Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what partnership has light with darkness?
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 6:14 Go To 2 Corinthians 6
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Do not have so close fellowship with them in matters of religion as to be gradually led away to share in their unbelief, as, e.g, in marriage. Separate yourselves from the unbelievers" assemblies, temples, sacrifices, feasts; do not intermarry with them, for all commerce with them is either wicked and unrighteous in itself, or is dangerous to those who hold it, and a cause of offence to others. Do not imitate the Jews, whose laxity is recorded in PS. cvi35 (Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theophylact). S. Jerome (contra Jovin. lib. i.) understands S. Paul to warn against intermarriage with unbelievers. There seems to be an allusion to Ps. cvi28 , "They joined themselves unto Baal-peor," which refers to the fornication committed by the Israelites in honour of Baal-peor. Song of Solomon , whoever marries with an unbeliever may be said to join himself to Baal-peor, i.e, the devil, the ruler of unbelievers. Anselm again supposes that by "unbelievers" is meant the Judaising false apostles, who were attempting to eviscerate the faith of Christ by making the ceremonies of the law of Moses binding on Christians. Such men are more dangerous to Christians, and more to be shunned than unbelieving Gentiles, and therefore S. Paul warns his readers against them. This sense is good but defective, for the Apostle wishes the fellowship of all unbelievers whatsoever to be avoided
The Apostle is here passing on, as is usual in letters, to discuss another point of importance just then to the Corinthians, viz, the duty of avoiding unbelievers. It is in vain, therefore, for any one to seek for connecting links with what has gone before.
Erasmus observes that the Latin version is happy in its translation here; it renders the passage: "Do not be joined in the same yoke with unbelievers." For if a Christian marry a heathen wife, or a Christian magistrate have a Gentile as colleague, he is called ÎτεÏοζυγω̃ν. Marriages of this kind S. Jerome calls unequal.
Observe upon this that ÎτεÏος signifies sometimes one of two, sometimes an object that is diverse, whether from some one other or from several others. Thus the word occurs in a compound word, to denote one who lacks an eye, and again to denote one who is of a different opinion (ÎτεÏοφθάλμος and ÎτεÏόδοξος). And hence it is uncertain whether S. Paul here means one who bears one-half of a yoke, or one who bears a yoke in company with one of a different condition.
Budus takes the former of these two, and understands S. Paul to exhort the Corinthians not to bear one part of a yoke with unbelievers, just as in Campania two oxen bear the same yoke, one on each side.
Others more properly take the latter meaning, and understand the warning to be against such an alliance as that of an ox and an ass would be in the same yoke (Deut. xxii10). This interpretation is rendered more probable from the words that follow—"what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?"
Theophylact again thinks that the warning is against accommodating one"s principles to those of our partner in wedlock. He says that the allusion here is not to a yoke but to the beam of a balance, and one especially that is unequally weighted, so that one side is lower than the other. We are not to be like such a balance, and lean towards an unrighteous or unbelieving partner.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteous? The just with the unjust, believers with unbelievers.
It was hard for the Corinthians, while Christians were so few, to be forbidden to have commerce and intermarriage with unbelievers. Many amongst them would find a difficulty in obtaining partners of equal rank, or wealth, or position; and hence they would either be obliged to abstain from marriage, or else marry an inferior. Moreover, by natural and Divine law there was nothing simply and absolutely to prohibit them from allying themselves with unbelievers; still such alliance would be unbecoming and full of danger, and hence it is forbidden by the Apostle. But to reconcile them to so severe a precept he puts before them five contrasts drawn from the inherent opposition between Christianity and heathenism.
(1.) Unequal wedlock is a heavy yoke, burdensome to both parties, even as it would be if a horse and an ox were yoked together. (2.) Light and darkness cannot cohere in the same subject or be in the same place at once; therefore one of the faithful, who has the light of faith, cannot well enter into the same yoke with one who is full of the darkness of unbelief. (3.) There is no concord between Christ and Belial: believers belong to Christ, unbelievers to Belial; therefore they cannot agree. (4.) The believer has no part or communion with the unbeliever, but differs from him as widely as belief from unbelief, heaven from hell; therefore they cannot be joined together. (5.) The temple of God cannot be associated with the idols and temples of devils; neither, therefore, can a believer with an unbeliever. For each of the faithful is a temple of God, and the unbeliever is a temple and image of the devil.
