baptism.

Paul himself seems either ambivalent to the practice, neither confirming nor denying that such baptism is efficacious for the dead. Or, he disapproves of it, though here because he wants to support bodily resurrection, he simply mentions it for the sake of argument. Perhaps later when visiting them, he will correct the faction on this point—we notice in 1 Cor 11:34 that he plans to set things in order when he arrives.

Since baptism signifies the bodily enactment of dying and rising again (Romans 6:4), and certain Corinthians take initiative to perform this enactment in place of the dead, it follows that they should believe in bodily resurrection and the hope of one day being reunited with others.

With either view, Paul’s purpose was not to promote “baptism for the dead” as a normative doctrine or practice. Neither he nor anyone else in the New Testament discusses the issue again. He raises the issue only as another illustration that supports the assumption of bodily resurrection.

Note

 * For sources, see B. J. Oropeza, 1 Corinthians, New Covenant Commentary series (Eugene: Cascade, 2017), 209–10. Some of the more recent views, I’m sorry to say, thoroughly fail to convince me.