1 Corinthians 15:29Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since he answers nothing, the man hidden beneath the bed answers for him that he wishes to receive baptism. In this way they baptize him in place of the dead man, staging something like a performance in a theater.

Such power the devil has over careless souls.

Then, when they are condemned for this, they point to the Apostle's words. They say that he said, "they are baptized for the dead."

Do you see how ridiculous this is? Is it even worth refuting them? I do not think so. Otherwise one would also have to argue with madmen about what they say in a fit of insanity.

Yet, so that none of the simpler people may be carried away by them, something must also be said against them.

If Paul really says this, why does God threaten the one who is not baptized? With such an invention, it is impossible for anyone not to be baptized. In that case, the guilt falls not on the dead man, but on the living.

Tell me, to whom do the Savior's words refer: "Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you" (Jn 6:53)? Do they refer to the living or to the dead?

And again: "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5).

If we admit what they say, and if there is no need for the intention and disposition of the recipient while he is still alive, what prevents pagans and Jews from becoming faithful when others do this for them after death?

But let us not spend too much labor in vain by tearing apart such a spider's web. Let us now disclose the meaning of the saying itself.

What, then, does Paul say? First I wish to call to your memory the words which those who celebrate the mystery command you to pronounce on that evening. Then I will turn to Paul's saying. In this way it will be clearer to you.

After everything else, we shall add what Paul now says.

I would like to express this plainly, but I do not dare because of the presence of the uninitiated. They make our explanation difficult, forcing us either to speak obscurely or to reveal what is hidden to them.

Nevertheless, I will speak as veiledly as I can.

After the mysterious and fearful words have been pronounced, and after the dread admonitions of the doctrines revealed from heaven, we finally approach baptism. We add these words also, commanding the following to be said: I believe in the resurrection of the dead.

In this faith we are baptized. After confessing this together with the rest, we descend into the fountain of those holy waters.

Recalling this very thing, Paul says: if there is no resurrection, why are you baptized for the sake of the dead, that is, for bodies?

For in baptism you believe in the resurrection of the dead body. You believe that it will no longer remain dead.

With words you confess the resurrection of the dead. The priest, as in an image, shows you by the deed itself what you believed and confessed with words.

You believe without a sign, and he at once presents the sign to you. You do what depends on you, and God at once gives you assurance.

How and in what way? By water.

The descent and immersion in the water, and then the emergence from the water, are a sign of the descent into Hades and the ascent from there.

For this reason Paul also calls baptism a tomb when he says, "We were buried with Him through baptism into death" (Rom 6:4).

By this he also assures us of the certainty of what is to come, that is, of the resurrection of the body.

For to blot out sins is far more difficult than to raise a body, as Christ Himself explained when He said, "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?" (Mt 9:5).

The first, He says, is more difficult than the second. But you do not believe it, because it is not visible. You consider the lesser manifestation of My power to be greater. Therefore I will not refuse to give you this proof also.

"Then He said to the paralytic, 'Rise, take up your bed, and go to your house'" (Mt 9:6).

You may say: How is this difficult, when kings and authorities can also do it? They pardon adulterers and murderers.

You say this in vain, O man. To forgive sins belongs to God alone.

Authorities and kings do pardon adulterers and murderers, but they free them only from present punishment. They do not cleanse their sins themselves.

Even if they raise those pardoned to the highest ranks, clothe them in purple, and place a diadem upon them, they make them kings, but they do not free them from sins.

God alone does this. He does it in the laver of regeneration. Grace touches the soul itself and tears sin out of it by the root.

Therefore the soul of one pardoned by a king may be unclean, but the soul of the baptized cannot be. It is purer than the rays of the sun themselves.

It is as it was in the beginning, or even much better. For it receives the Spirit, who wholly kindles it and makes it holy.

When you melt down iron or gold, you make it pure and new again. In the same way the Holy Spirit melts down the soul in baptism as in a furnace.

He destroys sins and makes the soul purer and more radiant than any pure gold.

From this also you can be convinced of the truth of the resurrection of bodies.

Since sin introduced death, when the root has been destroyed, its fruit will without any doubt be destroyed as well.

Therefore you first speak of the remission of sins, and then confess the resurrection of the dead, passing from the first to the last.

Further, since the word resurrection does not yet prove everything, for many who rose died again, as in the Old Testament, as Lazarus, and as those raised at Christ's death on the Cross, you are commanded to say: and life everlasting.

This is so that no one may think that death will follow after that resurrection.

Thus Paul recalls these words and says, "What are those doing who are baptized for the dead?"

If there is no resurrection, he says, then these words are a jest. If there is no resurrection, how do we persuade others to believe what we do not give?

Suppose someone demands from another a written receipt for having received this or that, yet gives him nothing written in it. Then, after receiving the receipt, he demands what is specified.

What would the signer do, having made himself a debtor, although he received none of the things he acknowledged as owed?

The Apostle says the same here about those being baptized. "What are they doing," he says, "who are baptized," signing themselves under the truth of the resurrection of the dead, yet not receiving it and being deceived?

What need is there at all for the confession itself, if the deed does not follow it?

Therefore he says: those who believed in the future resurrection of dead bodies and were baptized in such hope, what will they do if they have been deceived? Why, finally, are people baptized for the sake of the resurrection, that is, in expectation of resurrection, if the dead do not rise?

I, 70. "If the dead do not rise at all, then why are they baptized for the dead?" said the divine Apostle (1 Cor 15:29). If our bodies, he says, do not rise at all, why do we believe that in baptism they receive incorruption?

Or: "at all" (holos).

Qu. dub. I, 70 is an abbreviated version, consisting only of the first and last sentences, of one of the passages of St. Isidore of Pelusium (Isid. Pel. ep. I.221: PG 78, 321B-C). Here is the whole passage in an older Russian translation:

"What does this mean: 'If the dead do not rise at all, why are they baptized for the dead?' (1 Cor 15:29). If the dead do not rise at all, why are they baptized for them? The divine Apostle said this about the nature of bodies, comparing it so beautifully with the immutable nature of souls.

For the soul has no end and is immortal, while the nature of bodies is subject to corruption and change. Therefore we are baptized for the dead, according to the nature of bodies, believing that we shall bring them into incorruption.

This is the explanation of what the Apostle said. If, he says, our bodies do not rise at all, why do we believe that in Baptism they are transformed into incorruption?"

Declerck considers this text an interpolation. Yet the question arises why, in this interpolation, a portion of St. Isidore's text was omitted.

It is possible that the "middle" part was omitted because the one who introduced this text into the Qu. dub. feared that these words about baptism for the dead according to the nature of bodies might be understood to mean that baptism is performed only for bodies and has no relation to the soul.

Those who accept the reality of such a custom among heretics present the proof of the Apostle Paul in this way. By the heretics' own custom of baptizing, the Apostle Paul proves that they believe in the resurrection of the dead. Otherwise there would be no reason to baptize the dead, if they will not rise.

Second, others understand here baptism for dead works, more clearly, renunciation of dead works, which must necessarily follow baptism. Then the Apostle Paul's proof may be connected with what follows. Why are we baptized so as not to do dead works? Why do we also suffer? Both abstinence from dead works and sufferings will be useless.

Third, St. Chrysostom also sees here a reference to the confession of faith pronounced at baptism, in which the expectation of the resurrection of the dead was expressed. But according to the Apostle, this baptism is entirely superfluous for dead bodies.

Finally, the Apostle Paul's words may be understood in this sense: those who deny the resurrection of the dead become Christians in vain. We, says the Apostle, are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ.

But you say that there is no resurrection of the dead, and this is the same as saying that Christ has not risen. Therefore we were baptized in the name of a dead man. Why, then, be baptized in the name of a corpse? Why, finally, is baptism needed for those who will die, for mortal men?

The meaning of the question is this: why enter the Christian society through so significant a rite as baptism appears to be, in which the expectation of the resurrection of the dead is solemnly declared? In all this there would be only self-deception.

Explaining this rather obscure passage, St. John Chrysostom says, "First call to mind what we do when approaching holy baptism. We confess the doctrines brought from heaven, among which we also pronounce the following: I believe in the resurrection of the dead. In this faith we are baptized."

Thus to be baptized for the dead means to be baptized for the future life.

The Apostle says to them: you baptize yourselves as dead, yet as those who are to live again, here spiritually and later bodily. Suppose now that someone is baptized without this hope of resurrection, and therefore without participation in the power of Christ's Resurrection. What does he do? Dead he enters the font, and dead he comes out. Such people are baptized for the sake of the dead, that is, for themselves, and nothing more. Why be baptized at all?

Blessed Photius explains it this way in Oecumenius. "What," he says, "do those who are baptized do, so as not to be forever dead and forever held in Hades? That is, if there is no resurrection, what are those baptized in such hopes doing? If the dead do not rise, why are they baptized in order to rise? But he expresses it more strikingly, saying, 'Why are they baptized for the sake of the dead?' He speaks as though saying, 'For the sake of those whom you, by your unbelief in the resurrection, reckon among those who are to be forever dead. Since you reckon both others and yourselves among the dead, and the eternally dead, what are you doing when you are baptized for yourselves, who will never rise. But are condemned to remain forever dead?' He does not speak to them directly, but as though about outsiders, that is, not in the second person but in the third, so as not to strike them too severely."

Saint Chrysostom takes this passage almost in the same sense. Here is his extended discourse on it: "The Apostle now approaches another proof of the matter, bringing the opponents themselves as witnesses of the truth. What does he say? But first I will tell you how those infected with Marcion's heresy distort these words. When one of their catechumens dies, they hide a living man under the dead man's bier. They approach the dead man and ask whether he wishes to receive baptism. The man hidden under the bier answers in his place that he wishes to receive baptism. Then they baptize this living man instead of the dead man, staging something like a theatrical performance. Then, when they are condemned for this, they point to the Apostle's words and say, 'The Apostle said, those who are baptized for the dead.' Do you see how ridiculous this is? Is it even worth refuting them? I do not think so.

"What, then, does Saint Paul say? First recall what we do when we approach holy baptism. We confess beforehand the doctrines brought down from heaven, among which we also pronounce the following: I believe in the resurrection of the dead. In this faith we are baptized, for after this confession we descend into the source of those sacred waters. Recalling this very thing, the Apostle says: if there is no resurrection, why are you baptized for the sake of the dead, that is, for bodies? For in baptism you believe in the resurrection of the dead body, that it will no longer remain dead.

"You confess the resurrection of the dead in words, and the priest, as in an image, shows you by the act itself what you believed and confessed in words. You believe without a sign, and he at that moment presents you with the sign. You do what depends on you, and God at that moment assures you. How and in what manner? By water. For descent and immersion in the water, and then ascent from the water, is a sign of descent into Hades and ascent from there. Therefore Paul also calls baptism a tomb when he says, 'We were buried with Him through baptism into death' (Rom 6:4).

"By this he assures us also of the certainty of what is to come, namely the resurrection of the body. For it is far more difficult to wipe out sins than to raise a body. In the laver of rebirth grace touches the soul itself and uproots sin from it. The soul of the baptized is purer than the rays of the sun. It becomes such as it was in the beginning, or even much better, for it receives the Spirit, who completely enkindles it and makes it holy. As you make iron or gold pure and new by remelting it, so also the Holy Spirit remelts the soul in baptism as in a furnace, destroys sins, and makes it purer and more radiant than any pure gold.

"From this you can now be persuaded also of the truth of the resurrection of bodies. Since sin introduced death, when the root is destroyed, its fruit will without any doubt be destroyed as well. Therefore you first speak of the remission of sins, 'I confess one baptism for the remission of sins,' and then confess the resurrection of the dead, 'I look for the resurrection of the dead,' passing from the first to the last. Further, since the word 'resurrection' does not yet show everything, you are commanded also to say, 'and the life of the age to come,' so that no one may think that there will be death after that resurrection.

"Thus, recalling these words, Paul says, 'What will those do who are baptized for the dead?' If there is no resurrection, he says, then these words are a jest. If there is no resurrection, how do we persuade others to believe what we do not give? Do we compel them to confirm by their assent the truth of a resurrection they will not receive? What need is there of the confession itself, if the reality does not follow it?"

Blessed Theodoret expresses the Apostle's thought in his own way, while holding to the same starting point, the power of baptism. According to him the Apostle says, "The one who is baptized is buried together with the Master, so that, having shared in His death, he may become a partaker also of the Resurrection. But if the body is dead and will not rise, why be baptized?"

Thus, to explain this passage one must either accept some opinion from our interpreters, or leave it among things not understood. Modern interpreters do very badly when they suppose that the Apostle is speaking here about baptism on behalf of the dead, that is, about what Saint Chrysostom so ridicules. Can it be admitted that the Apostle Paul would have left such an absurd innovation without rebuke, if it existed in Corinth? Is it in accord with his character to use an error to confirm a truth that he had already proved very firmly from other sources?