What Does 2 Corinthians 6:15 Mean in the King James?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
“believeth / infidel” 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.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.THE THREAD
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away 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.
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