In arguing for the resurrection,
Paul puts forward a strange argument in the paragraph in 1 Corinthians 15.29-34:
Otherwise, what
do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not
raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? (v. 29, ESV).
I might prefer to translate the beginning, 'Otherwise, what are those baptising on behalf of the dead doing?' What is baptism on behalf of the
dead? Commentaries offer a variety of interpretations for this obscure
reference, and this interpretation that I have garnered from my own reading is
one I believe is along the right track.
First, the word ‘baptism’ is
broader than Christian baptism itself and means to dip in or under a liquid
such as water or wine. We should not read our Christian view of 'baptism'
into the meaning of this verse.
Note, second, that Paul does not
say, ‘You’ do this or that Christians should do this. He says that
people do this. These 'people' are those in the Graeco-Roman culture.
Third, note that in this whole
paragraph his main point is that there is life after this life, life after
death. This practice in Greek culture of a ‘baptism on behalf of the
dead’ only makes sense if people believe in life after death.
In v. 33, Paul says, ‘If the dead
are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”.’ He is
quoting a saying in Greek culture, and his point is that we are to be raised
from the dead and so we should not live this way. He is not
distinguishing at this point of the chapter between belief in life after death
and the resurrection of the dead. To be sure, some in the culture
did believe that they should just live for the day and not concern themselves
with life after death. So, we read in Athenaeus’ Deipnosophists:[1]
I to all mortals now give this advice:
Live for the day with pleasure; he who dies
Is nought; an empty shade beneath the earth:
Man lives but a short space, and therefore
should,
While life remains, enjoy himself (8.14).
The author quotes several others
along the same lines, for example:
Amphis the comic
poet, in his Ialemus, says—
The man who knows that he is but a
mortal,
And yet seeks not enjoyment while alive,
Leaving all other cares, is but a fool
In mine and all wise men's opinion,
And most unhappy in his destiny.
And, in his play
entitled the Gynæcocracy, he say nearly the same—
Drink and play, our mortal life
On earth can but a brief space last;
Death alone will last for ever,
When once our too brief term is past.
Yet the practice in the culture
of ‘baptism on behalf of the dead’ points to a different belief, one more
common, and is consistent with Jewish and Christian views that there is life
after death.
Also in this paragraph, Paul
turns the argument to himself. Why did he fight beasts in Ephesus
and why does he endure all sorts of things to proclaim a Gospel that includes
the hope of the resurrection for those in Christ if there is no life after this
life?
So, Paul’s first example about
‘baptism on behalf of the dead’ is not a theological teaching for Christians
but an observation that people do this because they believe that the dead
continue to exist. On this single verse, the Mormon cult has developed
a major practice of researching genealogies and baptizing people on behalf of
the dead, with the notion that this will save them. This practice is
not supported by Scripture elsewhere, nor is it the right teaching on this
verse. All that Paul is doing is noting that, in the culture of his
day, there is the general practice of baptism on behalf of the dead that points
to a general belief in life after death. Paul will shortly explain
the Christian view of this, that there is to be a resurrection from the dead
for Christians, but here his point is that Christian theology agrees with other
religious practices where there is a hope of life after death and a future
judgement.
As to what this ‘baptism’ is, I
suggest that it is or is something like what we read in antiquity about pouring
out libations on behalf of the dead. People in the culture of the
day went to the graves of the dead and poured out liquids, thinking that
somehow this is good for them and pleasing to the gods. It may
further have held out hope of connecting with the dead. Here are
three quotes, one from Euripides and two from Aeschylus. In Euripides
play, Orestes, Helen asks her daughter, Hermione, to take an
offering of hair and libations to Clytemnestra's grave. The offering is a
gift, and the context of this is that Helen wants to make peace with
Clytemnestra.
Take these libations and these
tresses of mine in your hands, and go pour round Clytemnestra's tomb [115] a
mingled cup of honey, milk, and frothing wine... (Euripides, Orestes 110).[2]
In Aeschylus' play, Persians,
Queen Atossa, wife of dead Darius and mother of Xerxes, is worried about the
absence of the Persian army from the capital and about its war against the
Ionians. She says that she has dipped her 'hands in the clear-flowing
water of a spring' and, with incense in her hand, approached an altar 'to make
an offering of sacrificial cake to the divinities that avert evil' (Persians 200). The
Chorus advises her to appeal to the gods and her dead husband. They
say,
it is
appropriate that you should [220] offer libations to Earth and the dead; and
use auspicious words to address your husband Darius, whom you say you have seen
in the night, and ask him to send into the light of day from beneath the earth
blessings for you and your son; ask too that the reverse of this may be held in
bondage beneath the earth and fade away in gloom (Aeschylus, Persians 219-224).[3]
Atossa later says,
It is for this
reason that I have come here from the palace once again, without my chariot
and my former pomp, and bring, as propitiatory libations for the father of
my son, [610] offerings that soothe the dead, both white milk, pleasant to
drink, from an unblemished cow, and bright honey, distillation wrought from
blossoms by the bee, together with lustral water from a virgin spring; [615]
and from a rustic source, this unmixed draught, the quickening juice of an
ancient vine. Here too is the fragrant fruit of the pale-green olive that lives
the entirety of its life in luxuriant foliage; and garlanded flowers, produce
of the bounteous earth.
But come, my
friends, [620] chant solemn songs as I make these libations to the dead,
and summon forth the divine spirit of Darius, while I convey, in honor of
the gods, these offerings for the earth to drink’ (Aeschylus, Persians 619-622).
Darius’ ghost later appears in
the play (681ff). Note Atassa's dipping her hands in a spring, her
offering of libations to the dead, and her hope to obtain a blessing from her
dead husband and the gods.
My suggestion is that the
'baptism on behalf of the dead' is a reference to such practices in the
culture, and the dipping of hands in a spring and the libations poured out seem
to be particularly interesting for a connection to 'baptism'. The main
point, however, is that whatever practices there are, they were done in the
belief that there is life after death. Yet some Corinthians rejected the
idea of a future resurrection (v. 12), and with it they lived without a concern
for future consequences. Paul says, ‘Wake up from your drunken
stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning’ (v. 34). Perhaps he has in
mind the sinner sexually involved with his father's wife (ch. 5) or persons who
claim a Christian life but do not stop doing sins listed in 6.9-10,.
Recall that some of the Corinthians thought that ethics did not pertain to what
they did with their bodies (6.12-20).
We might have another passage
that captures the general idea of libations for the dead in Luke
16. If so, the purpose is different as it is not an offering to
honour a dead person or the gods or God but a drink for someone in
torment. The passage in Euripides offers a parallel in that a nice drink
is prepared for someone who is honoured despite her evil deed (she mistakenly
killed her husband). In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and the
beggar, Lazarus, both die. Lazarus goes to a good place and is with
his ancestor, Abraham. The rich man, who cared nothing for the
beggar at his gate and just lived his life for his own pleasure, goes to a very
different place. He is in torment in Hades. He calls out,
‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his
finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame’ (v.
24). If this passage has any relevance to 1 Corinthians 15.29, it is
only that the notion of libations for the dead could have different
purposes. None of these are salvific, but they all point to a belief
in life after death. Christians did not continue these pagan
practices, whatever their purposes, but they did believe in life after death
and, more specifically, in a future resurrection of the dead.
[1]
Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, Or Banquet Of The Learned Of Athenaeus
(London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854).
[2]
Euripides, The Complete Greek Drama, ed. Whitney J. Oates and Eugene
O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes; Vol. 2. Orestes, trans. E. P. Coleridge (New York:
Random House. 1938).
[3] Aeschylus. Aeschylus,
with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes, Vol. 1.
Persians, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1926).
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