Baptism for the dead

Baptism for the dead is mentioned only once in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 15:29: Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? Paul's use of the practice is rhetorical rather than prescriptive — he invokes it as evidence that even those who denied the resurrection implicitly acted as if the dead could benefit from the rites of the living. He does not endorse or explain the practice but uses it as an ad hominem argument for the resurrection.

The interpretation of the verse is among the most disputed in the Pauline letters, with over two hundred proposed explanations in the scholarly literature. The most common readings include: baptism performed vicariously on behalf of deceased catechumens who died before receiving it; baptism performed in the hope of reunion with deceased believers; or baptism performed as a symbolic identification with the death and resurrection of Christ that would be meaningless without an actual resurrection. The practice itself, whatever its precise form, does not appear elsewhere in the New Testament, and the mainstream Christian tradition has not adopted it as a legitimate rite.