31.What is the meaning of verse twenty-nine? .

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Nowhere in his writings does Paul advocate being baptized on behalf of people who have died; so we cannot agree that living believers should be baptized for dead people. This would not fit the meaning of water baptism, as presented in the sixth chapter of Romans.

We have never found a satisfying explanation of this verse. The Greek text seems to indicate that living people were being baptized on behalf of dead people.

The only explanation that has come to us is that Paul was referring to a custom—possibly Gentile—existing in Corinth at the time. Paul did not object to using pagan practices in order to prove his point.

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring (Acts 17:28).

In proving his point about the folly of idolatry, when addressing the idolatrous Athenians, Paul reminded them of what one of their own poets had said.

Perhaps the Greeks, who were always ready for something new, had started baptizing living people on behalf of loved ones who had died without the opportunity to be baptized. It would have been characteristic of the overconfident Corinthians to produce such an innovation.

If such were the case, Paul was saying to them: "If you do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, why are you baptizing people on behalf of dead people, if the dead are not raised?"

Paul was not approving the practice. He merely was pointing out to them the inconsistency of their belief and practice, just as was true of the Athenian Greeks concerning their worship of many gods.