2 Corinthians 6:15

And what concord hath Christ with Belial?.... The word "Belial" is an Hebrew word, and is only used in this place in the New Testament, but often in the Old; this word is differently read and

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Belial. So B g, Vulgate.

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? By Belial, in this text, very good interpreters understand the devil; judging that the apostle here opposeth Christ, who is the Head of Believers and of the church, to him who is the head of all unbelievers, and the god of the world. The term is used only in this place in the New Testament, but very often in the Old Testament, to express men notoriously wicked and scandalous, 2:12 25:17 . The Hebrews themselves are not agreed in the etymology of it; , a wicked thing is called a thing of Belial (as may be seen in the margin of our bibles); so as the argument is drawn from our duty of conformity to our Head; Christ hath no fellowship with the devil, therefore we ought to have no unnecessary communion with such who manifest themselves to be of their father the devil, by their doing his works; nor hath Christ any communion with the sons of Belial. Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What part or portion, that is, what society or communion, hath a believer with one that beheveth not? What hath he to do with him? It was a usual phrase amongst the Jews, ,27. Some by this part understand, what portion in the life to come? In which sense it teacheth us, that we should maintain intimate and elective communion in this life only with such as we would gladly have our portion with in another life. But the most judicious interpreters think this is not intended in this place.

15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Ver. 15. What concord hath Christ] Those moderators that plead for a correspondence with Popery, would make a pretty show if there were no Bible. But if these reconcilers (as Franciscus de Sancta Clara, and his adherents) were the wisest men under heaven, and should live to the world’ s end, they would be brought to their wits’ end before they could accomplish this work’ s end, to make a reconciliation between Christ and Antichrist, between Rome and us. What harmony or concord, saith our apostle, can be between such they can never fall in, or make music together in one choir.

(15) What concord hath Christ with Belial?—The passage is remarkable as being the only occurrence of the name in the New Testament, all the more so because it does not appear in the Greek version of the Old. The Hebrew word signifies “vileness, worthlessness;” and the “sons of Belial” (as in Deuteronomy 13:13; 1 Samuel 2:12; 1 Samuel 25:17) were therefore the worthless and the vile. The English version, following the Vulgate, translates the phrase as though Belial were a proper name, and this has led to the current belief, as shown in Milton’s poems, that it was the name of a demon or fallen angel, the representative of impurity— “Belial came last, than whom a spirit more lewd, Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself.”—Paradise Lost, i. 490.“Belial, the dissolutest spirit that fell, The sensualest, and, after Asmodai, The fleshliest incubus.”—Paradise Regained, ii. 204. St. Paul’s use of the word would seem to imply that some such belief was floating among the Jews in his time. A strange legend, which possibly had a Jewish origin (it is referred to certain necromantici), is found in an obscure and forgotten book (Wierus: Pseudo-Monarchia Dæmonum), to the effect that Solomon was led by a certain woman to bow before the image of Belial, who is represented as worshipped by the Babylonians. Of that worship there is no trace in history; and Milton seems to have recognised this— “To him no temple stood Nor altar smoked.” But if the name had gathered these associations round it, we can understand St. Paul’s using it as representing, or, as it were, personifying, the whole system of impure cultus that prevailed in the worship of Aphrodite at Corinth. With an infidel.—So many later associations have gathered round the word, that it may be well to remind the reader that it does not mean, as commonly with us, one who has rejected the faith, but simply one who has not as yet received it.

15. Belial] This word, derived from two Hebrew ones signifying ‘of no profit,’ was used in the O.T. (e.g. Deuteronomy 13:13; 1 Samuel 2:12) in the phrase ‘child,’ ‘son’ or ‘daughter of Belial,’ to signify a worthless person, and generally (as in Deuteronomy 15:9, in the Hebrew) as a substantive signifying worthlessness. It seems to have been personified among the later Jews (some such personification seems clearly indicated by the language of the Apostle), and to have become a synonym for Satan. Similarly we find the idea of Belial presented in Judges 19:22 personified by Milton in Paradise Lost, Book I. 490. But we must guard against importing the imaginations of the poet into the interpretation of the Scriptures.

And what concord - (συμφώνησις sumphōnēsis). Sympathy, unison. This word refers properly to the unison or harmony produced by musical instruments, where there is a chord.

15. Christ with Belial—The contrast presented in its living representatives, the heads of the kingdom of light and of darkness. Belial—Used in Judges 19:22; Judges 20:13; and 1 Samuel 25:25, where see notes.