2nd Corinthians Chapter 6 verse 16 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - What agreement. The word means "unity of composition." This is the fifth synonym which St. Paul has used in this clause - μετοχὴ κοινωνία συμφώνησις, μερὶς συγκατάθεσις. The verb συγκατάθημι occurs in Luke 23:51. St. Paul in this chapter shows an almost unwonted command over the Greek language. With idols (Matthew 6:24; 1 John 5:21). Ye. "We" is the reading of א, B, D, L. Ewald, without sufficient ground, makes it one of his arguments for regarding this section as interpolated (comp. 2 Corinthians 5:21). Are the temple of the living God. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every Christian heart, which is the distinguishing result of the new covenant, was very prominent in the thoughts of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:21, 22; 1 Timothy 3:15; comp. 1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 3:6). As God hath said. The quotation is altered slightly from the LXX. of Leviticus 26:12. But in this and the next verses we have "a mosaic of citations" from this passage and Exodus 29:45; Isaiah 53:11; Ezekiel 20:34; 2 Samuel 7:14; comp. Jeremiah 31:9; Isaiah 43:6. This mode of compressing the essence of various quotations into one passage was common among the rabbis. In them. In the original Hebrew this means "among them" (Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:12). since the indwelling of God by his Holy Spirit belongs only to the new covenant.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?--Here we see clearly the drift of the Apostle's thoughts. His mind travels back to the controversy about things sacrificed to idols. Was there not a risk that what he had said about "width" and "expansion" of feeling would be perverted by those who claimed the right to sit at an idol's feast even in the precincts of the idol's temple (1Corinthians 8:10)? Against that perversion he thinks it necessary to enter his protest. And the ground of that protest is that they, collectively and individually (1Corinthians 3:16; 1Corinthians 6:19), are the temples of God, and that there can be no "agreement" between that temple and one dedicated to an idol. The word translated "agreement" expresses, like the English, a compact or treaty of alliance. In modern phrase, a concordat between the two antagonistic systems was an impossibility.I will dwell in them, and walk in them.--The citation which follows is, like many others in St. Paul's writings, a composite one: Leviticus 26:12 giving, "I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people;" and Exodus 29:45, "I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God." The implied premise is that wherever God dwells there is His temple. The word indicates the "sanctuary," or holiest part of the temple. (See Note on John 2:19.) . . .