"Baptized on Account of the Dead": The Meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:29 in Its Context‪.‬

Paul's words in 1 Cor 15:29, "Otherwise what will those do who are being baptized for the dead? If truly (1) the dead are not raised, why then are they being baptized for them?" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) have been the subject of much debate since the patristic era. The reason is immediately apparent: the phrase [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], standing alone, would seem to imply some sort of vicarious baptism for the dead. (2) Students of the passage have struggled to make sense of this curious reference, offering an astonishing number of diverse interpretations. (3) In the past thirty years, however, interest in the subject has fallen oft as scholars reached an impasse concerning its meaning. There has been only a trickle of new ideas, and certainly nothing close to a consensus on the proper interpretation has emerged. This has led to an exegetical agnosticism on the part of many scholars. (4) Defeat has been perhaps too easily conceded, however, for an investigation of the various attempts at interpretation (5) reveals an almost universal inadequacy: failure to consider seriously the context of the verse. (6) No doubt due to its perceived obscurity, 1 Cor 15:29 has generally been analyzed in complete isolation from its context. (7) Yet, as will become clear below, the immediate and the larger epistolary context, far from being irrelevant, offers the key to establishing the meaning of v. 29. Before we present our own argument from the context, however, it will be helpful to lay out the issues at hand by outlining the basic solutions that have been proposed.