Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Corinthians 6:16

ἡμεῖς … ἐσμέν (אBDLP, Copt. Aeth.) rather than ὑμεῖς … ἐστέ (א3CD3FGK, Vulg. Arm. Syrr.). Comp. 2 Corinthians 7:12; 2 Corinthians 8:8; 2 Corinthians 8:19 for similar confusion between ἡμεῖς and ὑμεῖς.

16. τίς δὲ συνκατάθεσια ναῷ θεοῦ μετὰ εἰδώλων; The same construction as in the preceding question: What agreement is there for a sanctuary of God with idols? Συνκατάθεσις occurs nowhere else in Biblical Greek; but we have the verb Luke 23:51; Exodus 23:1; Exodus 23:32. It perhaps refers to depositing a vote with the votes of others and thus giving assent, in which sense it occurs in Polybius.

ἡμεῖς γὰρ ναὸς θεοῦ ἐσμὲν ζῶντος. See critical note. For we are a sanctuary of the living God. It is the community rather than the individual that is a sanctuary of God; but the same is true of the individual also (1 Corinthians 6:19). The emphasis is on ἡμεῖς, ‘we Christians’; and ζῶντος, emphatic by position, is in marked contrast to dead idols (1 Thessalonians 1:9; Acts 14:15). Just as the presence of idols pollutes the sanctuary, so the Christian community is polluted by beliefs and acts which savour of idolatry. Vos estis in quorum cordibus habitat et praesidet Deus, qui in se vivens est, et vitam suis dat aeternam; sicut e contrario idola sunt mortua suis cultoribus, qui eis sunt causa mortis aeternae (Herveius Burgidol.). As a metaphor for the Divine indwelling, the ναός, which contained the Holy of Holies, is more suitable than ἱερόν, which included the whole sacred enclosure: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:21. Converts from heathenism would understand the metaphor, for ναός to them would suggest the cella or shrine in which the image of the god was placed. The quotation is from the LXX. of Leviticus 26:12, with perhaps some recollection of Ezekiel 37:27 : but ἐνοικησω ἐν αὐτοῖς is in neither passage, nor in any part of the O.T., although ἔσται ἡ κατασκήνωσίς μου ἐν αὐτοῖς (l.c.) seems to be nearly equivalent. But there is wide difference between ‘walk among them,’ or ‘tabernacle among them,’ and ‘dwell in them.’ It is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Corinthians 6:16

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