Understanding what the Apostle Paul wrote in the above passage is a perplexing and annoying riddle for many students of the Bible. It has also been a source of some consternation for much of church history. As one author wrote, “To date no satisfactory explanation of the practice described in...

For several years I had the privilege of serving as a hospice chaplain. Hospice is a program that provides comfort and care to those who are facing death by attending to their medical, emotional, and spiritual needs. One of our hospice nurses was also a member of the local Chevra Kadisha or ...

  Not originally found in English, the word baptism was borrowed by transliteration from the Greek noun baptisma, meaning “immersion or dipping.” The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Septuagint, translates the Hebrew tabal (“to dip”) with the Greek verb baptizo (“to immerse”)....

Long before Jesus gave the command to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”—even before John the Baptist came “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”—the Jews practiced baptism or immersion[i] as a religious cleansing for many reasons:...

The final matter is admittedly the most difficult one. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and even a quick comparison of various Bible translations will show that 15:29 has been consistently translated in the passive voice, suggesting that people were indeed being baptized for...

  One could dismiss this as a new or unique interpretation of 15:29, but the connection to the practice of Taharah has been considered in the past, without being fully explored. Bernard Foschini states that: “This …opinion originated with Theod. Beza who in his commentary on the New...

  Bibliography  - Ferguson, Everett. Baptism in the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009 - Foschini,Bernard. Those Who Are Baptized for the Dead, 1 Cor 15:29, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 3-4, vol. 13, no. 1-3, 1950, 1951 - Hull, Michael. Baptism on Account of the...