Saturday, October 29, 2016

Answering Jimmy Akin on 1 Corinthians 15:29

Jimmy Akin is a Catholic apologist who works for Catholic Answers (to see my review of a Catholic Answers production on “Mormonism” by Trent Horn, click here). In the following video, he is addressing a (Oneness Pentecostal?) interpretation of 1 Cor 15:29, but touches upon the Latter-day Saint practice of baptism for the dead:



Commenting on the LDS interpretation of this verse, Akin offered his own interpretation--beginning at 3:22, Akin argues that:

"Another understanding, and I personally find this one very intriguing, is that being baptised for the dead doesn't mean being baptised in place of them, but on account of them. So, let's say you have a relative, let's say you are a pagan, and you have a relative who's a Christian, so your relative has been baptised, and then your relative dies, and you're thinking, okay, well, I love my relative (let's just say it was your wife), ok, my wife has died, she's gone to the Christian heaven, I want to be with my wife in the afterlife, I want to go to the Christian heaven, too, so I'm going to get baptised and become a Christian, and in that situation, you could talk about I'm being baptised for the dead, in other words, so that I can go where they go."

This is eisegesis.

Firstly, the preposition ὑπὲρ in 1 Cor 15:29 is followed by a noun in the genitive (plural [των νεκρων, “the dead ones”]), so it has the meaning of "in the stead/place of," "on behalf of"; not "on account of.” Note the following from BDAG on υπερ followed by the genitive:

c. in place of, instead of, in the name of (Eur.; Polyb. 3, 67, 7; ApcEsdr 1:11 p. 25, 3 Tdf.; Jos., C. Ap. 2, 142; Just., D. 95, 2.—In pap very oft. πρ ατο to explain that the writer is writing ‘as the representative of’ an illiterate pers.; Dssm. LO 285, 2 [LAE 335, 4]; other exx. of pap in DWallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics ’96, 384-86) να πρ σο μοι διακον Phlm 13. Somet. the mng. in place of merges w. on behalf of, for the sake of  Ro 9:3. ο βαπτιζμενοι πρ τν νεκρν 1 Cor 15:29a is debated; cp. 29b (s. the lit. s.v. βαπτζω 2c; also KBornhäuser, Die Furche 21, ’34, 184-87; JWhite, JBL 116, ’97, 487-99 [esp. 497f] favors a causal sense). ες πρ πντων πθανεν 2 Cor 5:14; cp. 15ab, 21 (Eur., Alc. 701 κατθανεν πρ σου).

Louw-Nida offer the following comment about υπερ + genitive:

90.36  πρ (with the genitive): a marker of a participant who is benefited by an event or on whose behalf an event takes place - 'for, on behalf of, for the sake of.' ς στιν πιστς πρ μν δικονος το Χριστο 'who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf' Col 1.7; να ες νθρωπος ποθν πρ το λαο 'in order that one person might die on behalf of the nation' Jn 11.50; δεσεις, προσευχς, ντεξεις, εχαριστας, πρ πντων νθρπων 'petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving on behalf of all people' 1 Tm 2.1; το δντος αυτν πρ τν μαρτιν μν 'he who gave himself on behalf of our sins' Ga 1.4. In a number of languages, one cannot speak of 'doing something on behalf of sins'; only a person can be benefited by an event, and therefore one must translate 'who gave himself on behalf of us who had sinned' in Ga 1.4. S

Other examples would be offered, but there is no linguistic and scholarly support for Akin’s approach to 1 Cor 15:29. Such errant appeals to the Greek is part-and-parcel of popular Catholic apologetics (e.g., James Salza on Luke 1 and Mariology; Robert Sungenis on τρωγω).

Do note the following comments from one non-LDS scholar about 1 Cor 15:29 and the great discomfort its plain meaning is for many, Akin included:


It cannot be denied that Paul is here speaking of a vicarious baptism: one is baptised for the dead to ensure for them a share in the effect of baptism, and this must relate to a post-mortal life. It is also clear that Paul himself refers to this baptismal practice, and without distancing himself from it (This is the embarrassing perception which is the reason for some (comparatively few) interpreters making an imaginative attempt to ignore that this relates to a vicarious baptism).

Søren Agersnap, Baptism and the New Life: A Study of Romans 6:1-14 (Langelandsgade, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1999), 175-76.

The long-standing Latter-day Saint understanding of 1 Cor 15:29 is on sound footing, from both exegesis and scholarship; the reading offered by Akin is borne out of an attempt (informed by Catholic dogma) to avoid its plain meaning, and not from any careful historical-grammatical exegesis of the text.