1 Cor 15:29?

[GenJesus]

Sometime ago I asked a Mormon about Christians who died, before Joseph Smith. My friend gets into "baptism of the dead". Another Mormon friend says that doctine is biblical in 1 Cor 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?" What's really going on here?

 

[Chuckt]

Fourth, Paul was using the logical argument form known as argumentum ad hominem—an argument based upon what men were doing at that time and with which the readers would be familiar. The Corinthians were familiar with people who practiced an immersion for the benefit of the dead. He used the third person pronoun “they” as opposed to “you” or “we.” New Testament baptism would have been referred to in the first or second person. This tactic of referring to what outsiders were doing (without implying endorsement) to make a valid spiritual point was used by Paul on other occasions (e.g., Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12).

https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=439

Paul used this example from the pagans in 1 Cor. 15:29, when he said, " . . . if the dead are not raised, then why are they baptized for the dead?" Paul did not say we.2
This is significant because the Christian church was not practicing baptism for the dead, but the pagans were.

https://carm.org/baptism-for-the-dead-in-1-corinthians-15-29