1 Corinthians 15:29 represents a category of Scripture that I often call “Passover Passages.” These are the difficult and uncomfortable passages that trouble people so much that they are tempted to simply “pass over” them without taking the time to fully understand them or apply them to life. For...

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 “Holy...

The search for an answer begins with the word baptism itself. Not originally found in English, the word was borrowed by a process of transliteration from the Greek noun baptisma, meaning “immersion or dipping.” The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Septuagint, translates the Hebrew...

From long before Jesus gave the command to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)—even before John the Baptist came “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4)—the Jews have used baptism or immersion1 for many...

The final matter that needs to be considered is that 15:29 has usually been translated to indicate that people were being baptized for the dead. But if this was a reference to something like the ritual of Taharah, should it not say that they were doing baptisms (ritual cleansings) for the dead?  ...

It would be easy to dismiss this as a new or unique interpretation of 15:29, but the connection to the practice of Taharah is one that has sometimes been considered in the past, without being fully explored. Bernard Foschini states that: “This …opinion originated with Theod. Beza who in his...

  Bibliography  DeMaris, Richard. Corinthian Religion and Baptism for the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29): Insights from Archaeology and Anthropology, Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 114, no. 4, 1995 Ferguson, Everett. Baptism in the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009 ...