Baptism for the dead

Baptism for the dead is mentioned in (1 Corinthians 15:29) as proof of a physical resurrection, though the exact meaning of the phrase is an open question among scholars.

[1] Early heresiologists Epiphanius of Salamis (Panarion 28) and Chrysostom (Homilies 40) attributed the practice respectively to the Cerinthians and to the Marcionites, whom they identified as heretical "Gnostic" groups, while Ambrosiaster and Tertullian affirmed that the practice was legitimate and found among the New Testament Christians (though Tertullian later recanted his original beliefs in his later life as he became associated with Montanism).

Latter-day Saint scholar John A. Tvedtnes says: "Baptism for the dead was performed by the dominant church until forbidden by the sixth canon of the Council of Carthage (397).

"[4] Epiphanius of Salamis (between 310 and 320 – 403) reported that he had heard it said that, among followers of Cerinthus, if one of them died before baptism, another was baptized in that person's name: For their school reached its height in this country, I mean Asia, and in Galatia as well.

And in these countries I also heard of a tradition which said that when some of their people died too soon, without baptism, others would be baptized for them in their names, so that they would not be punished for rising unbaptized at the resurrection and become the subjects of the authority that made the world.

[9] In the New Testament only, the verb baptizein can also relate to the neuter noun baptisma "baptism", a neologism unknown in the Septuagint and other pre-Christian Jewish texts.

[12] During the Second Temple and early Rabbinical period the regulations on "ritual washing" (Greek masculine noun baptismos) expanded and multiplied.

This is documented in the Halakhah Tractate Yadayim[13] and Dead Sea Scrolls[14] Peter Leithart (2007) suggests that Paul's comment "why do they.." is an analogy between baptism (i.e. neuter concept noun baptisma) with Jewish ritual washing (i.e. masculine concrete noun baptismos) for contact with the dead following the Mosaic regulations in Numbers 19.

"[17] Tertullian much later, however, (around the time that he begins to display Montanist influences), reinterprets the Corinthians passage and argues, instead, against baptisms performed for the dead.

[20] In this interpretation, the phrase is closely linked with what Paul says immediately afterwards[21] of the suffering that he himself faces and is enabled to endure precisely because of his faith in his resurrection.

Martin Luther regarded it as a practice of being baptized above (the first of the meanings of the preposition ὑπέρ, generally translated in this passage as for)[24] the tombs of the dead.

[26] The note in the Catholic New American Bible is more cautious: "Baptized for the dead: this practice is not further explained here, nor is it necessarily mentioned with approval, but Paul cites it as something in their experience that attests in one more way to belief in the resurrection.

[33] Historically, only adult male holders of the Melchizedek priesthood who had undergone the endowment ordinance were permitted to baptize others as proxies for the dead.

In 2018, this policy was changed to allow boys who hold the Aaronic priesthood office of priest, generally between 15 and 18 years old, to also officiate in baptisms for the dead.

[34] According to the Latter-day Saint doctrine, the practice of baptism for the dead is based on a revelation received by the prophet Joseph Smith.

[35] In a letter written on October 19, 1840, to the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (who were on a mission in the United Kingdom at the time), Smith refers to the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:29 (KJV): I presume the doctrine of 'baptism for the dead' has ere this reached your ears, and may have raised some inquiries in your minds respecting the same.

As a part of these efforts, Latter-day Saints have performed temple ordinances on behalf of a number of high-profile people, including the Founding Fathers of the United States,[45][46][47] U.S. Presidents,[45] most Catholic popes,[48][49] John Wesley,[45] Christopher Columbus,[45] Adolf Hitler,[48] Joan of Arc,[48] Genghis Khan,[48] Joseph Stalin,[48] and Gautama Buddha.

D. Todd Christofferson of the church's Presidency of the Seventy stated that removing the names is an "ongoing, labor intensive process requiring name-by-name research ....

In December 2002, independent researcher Helen Radkey published a report showing that, following a 1995 promise from the church to remove Jewish Holocaust victims from its International Genealogical Index, the church's database included the names of about 19,000 who had a 40 to 50 percent chance "to be Holocaust victims ... in Russia, Poland, France, and Austria.

"[79][80] Genealogist Bernard Kouchel searched the International Genealogical Index, and discovered that many well known Jews had been vicariously baptized, including Maimonides, Albert Einstein, and Irving Berlin, without family permission.

[83] Jewish groups, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, spoke out against the vicarious baptism of Holocaust perpetrators and victims in the mid-1990s and again in the 2000s when they discovered the practice, which they consider insensitive to the living and the dead, was continuing.

[84][85] The associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Abraham Cooper, complained that infamous figures such as Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun appeared on genealogical records: "Whether official or not, the fact remains that this is exactly the kind of activity that enraged and hurt, really, so many victims of the Holocaust and caused alarm in the Jewish community.

Speaking on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Ernest Michel, a Holocaust survivor who reported on the Nuremberg Trials, speaking as the honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, called on the Church to "implement a mechanism to undo what [they] have done", and declared that the Church had repeatedly violated their agreements, and that talks with Latter-day Saint leaders were now ended.

LDS Church officials stated in 2008 that a new version of the FamilySearch application had been developed and was being implemented in an effort to prevent the submission of Holocaust victim names for temple ordinances.

In February 2012, the issue re-emerged after it was found that the parents of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal were added to the genealogical database.

[91] Shortly afterward, news stories announced that Anne Frank had been baptized by proxy for the ninth time, at the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple.