Paul’s “baptism for the dead” language in I Corinthians 15:29 has been the source of enormous headache for exegetes. Gordon Fee does a superb job in elaborating the different possibilities. He concurs that the most natural textual reading implies that “some Corinthians are being baptized, apparently vicariously, in behalf of some people who have already died” (764). The problem with this is that there is no biblical or historical precedent for this, and further, that “there is no known practices in any of the other churches nor in any orthodox Christian community in the centuries that immediately follow; nor are there parallels or precedents in pagan religion.”
Fee’s conclusion is a humble one at the end of his lengthy analysis: “But finally we must admit that we simply do not know” (767). Whatever the conclusion one may reach, it is clear that Paul saw this as “highest expression of absurdity.”
