Else why are they baptized for the dead

New King James Version Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? New American Standard Bible For otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?

If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? NASB Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? Amplified Bible Otherwise, what will those do who are being baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people even baptized for them?

Christian Standard Bible Otherwise what will they do who are being baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are people baptized for them? Holman Christian Standard Bible Otherwise what will they do who are being baptized for the dead?

American Standard Version Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead? Aramaic Bible in Plain English Otherwise, what shall those do who are baptized for the sake of the dead, if the dead do not live again?

Why are they baptized for the sake of the dead? Contemporary English Version If the dead are not going to be raised to life, what will people do who are being baptized for them? In other words, while we can confidently stress what this passage does not teach, we are in a more difficult position to lock down a precise definition of what Paul does mean.

The context, the grammar, and the meaning are all difficult to us. Still, we should labor to understand his words, especially in the context of the book.

But first, a list of possible interpretations. Whenever you come to a debated passage, one quick way to get a lay of the interpretive landscape is to check out a bevy of Study Bibles. Paul simply mentions this practice without explaining it in detail or indicating whether he endorses it or not, whether it was a proper or improper Christian practice.

Since so little is known about it, Christians cannot be dogmatic concerning one view or another. The whole conclusion hinges on how one understands the preposition hyper and its accompanying genitive in the text.

Four major views have been put forth the bold titles are my own :. More succinctly, the ESV Study Bible gives a judicious treatment of the vicarious and traditional views.

Affirming the uncertainty of any interpretation, the ESV lands on traditional baptism over vicarious baptism. Some interpreters through the centuries have thought this referred to vicarious baptism on behalf of deceased people, probably those who had believed in Christ but had not been baptized before they died cf. Luke But the interpretation is uncertain, and whatever the practice is Paul reports it without necessarily approving it, and is clearly not commanding it.

Baptism for the dead is an important part of Mormonism, but the Bible gives no support to the idea that anyone can be saved apart from personal faith in Christ. On this view, Paul argues here that the baptism of perishing bodies is useless if the debtor not raised. Being baptized for the dead probably refers to the practice, apparently unique to the Corinthian church, of someone undergoing baptism on behalf of a believer who had died without undergoing baptism.

Paul was not condoning this practice, and certainly Scripture nowhere teaches directs us to conduct such baptisms. Paul simply pointed out that it was meaningless for the Corinthians to enact such practices if they disbelieved in the resurrection of the dead. The MacArthur Study Bible holds to a traditional view, but relates the baptism of new converts to the faithful lives of the saints.

Thus, the dead in Christ serve to motivate baptism. Interestingly, this interpretation takes the opposite point of view from Michael Hull, who writes in his book Baptism on Account of the Dead how Paul uses new believers seeking baptism to motivate those Christians questioning resurrection see 1 Corinthians Look at their faith.

It was once yours. We are baptized for the dead because we know that they will rise. It matters tremendously what we do in relation to those who have gone before, because they live today as spirits and shall live again as immortal souls, and that because of Jesus Christ.

To believe that Jesus is the only Savior, they say, is arrogant, narrow-minded, and intolerant. We say, however, that this is a false dilemma. There is no injustice in there being but One through whom salvation may come, when that One and His salvation are offered to every soul, without exception. Because we believe that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer, we also accept His authority to establish the conditions by which we may receive His grace.

Otherwise we would not concern ourselves with being baptized for the dead. There are no exceptions granted; none are needed. Let the earth break forth into singing. Our charge extends as far and as deep as the love of God to encompass His children of every time and place.

Our efforts on behalf of the dead bear eloquent witness that Jesus Christ is the divine Redeemer of all mankind. And they were strange. There is no good evidence for vicarious baptism anywhere in the New Testament or among the earliest apostolic fathers. By the same token, there is no hint that this vicarious baptism if that is what it was was intended by the Corinthian believer to cover as many deceased people as could be named.

If the practice existed at all, it may have been tied to a few people or special cases—for example, when a relative died after trusting the gospel but before being baptized. We really do not know. If it were something like that, one could understand why Paul does not make a federal case of it. In any case, Paul's clear emphasis is that people are justified by grace through faith , which demands a personal response. Christian baptism is part of that personal response, even as it is a convenantal pledge.

In contrast, baptism on behalf of someone who has not exercised such faith sounds like magic—of something far from Pauline thought. Send questions to be answered by evangelical scholars to Directions, at cteditor christianitytoday. Click for reprint information. Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.

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