I. i Hshausen's interpretation is of a rather doubtful oh ir act r. The meaning of the passage he takes to be, that "all who are converted to the church arc b iptiz 'A for ih<> good of the dead, as it requires a cer- t till number ( Rom, xi, 12-25), a 'fulness' of believers, before the resurrection can take place. Every one, therefore, who is baptized is for the good of believers collectively, and of those who have already died in the Lord." Olshausen is himself aware that the apostle could not have expected that such a difficult and re- mol ' id,-.,, which he himself calls "a mystery." would be understood by his readers without a further ex- planation and development of his doctrine. He there- fore proposes an explanation, in which it is argued tint tic miseries and hardships Christians have to 'Struggle againsl in this life can only be compensated by resurrection. Death causes, as it were, vacancies in the full ranks of the believers, which are again fill- ed up by othe,- individuals. » What would it profit those who ore baptized in the plqce of the dead (to fill up their place in the community) if there be no resur- rection ?"— Kitto, o. v.
■'>• ■N"1 f these explanations, however, well suits
t:. ■ signification of f,mp, "for," i. e. in behu'fof, on
' I • ' lie -ame tine-, consistent in other
Dr. Tregelles | Printed '/'- H of the Gr. Test.
p. 216) has proposed a slight e ndation of the text
that opp tie- difficulty almost entirely.
It consists simply in the following punctuation : " Elso what shall they do which are baptized? [It is] for the dead, if the dead rise not at all," i. e. we are bap- tized merely in the name of (for the sake of, out of re- gard to) dead persons, namely, Christ and the proph- ets who testified of him. This interpretation renders No. 3 above more easy of adoption.
Treatises entitled De bqptismo imp riov vucntZv have been written by Schmidt (Argent. 1C5G), Calon (Viteb. 1C84), Deutsch (Kegiom. 1G'J8), Grade (Gryph. lG'JO), Hastcus (Brem. 1725), Milller (Host. 1665), Ole- arius (Lips. 1704), Reichmann (Viteb. 1652), Schenck (Franeq. 1667), Zeutschner (Fcft. a. V. 170G), Facius (Col. 17!>2), Neumann (Jen. 1740), Nobling (Sus. 1784), Kichter (Zwic. 180;?), Heumann (Isen. 1710, Jen. 1740), Streccius (Jen. 1730).
BAPTISM OF THE DEAD, a superstitious custom which anciently prevailed among the people in Africa of baptizing the dead. The third council of Carthage (canon vi) speaks of it as a matter of which ignorant Christians were fond, and forbids " to believe that the dead can be. baptized." Gregory Nazianzen also ob- serves that the same superstitious opinion prevailed among some who delayed to be baptized, it is also mentioned by Philastrius (De Uteres, cap. 2) as the \ general error of the Montanists or Cataphrygians, that they baptized men after death. The practice seems to be founded on a vain opinion that when men had ne :- lected to receive baptism during their life, some com- pensation might be made for this default by receiving I it after death. Sec Burton, Bampton Lectures, art. 78 ; Bingham, Oriq. Keel. bk. xi, ch. iv, § 3.
BAPTISM' OF FIRE. The words of John the Baptist (Matt, iii, 11), " He that cometh after me sh .11 baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire," have I given occasion to various interpretations. Soma of j the fathers (e. g. John Damascenus) hold it to mean i the everlasting fire of hell. Others of the fathers (as j Chrj'sostom, Horn. 11 in Matt.') declare that by fire in ; this passage the Baptist means the Holy Spirit, who, I as fire, should destroy the pollutions of sin in the re- generation conferred by holy baptism. Others again, I as Hilary and Ambrose, as well as Origen, believe it to mean a purifying fire through which the faithful shall pass before entering Paradise, thus giving rise to the Romish doctrine of purgatory. Others think that it means the fire of tribulations and sorrows; oth- ers, the abundance of graces; others, the fire of peni- tence and self-mortification, etc. (Suicer, Thesaurus, p. 629). Some old heretics, as the Seleucians and Her. mians, understood the passage literally, and maintain- ed that material fire was necessary in the adminis- tration of baptism ; but we are not told either how, or to what part of the body they applied it, or whether they obliged the baptized to pass through or over the flames. Valentinus rebaptized those who had received baptism out of his sect, and drew them through the fire ; and Heraclion, who is cited by Clemens Alex- andrinus, says that some applied a red-hot iron to the ears of the baptized, as if to impress on them some mark.
The simplest and most natural view is that the pas- sage is not to be interpreted of any separate form of baptism from that "with the Holy Ghost;" but the expression "with fire" is epexegetical, or explanatory of the words "with the Holy Ghost." Such a mode 1 of expression, in which the connecting particle and j only introduces an amplification of the former idea, is very common in the Scriptures. The sense will there- fore be, " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, through the outward symbol of fire," viz. the "cloven