1 Corinthians 15:29

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:20-34

In this passage the apostle establishes the truth of the resurrection of the dead, the holy dead, the dead in Christ, I. On the resurrection of Christ. 1. Because he is indeed the first-fruits of those that slept, 1 Cor. 15:20. He has truly risen himself, and he has risen in this very quality and character, as the first-fruits of those who sleep in him. As he has assuredly risen, so in his resurrection there is as much an earnest given that the dead in him shall rise as there was that the... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:1-58

1 Corinthians 15:1-58 is both one of the greatest and one of the most difficult chapters in the New Testament. Not only is it in itself difficult, but it has also given to the creed a phrase which many people have grave difficulty in affirming, for it is from this chapter that we mainly derive the idea of the resurrection of the body. The chapter will be far less difficult if we study it against its background, and even that troublesome phrase will become quite clear and acceptable when we... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:29

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead ,.... The apostle here returns to his subject, and makes use of new arguments to prove the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and reasons for it from the baptism of some persons; but what is his sense, is not easy to be understood, or what rite and custom, or thing, or action he refers to; which must, be either Jewish baptism, or Christian baptism literally taken, or baptism in a figurative and metaphorical sense. Some think that... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:29

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead - This is certainly the most difficult verse in the New Testament; for, notwithstanding the greatest and wisest men have labored to explain it, there are to this day nearly as many different interpretations of it as there are interpreters. I shall not employ my time, nor that of my reader, with a vast number of discordant and conflicting opinions; I shall make a few remarks: The doctrine of the resurrection of our Lord was a grand... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:29

Verse 29 29.Else what shall they do He resumes his enumeration of the absurdities, which follow from the error under which the Corinthians labored. He had set himself in the outset to do this, but he introduced instruction and consolation, by means of which he interrupted in some degree the thread of his discourse. To this he now returns. In the first place he brings forward this objection — that the baptism which those received who are already regarded as dead, will be of no avail if there is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:1-58

The doctrine of the resurrection. This chapter, and the thirteenth, on Christian love, stand out, even among the writings of St. Paul, as pre-eminently beautiful and important. No human words ever written have brought such comfort to millions of mourners as the words of this chapter, which form a part of the Burial Service of almost every Christian community. It is the more deeply imprinted on the memory of men because it comes to us in the most solemn hours of bereavement, when we have... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:1-58

The exposition and defence of the resurrection. This chapter stands, as it were, by itself in the Epistle, and indeed in the Scripture. The Gospels relate the fact of our Saviour's rising from the dead; but St. Paul in this passage, remarkable alike for closeness of reasoning, for fervent of eloquence, and for elevation of spiritual treatment, writes as the theologian of the resurrection. In opposition to false teachers who had arisen in the Corinthian Church, the apostle maintains the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Denying the resurrection from the dead, and what the denial involves. Some of these Corinthian Christians denied that there would be a literal resurrection. They understood little or nothing of the idea of the body, of its uses intellectually and morally regarded, and of its partnership with the soul in all that concerned present probation and future reward. What had Grecian philosophy taught them? That the body was the seat of evil. What had Grecian art taught them? To admire the body for... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:29

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, etc.? This clause can have but one meaning, and that its obvious one, namely, that, among the many strange opinions and practices which then prevailed, was one which was entirely un-warranted-but which St. Paul does not hero stop to examine—of persons getting themselves baptized as it were by proxy for others who had died. Doubtless some of the deaths alluded to in 1 Corinthians 11:30 had happened to persons who had been cut off... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:29

The Church world. "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?" etc. There is a Church world—a world inside, the general world of mankind, and in many respects distinct from it; a community of men whose principles, spirit, aim, character, and destiny distinguish them from every other class of human society. They are called a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. They are united to each other as stones in one... read more

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