Baptizing For The Dead ?

[Old Paths]

Originally Posted by Sam

There are a couple of different teachings on this.

1. Baptism was not a unique Christian practice. A couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus the Jews had developed what was called the mikveh. A person self-immersed or self-baptized three times. This was for a ritual cleansing. It is still practiced today by some Jews. If John the Baptist came from an Essene background then he would have practiced self-immersion, or self-baptism, or mikveh quite often. Also, the mikveh or baptism was required when a Gentile converted to Judaism. When John the Baptist insisted that those that came to him and accepted his teaching that the Messiah was coming be self-immersed he was saying that they were coming as sinners, like a Gentile, and needed to convert to the kingdom of heaven. This practice was picked up by Jesus and those who began to follow Him had to self-immerse if they had not done this before under John's ministry. This was then carried on into the church and mikveh or self-immersion was required of new converts to the message of Jesus as Messiah. Other religions also had water cleansing rituals. Some taught that a living person could be baptized for a departed friend or relative (like the Mormons do now). Some believe that Paul was referring to this practice and was saying "Why do you guys practice baptism for your dead friends and loved ones if there is no resurrection?" In other words, he wasn't endorsing the practice, he was just saying why are you going through the effort if there is no future life?"

2. Another teaching, which my UPC pastor taught was the "the dead" referred here to Jesus and Paul was saying "why are you submitting to a ritual which depicts the burial and resurrection of Jesus if He never did rise from the dead?" In other words, if Jesus never rose from the dead, why go through a ritual which identifies yourself with the burial and resurrection of Jesus?

3. Another thought is that "the dead" here is actually in a plural form and could be translated "the dead ones." This teaching would be paraphrased as having Paul say, "Why are new folks being baptized to replace the dead ones (i.e. the folks who have died) if there is no resurrection of the dead? Maybe I didn't phrase that right. In other words, "Why do new folks get baptized to take the place of those in the church who have died and gone if there is no resurrection and those folks are just dead forever?"

Sam,

I heard your No. 3 preached 40 years ago.

Makes sense to me.