By the late Rev. JOHN BROWN, D.D.*
“Else how shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?” (I. Cor. xv. 29). THE most remarkable of the expressions in the paragraph occurs in its very commencement. “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?” It is always advantageous, in inquiring into the meaning of an obscure and difficult passage, to see clearly, if possible, where the obscurity and difficulty lies. Were we to leave out the three words “for the dead,” which occur twice in the passage, the difficulty would disappear. “Otherwise, what shall they who are baptized do? If the dead rise not at all, why are they baptized?” These words afford a very distinct and a very appropriate meaning. “Why do men embrace Christianity, and make a public profession of it by being baptized, in consequence of which they lose much, risk more, and gain nothing with regard to this world or the next either, if there be no resurrection of the dead?” . . .
The interpretation which appears to me to have the greatest recommendations, and the fewest and smallest drawbacks, is that which renders “for the dead,”—”in the place of the dead,” and which considers those baptized in the place of the dead as descriptive of those who, notwithstanding the persecutions even to death, that Christians were exposed to, were continually coming forward to the baptismal font to take, as it were, the
oath of allegiance to Him who is both Lord and Christ, and to assume the places in the ranks of his “sacramental host” which death, sometimes violent death, had made vacant. This offers no violence to the language, the particle translated “for” often signifying “in the place of”: e.g., Philem. 13, “That in thy stead”—the same word as here—”he might have ministered to me”; II. Cor. v. 20, “We pray you in Christ’s stead”—the same word as here. It embodies a true, a striking, an appropriate sentiment. “Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized in the place of those who have died—died in the faith of Christ—died for the faith of Christ; who have, in the face of all the sacrifices to be made, all the hardships to be endured, all the losses to be sustained, all the disgrace to be incurred, all the hazards to be braved, come forward, and at the baptismal font proclaimed their readiness to fill up the empty places in the army of Christ, and to live and die in his service.”
What will these men do? Will they, ought they, to persevere, if there be no resurrection of the dead? Is it right that they should make such sacrifices for vanity and a lie? “Why are they then baptized for the dead,” if the dead rise not? Is not their conduct utterly unaccountable and absurd? and is there any satisfactory answer to the question, “Why are they then baptized for the dead?” but this: “They know that the dead in the Lord are blessed, and they are willing, like them, to die, in order to being blessed, like them, in attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
And as this sentiment is in itself appropriate, it is just what suits the place in the Apostle’s animated address. You have a gradation, thus: If there be no resurrection, what an unaccountable part are the converts to Christianity acting, who are pressing forward to take the place of the dead—even of the dead who have died for Christ! What an unaccountable part are we apostles acting, who are in jeopardy every hour! What an unaccountable part am I, Paul, acting, who “die daily,” and “after the manner of men have fought with beasts at Ephesus!”
* From his book The Resurrection of Life, p. 198.