BAPTISM
INTO CHRIST INVOLVES THE ASSURED HOPE OF RESURRECTION AND ETERNAL LIFE.
1
CORINTHIANS 15:29.
Τί ποιήσουσιν
οἱ βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν; εἰ ὅλως νεκροὶ οὐκ ἐγείρονται.
“What
shall they do who are baptized over the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why,
then, are they baptized over the dead?”
The
Baptism.
The embarrassment
in the interpretation of this passage does not arise so much from difficulty in
determining the nature of the baptism, as in determining the nature of the
relation between the baptism and των νεκτων.
There is no
reason, so far as I am aware, for referring this baptism to that which is
effected by the Holy Spirit. There is no aspect in which such baptism brings
into relation with “the dead.”
There is no difficult
reason for identifying this baptism with the baptism of “suffering.” Such baptism
has no place in the New Testament except in connection with the atoning
sufferings of Christ. There is, indeed, mention of suffering in the context,
but not so as to identify it with this baptism.
We must accept it
as referring to ritual baptism received in a time of persecution, when, as
stated in the immediately succeeding verse, the life of an avowed Christian was
“in jeopardy every hour.”
‘Υπερ των
νεκρων.
The precise
relation between this baptism and “the dead” may be due to some local
historical fact, not fully stated, and which may, now, be forever beyond our
reach. The form of the phrase βαπτιζω υπερ does not originate in the verb and must be due to some cause independent
of it.
The burden of the
context, preceding and succeeding, is the resurrection of the dead and eternal
life through the Lord Jesus Christ as assured doctrines of Christianity; in
immediate contact with this baptism υπερ νεκρων we have
a statement that Christians are hourly in peril of death; and the last verse of
the chapter exhorts to steadfastness and unmovableness amid encompassing
dangers. While the argument of the Apostle develops a great and universal truth
of Christianity, still, it is evident that it has a local coloring from facts
then existing at Corinth. And our interpretation of the language so far as it
is due to those facts cannot be more certain than is our knowledge of those
facts. I have no certain, detailed knowledge of them and can, therefore, offer
no certain interpretation. So far as the facts appear to be known they seem to
justify an interpretation like this: 1. υπερ νεκρων over the dead; Why are Christians
baptized into Christ, who teaches that trials and martyrdom await his
disciples, and who have the dead of all generations buried beneath their feet
declaring the end of man in this world, unless they believe and have conclusive
evidence of a resurrection of the dead and of a blessed immortality through
Christ?
The assumption of
the badge of Christianity which exposes “every hour” to death reveals a faith
in a resurrection which outweighs all appeal to “the dead” as evidence against
it; or,
2. των νεκρων “the
dead;” may refer definitely to some Christians who had been slain at Corinth,
and immediately thereupon others had been baptized, if not literally over, yet
so as to justify the statement that their baptism was “over the dead” martyrs.
All so baptized could only expect to be slain in like manner; therefore the
fitness of the inquiry, “What shall such do, if there be no resurrection?” or,
3. If such interpretation
should be thought questionable on the ground of (a generally admitted)
exclusive metaphorical use of υπερ in the New Testament, then, it may be
understood as meaning for, in the stead of, “the dead” slain before their
eyes, or, day by day, far and wide, because they were Christians.
To join the band
of Christians at such a time by baptism, was to step into the place of newly
fallen martyrs and to confront that death which they had met.
Such action might
well elicit the inquiry, Why do men thus give themselves to death, filling up
the places of the slain, unless they believe and do know that in that Christ,
into whom they are baptized, they shall have a resurrection from the dead?
Again repeating, that
so far as the baptism is concerned, there is no special difficulty; but so far
as the relation of the baptism to “the dead” is concerned there is difficulty,
because of the want of definite historical knowledge; I offer these
interpretations as what may be in the direction of and proximate to the truth. (James
W. Dale, Christic Baptism and Patristic Baptism: An Inquiry into the Meaning
of the Word as Determined by the Usage of the Holy Scriptures and Patristic
Writings [2d ed.; Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1874;
repr., Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 1995], 316-17)
Further Reading:
Kevin L. Barney “Baptized
for the Dead”
