1 Corinthians 15:29

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:29-34

Arguments from the practices and lives of Christians. The three arguments used in these verses are: If there be no resurrection: 1. Why do some of you get yourselves baptized on behalf of your dead friends? 2. Why do we face lives of daily peril? 3. How would it be otherwise possible to resist Epicurean views of life? read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:29-34

Some things float follow upon the denial of the resurrection. I. THE FOLLY OF SELF DENIAL AND SUFFERING FOR CHRISTIANITY . These must be branded as imbecile; yet they have ever seemed most sublime. But if there be no resurrection (the resurrection of the body being vital to the gospel and all its hopes, as Paul has shown in preceding verses of this chapter), the argument for such conduct fails. Why order one's life for a future which will never be realized? Why suffer for... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:29

Else what shall they do ... - The apostle here resumes the argument for the resurrection which was interrupted at 1 Corinthians 15:19. He goes on to state further consequences which must follow from the denial of this doctrine, and thence infers that the doctrine must be true. There is, perhaps, no passage of the New Testament in respect to which there has been a greater variety of interpretation than this; and the views of expositors now by no means harmonize in regard to its meaning. It is... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - 1 Corinthians 15:29-30

1 Corinthians 15:29-30. Else, or otherwise, what shall they do What will become of them? what shall they do to repair their loss, who are exposed to great sufferings in consequence of being baptized for the dead That is, say some, “In token of their embracing the Christian faith in the room of the dead, who are just fallen in the cause of Christ, but are yet supported by a succession of new converts, who immediately offer themselves to fill up their places, as ranks of soldiers that... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:29-34

A source of encouragement (15:29-34)It seems that another strange practice the church in Corinth had introduced was that of baptizing people on behalf of those who had died unbaptized. Paul does not stop to discuss whether this was a desirable practice; he simply asks what meaning can it have if there is no future resurrection? If people do not believe in the resurrection but practise baptism for the dead, they are demonstrating something they do not believe in (29).There are no doubts about... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - 1 Corinthians 15:29

baptized, &c . See 1 Corinthians 15:20 . This question follows on from 1 Corinthians 15:19 . baptized = being baptized. the dead. App-139 . why are they, &c . Read, why are they baptized also? (It is) for the dead. It is to remain dead, as Christ remains, if there be no resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:13 . The argument is, What is the use of being baptized, if it is only to remain dead? No suggestion here of the vicarious baptism which sprang up later among the Marcionites and... read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:29

Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?This is branded by many as a very difficult verse; but the proper regard of the third person plural pronouns in this verse makes it easy. Paul here used an "argumentum ad hominem", that is, an argument based upon what people were doing, indicating clearly enough that some persons known to the Corinthians were practicing a baptism for the benefit of the dead; but the one... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:29

1 Corinthians 15:29. Else what shall they do, &c.— "Such are our views and hopes, as Christians; else, if it were not so, what should they do who are baptized in token of their embracing the Christian faith in the room of the dead, who are just fallen in the cause of Christ, but whose places are filled up by a succession of new converts, who immediately offer themselves to succeed them, as ranks of soldiers that advance to the combat in the room of their companions,who have just been slain... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:29

29. Else—if there be no resurrection. what shall they do?—How wretched is their lot! they . . . which are baptized for the dead—third person; a class distinct from that in which the apostle places himself, "we" ( :-); first person. ALFORD thinks there is an allusion to a practice at Corinth of baptizing a living person in behalf of a friend who died unbaptized; thus Paul, without giving the least sanction to the practice, uses an ad hominem argument from it against its practicers, some of whom,... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 1 Corinthians 15:12-34

2. The certainty of resurrection 15:12-34In the preceding paragraph Paul firmly established that the gospel the Corinthians had believed contained the fact that God had raised Jesus Christ bodily, along with other equally crucial facts. Next he proceeded to show the consequences of rejecting belief in the resurrection of the body."Paul uses reductio ad absurdum: if there is no resurrection (i.e., of believers in the future), then Jesus did not rise (1 Corinthians 15:12-13), a point on which he... read more

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