The Maccabees and 1 Corinthians 15:29

A Possible Clue to an Enigmatic Passage?

Few passages in the New Testament have generated as much debate and practical confusion as 1 Corinthians 15:29, with its cryptic reference to those ‘baptized for the dead.’ This enigmatic verse has puzzled interpreters of all kinds for centuries, leading to several competing explanations and occasionally inspiring unusual religious practices among some Christian communities. The passage stands as an interpretive challenge because Paul mentions this baptismal practice without clearly explaining it, likely assuming his original audience understood the reference.¹ Commentators have proposed numerous interpretations ranging from vicarious baptism for deceased unbaptized believers to metaphorical readings about identifying with martyrs. The verse appears at the end of Paul’s well-known passage about the resurrection, functioning as a rhetorical question with the intent of driving home the point he is making. That this is near the end of one of his most intense arguments only further highlights the frustration many readers have felt here.

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For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be eliminated is death. For he has put everything in subjection under his feet. But when it says “everything” has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him. And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them? (1 Corinthians 15:21-29)

What if, though, a clue was to be found, not in the Hebrew Bible, but a deuterocanonical book? Throughout the Second Temple period, belief in resurrection became increasingly widespread among Jews, likely influencing various practices related to honoring the dead. Historical and literary evidence indicates that Jews of this era performed purification washings for their deceased, rituals that was likely associated with resurrection hopes.² The Maccabean literature circulating during Paul’s time connected some of these actions to the 2nd-century BCE Jewish hero Judas Maccabee.

The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened as the result of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin. (2 Maccabees 12:42-45)³

In the account found in 2 Maccabees 12, Judas arranges for atonement of fallen soldiers who had committed idolatrous acts, with the text explicitly connecting his actions to the hope of their posthumous reconciliation and as an affirmation of future resurrection. The reasoning pattern employed by the Maccabean author - that such posthumous rituals would be pointless without resurrection - is notably similar to Paul’s rhetoric to the Corinthians.⁴ This contextual background provides at least some evidence that Paul may have been referencing practices his audience would have recognized, practices whose meaning depended entirely on the hope of a resurrection that formed the centerpiece of his theological argument.

2 Maccabees is also brought into conversation with 1 Corinthians because its language regarding resurrection reasonably fits with it.⁵ Views on resurrection and/or the afterlife were far from unified in the Second Temple period and 2 Maccabees presents a similar, direct view of bodily resurrection. While other texts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, late additions to 1 Enoch, and 2 Baruch often incorporate more Hellenistic features - ethereal afterlife concepts - 2 Maccabees generally does not. This similarity makes the Maccabean parallel a more interesting and perhaps more fruitful conversation partner with Paul.

Even with this background, understanding the cryptic reference remains challenging because Paul’s approach to the practice, unlike other theological matters where he writes more clearly, is to neither endorse nor condemn it. He simply points to it as something occurring among the Corinthians that to him implicitly affirmed resurrection beliefs. Considering its uniqueness in the context of the rest of the New Testament, the practice was likely limited to the Corinthian community rather than a universal Christian ritual.⁶ Still, given this, incorporating and comparing 2 Maccabees with Paul’s rhetoric may help shift the balance in the interpretive options available to readers.

1. Fitzmyer, Joseph A. First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (p. 578) Yale University Press, 2008

2. Ben Keshet, Hanoch 1 Cor. 15:29 and Taharat Hamet: Purification of the Dead as Proof of Resurrection? (pp. 1-19) Kesher, A Journal of Messianic Judaism, 2015

3. https://intertextual.bible/text/2-maccabees-12.44-1-corinthians-15.29

4. Sigvartsen, Jan A. The Afterlife Views and the Use of the Tanakh in Support of the Resurrection Concept in the Literature of Second Temple Period Judaism: The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha (p. 38) Andrews University, 2016

5. Kim, Doosuk The Intertextuality of Paul’s Apocalyptic Discourse: An Examination of Its Cultural Relation and Heteroglossia (p. 104) Brill, 2023

6. Fitzmyer, Joseph A. First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (p. 578) Yale University Press, 2008