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1 Corinthians 15: 29-"Baptized For the Dead"???

Discussion in '2003 Archive' started by Jamal5000, Jul 9, 2003.

  1. Jamal5000

    Jamal5000 New Member

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    Everytime I read 1 Corinthians 15, I always get puzzled over the expression "baptized for the dead" from Verse 29.

    Does it mean that living Christians were baptized for dead Christians that were never baptized?

    Does it refer to baptizing professing Christians who were inevitably going to die (i.e. Constantine ) in a very short time due to some sickness?

    Does it refer to actually baptizing a dead body/corpse before it is buried?

    What do you think? [​IMG]
     
  2. dianetavegia

    dianetavegia Guest

    I have to agree with this Bible Scholar who said:

     
  3. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Active Member
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    Part of an article:

    1 Corinthians 15:29 asks what those who are baptized for (on behalf of) the dead will do if the dead do not rise at all. Clearly those who have died to the world and thus came alive are those who are baptized on behalf of the dead. The baptism is for the benefit of the spiritually dead. So what is meant is that if there is no resurrection, then this baptism won’t aid others.

    Romans 6:3-4 speaks of people who were baptized into Christ’s death, and the purpose of the baptism, as Romans 6:4 states, is to be resurrected from the dead. While Romans 6:4-5 compares the death and resurrection of the individual believer to that of Christ, the death and resurrection of Jesus was somewhat different to that of the ordinary believer, as Jesus was without sin. He lived "in the flesh," but this meant only a life in the physical, material body, not that He lived according to the lusts of the world. His life in the flesh was a mortal life, which ended on the cross.

    On the other hand, His resurrected body was immortal, unable to die (in another sense Jesus was immortal during His lifetime, as I will later show). This is similar to the resurrection of the believers. With Jesus, His physical life on earth can be compared to the old man, who is mortal, and His resurrected body was immortal, like the new man. Romans 6:5 speaks of the people being united together in the likeness of His death, and the likeness of His resurrection. The believers experienced these things within their same physical body, but Jesus had to physically die. In 1 Corinthians 15:31, Paul says, "I die daily." The death that he is speaking of is dying to the physical world, which is what verse 29 is speaking about. Verse 32 shows that if there has not been a resurrection from the dead there is no purpose to life.
     
  4. swaimj

    swaimj <img src=/swaimj.gif>

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    The phrase in question can be translated "baptized on behalf of the dead" or it can be translated "baptized because of the dead". In the context, the second option is preferable. In the section in which the verse falls (chapter 15), Paul is speaking of the importance of the resurrection and he highlights the way that anticipation of the resurrection motivated people. Paul was motivated to service by its prospect (30-32). Some had been motivated to come to Christ for salvation when saved loved ones died and, upon their death-bed, expressed hope for a future resurrection. When unsaved loved ones heard this expression of hope in the resurrection from dying saints, they were motivated to accept Christ and be baptized. Thus they were baptized "because of the dead" rather than "on behalf of the dead". The grammar allows the words to be translated either way, but context and theological consistency favors the latter.
     
  5. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
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    Not if you're LDS. They THRIVE on the poor wording of their official English Bible (KJV1769 revision).

    Baptism "in place of the dead"

     
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