Sermon Tone Analysis

One of the most improtant principles in interpretation is learing what questions to ask of the text.

So what we are going to do tonight is walk through a difficut passage and decide what questions we should ask.

Issues in 1 Corinthians 15:29

Objectives

• Explain the context of 1 Cor 15, leading up to verse 29

• Discuss four issues related to the interpretation of 1 Cor 15:29

First Corinthians 15:29 is one of the most disputed passages in the nt.

This is the verse in Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians where he mentions baptism for the dead.

This very odd passage has, believe it or not, over forty interpretations in the literature.

That goes all the way back to antiquity, to the present day.

There are over forty interpretations you could gather.

Some people actually have gathered them in commentaries or dissertations, so that’s not an exaggeration.

It gives you an indication of how odd and how confusing, how difficult, this passage actually is.

What I am going to give you, as far as my take, as we proceed, is sort of a peripheral favorite.

I’ll tell you that.

I’ll be up front.

I might be in a minority here, but I think that the interpretation where I land is the only one that really attempts to tie in the wider context of the First Letter to the Corinthians.

I think that that’s important for how we would judge what Paul says in 15:29.

The Context of Chapter 15

If we go to 1 Cor 15, we read …

1 Cor 15.12-34

Let me point out a few things, Paul is talking about the error, the belief that had surfaced in the Corinthian church, that there is no resurrection of the dead.

In chapter 15, he is trying to address this.

He says, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead …” Then he goes off on a whole series of comments that if we’re going to deny the resurrection over here, then all this other stuff follows, and this doesn’t make sense.

He gets down to verse 29, and he says, “Otherwise”— being in the context of this idea of, there is no resurrection of the dead—“Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?

If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?”

Basically, to set the verse in its context, he’s saying, “Look, there are some of you here that are saying there is no resurrection of the dead.”

Paul, of course, is saying, “Well, there is the resurrection of the dead.”

Then he gets to verse 29 and says, “Hey, if there is not, otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?

What’s the point?

Why would they do this?

If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?”

Then Paul just moves on.

What questions should we ask?

We have this one cryptic verse about the practice of baptism for the dead, and that raises all sorts of questions.

Remember, there are forty-plus views of this thing, how to handle it.

Literal or Metaphorical?

Just a few interpretive questions that we want to think about as we proceed: Is the baptism for the dead to be taken literally?

In other words, is this something they were literally doing—either literally baptizing, maybe, a corpse, or baptizing someone in place of a corpse?

Or is it just metaphorical?

Is it kind of an expression that points to some other idea?

Who?

Another question would be, who is being baptized, and why?

That’s just another way to say, are we really targeting corpses, or somebody else?

But if it’s the somebody else, there are even subcategories there.

The question would be, what’s going through the mind of that other person, the living person who is being baptized, in some way connecting that event with the dead?

What’s their motivation?

What do they think is happening?

Those are important questions.

ὑπέρ (hyper)

Thirdly, we have to think about, what are the semantics of ὑπέρ (hyper), this little Greek particle translated “on behalf of”?

Does ὑπέρ (hyper) mean “in the interest of,” like, I am going to do this so that someone else gets a benefit from it?

Does it mean “in the interest of”?

Does it mean “because of” (I am getting baptized because of what happened to somebody else)?

Does it mean “in place of” (I am being baptized in someone else’s place)?

So ὑπέρ (hyper), depending on the context, can mean all those things throughout the course of the nt.

The question is, what is Paul thinking about right here, in verse 29, when he uses this term?

Report or Endorsement?

Lastly, is Paul reporting something that is actually happening, or is he endorsing it?

In other words, does he mention this, and just—“Yeah, this is really going on, and I don’t really have a judgment one way or the other.

I am just saying, hey, you know, if you’re going to do this, it makes more sense to do it when you believe in the resurrection than if you don’t.”

Is he reporting it and not rendering a judgment, really?

Or is he perhaps endorsing the idea?

“If you’re going to do it, it’s a good idea, but you have to really have your resurrection theology down, because then it doesn’t make any sense.

If you’ve got your resurrection theology down, then yeah, baptism for the dead makes sense.”

Is that what he is doing?

Is he reporting or endorsing?

These are all interpretive questions that go into this one verse that have yielded a wide range of interpretations.

Considering Interpretive Options

• Describe how the metaphorical view interprets baptism for the dead

• Compare the inspiration view with the last-day-resurrection view

• Discuss the plausibility of both the deathbed-baptism view and the vicarious view

Introduction

We’re not going to go through all forty or so views of the baptism for the dead for the sake of our discussion.

What I’m going to do is, I am going to pull a few of the more common out and talk a little bit about them before I get to my own take on this.

The Metaphorical View

Let’s talk about the metaphorical view first.

This is an idea or an approach that says baptism for the dead is essentially code language for martyrdom.

It’s another way of saying “killed for the faith.”

If I referred to someone that he had been baptized for the dead, this view says, what you’re really saying is, they died for the faith.

It’s a metaphorical approach.

No literal baptism for a dead person (either baptizing a corpse, or somebody else being baptized on their behalf).

That’s not happening.

It’s just an expression, a metaphorical expression for martyrdom.

Those who take this view take as its cue phrases like being “baptized with fire.”

Obviously this isn’t literal; no one’s getting set on fire.

Even when we have the Spirit come in Acts—the cloven tongues of fire—nobody is burning up or getting blisters or anything like that.

It’s not a literalistic kind of event.

Certain scholars would look at a phrase like that (“baptized with fire”) and say we should approach baptism for the dead the same way—a metaphorical expression that refers to martyrdom.

The Inspirational View

A second view we could call the “inspirational view.”

This view is along these lines.

Some scholars say, “Well, when Paul talks about the baptism for the dead here, people are asking for baptism in the Corinthian church,” and this is what Paul is alluding to.

People are asking for baptism because they were inspired by the courage of some martyr that they had heard about.

In this case, the baptism is literally happening—someone is getting baptized with water—but they are getting baptized because they are inspired or prompted by the courage of someone who had died for their faith.

You would take a phrase like “baptism for the dead” and interpret it this way: “baptism because of those who have died.”

One of the criticisms of this is that some scholars feel this is a bit too sacramental, or it leads to a sacramental view of baptism.

In other words, if I am a person who doesn’t know the Lord, and I am going along in my life, and people are witnessing to me, and I see the courage or I hear about this amazing courage of someone who was martyred for their faith, it’s like, “Wow!

I am so impressed by that, I want to be baptized because of what they did and because I want what they had.

I want eternal life,” and so then they get baptized.