Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Corinthians 15:29

COM commentary-section · status:draft · license:PD

29. Else —if there be no resurrection. what shall they do? —How wretched is their lot! they . . . which are baptized for the dead —third person; a class distinct from that in which the apostle places himself, "we" ( :- ); first person. ALFORD thinks there is an allusion to a practice at Corinth of baptizing a living person in behalf of a friend who died unbaptized; thus Paul, without giving the least sanction to the practice, uses an ad hominem argument from it against its practicers, some of whom, though using it, denied the resurrection: "What account can they give of their practice; why are they at the trouble of it, if the dead rise not?" [So Jesus used an ad hominem argument, :- ]. But if so, it is strange there is no direct censure of it. Some Marcionites adopted the practice at a later period, probably from taking this passage, as ALFORD does; but, generally, it was unknown in the Church. BENGEL translates, "over (immediately upon) the dead," that is, who will be gathered to the dead immediately after baptism. Compare Job 17:1 , "the graves are ready for me." The price they get for their trouble is, that they should be gathered to the dead for ever ( 1 Corinthians 15:13 ; 1 Corinthians 15:16 ). Many in the ancient Church put off baptism till near death. This seems the better view; though there may have been some rites of symbolical baptism at Corinth, now unknown, perhaps grounded on Jesus' words ( Matthew 20:22 ; Matthew 20:23 ), which Paul here alludes to. The best punctuation is, "If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for them " (so the oldest manuscripts read the last words, instead of "for the dead")? return to ' Top of Page ' <a name="verse-30" class="com-number"

Pericope (part_of)

• part_of pericope/per-1co-15-004

절 (explains)

bible-text/1co-15-29

Source

• source-manifest/jfb — Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (PD)
• evidence_grade: T_theological