For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? or how do you know, O man, whether you shall save your wife?
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul says this because it is always possible that the unbelieving partner will come to believe if he or she does not detest the name of Christ. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? If we take the first meaning of "peace" given above, the sense will be: Live in peace as far as you can, O believer, with your unbelieving partner, for you know not the good that he may derive thence: perhaps by living with him you will convert him and save him. So Chrysostom, Ambrose, Anselm, Theophylact, and others, If we take the second meaning of peace, the sense will be still better. Peace is the gift of Christ; to this have we been called by Christ, not to unhappy and quarrelsome slavery. If, therefore, the unbeliever seeks by quarrels, abuse, by threats against the faith and against his faithful partner, to drive her away, let her depart and live peacefully, and give up all hope of his conversion. For what ground of hope is there of one that is a heathen, blasphemous, and quarrelsome? Therefore, what do you know, or whence do you hope to save him?
For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? This again refers to that expression, let her not leave him. That is, if he makes no disturbance, remain, says he, for there is even profit in this; remain and advise and give counsel and persuade. For no teacher will have such power to prevail (Reg. πεῖσαι . Bened. ἰσχὺσαι . ) as a wife. And neither, on one hand, does he lay any necessity upon her and absolutely demand the point of her, that he may not again do what would be too painful; nor, on the other, does he tell her to despair: but he leaves the matter in suspense through the uncertainty of the future, saying, For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband whether you shall save your wife?
