Friday, August 9, 2019

Laurence Hull Stookey on 1 Corinthians 1:17 and Paul's Theology of Water Baptism



For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. (1 Cor 1:17 NASB)

1 Cor 1:17 is a common proof-text against the salvific efficacy of water baptism. I have written a lengthy exegesis of this text at:


In the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, we read the following under the entry for “Baptism” which is also pertinent:

Paul’s alleged indifference to baptism in 1 Cor. 1:14-17 refers only to the person of the administrator: Whether one is baptized by Paul, Peter, or Apollos means nothing; one is to be centered on Christ into whom he or she is baptized. This sometimes distorted passage must be interpreted in light of Paul’s clear affirmation of baptism as incorporation into the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 6:1-11) and as the putting on of Christ like a garment, thereby receiving a new identity beside which all of the usual distinctions dissolve (Gal. 3:27-29). Paul’s more puzzling comment about Israel being “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10:2) actually is quite illuminating once one resists the temptation to suppose the apostle is referring to some literal rite. Paul is suggesting that as a fragmented band of refugees found a new identity in the Exodus and its aftermath in the covenant at Sinai, so those who are baptized into Christ thereby find a new identity through their covenant with God.

So also with Peter’s comparison of baptism to salvation on the ark: both events bespeak a newness given by the grace of God by which humanity is rescued from destruction. In Heb. 6:2-4; 10:32 “enlightenment” alludes to baptism; and the ancient Church when instructing catechumens liberally used John 9, , Jesus’ healing of the man blind from birth. (Laurence Hull Stookey, "Baptism" in David Noel Freedman, ed. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2000], emphasis added)