What Does 2 Corinthians 6:15 Mean?
And what sounding together has the Anointed One with Belial? Or what portion has the steady one with the unsteady one?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?THE KEY
Trust here is whole-weight allegiance: the question is whether two opposing natures can share one voice and one portion.
THE MEANING
What you lean your full weight on shapes what can share ground with you now. The verse sets Χριστός (Christos, “the anointed one”) against Belial, whose Hebrew name בְּלִיַּעַל (beliyya’al) carries the sense “worthlessness,” and asks whether those natures can harmonize or share a portion. It treats trust as a lived allegiance, not an abstract opinion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that allegiance can be divided into sealed compartments, with trust in the anointed one and alignment with worthlessness having no effect on what belongs together.
THE ROOT
συμφώνησις
symphōnēsis
GROWS FROM
συμφων- (syn + phōn-)
Sound or voice brought together; the parts answer in harmony.
“Concord” carries an image of voices sounding together: the question is whether two opposed natures can make one harmony. English preserves agreement but can hide the word’s audible, shared-voice texture.
ALSO GROWS
symphōneō: to harmonize, agree
συμφωνέω
This verb makes concord an active coming into agreement, the very possibility the verse tests.
symphōnia: harmony, concord
συμφωνία
The related noun keeps the musical sense of distinct voices sounding together.
μερίς
meris
GROWS FROM
μερ-
mer-
A part, share, or portion.
“Part” means a share one has in common, not mere proximity. The question asks whether a trusting person and an untrusting one can occupy the same portion.
ALSO GROWS
meros: a part, share, or portion
μέρος
This related word keeps the concrete idea of a portion someone holds.
merizō: to divide, distribute, or assign a share
μερίζω
A portion is something apportioned; the root makes the question about what can genuinely be held in common.
πιστῷ
pistō
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust and reliance; the prefix ἀ- negates it in the word for the untrusting person.
“the steady one” in this verse is pistō. The Greek contrasts trust with its direct negation: the untrusting person is formed from the same word with a privative prefix. “Believeth” and “infidel” can sound like separate religious labels, while the wording places them on one axis of trust.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: trust, reliance
πίστις
This noun names the trust that underlies the person called a believer.
apistos: untrusting, unbelieving
ἄπιστος
The privative prefix marks the absence of the same trust, making the contrast precise.
THE PATTERN
Opposed allegiances cannot share one undivided path, service, or table.
Do two walk together, unless they have met?No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will hold fast to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons.THE THREAD
But one thing is needed. Mary has picked out the good portion, which will not be lifted from her.Luke’s “good part” uses μερίδα (merida, “portion”), from the same word family as μερίς (meris, “share or portion”) here. That shared root makes Paul’s question about the portion a person holds; Luke shows a chosen portion that remains.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us