SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:14
Porque el marido incrdulo es santificado en la mujer (fiel), y la mujer incrdula en el marido (fiel); de otra manera ciertamente vuestros hijos serían inmundos; pero ahora son santos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 7:14
Verse 14. The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife] Or rather, is to be reputed as sanctified on account of his wife; she being a Christian woman, and he, though a heathen, being by marriage one flesh with her: her sanctity, as far as it refers to outward things, may be considered as imputed to him so as to render their connection not unlawful. The case is the same when the wife is a heathen and the husband a Christian. The word sanctification here is to be applied much more to the Christian state than to any moral change in the persons; for agioi, saints, is a common term for Christians- those who were baptized into the faith of Christ; and as its corresponding term ywdq kedoshim signified all the Jews who were in the covenant of God by circumcision, the heathens in question were considered to be in this holy state by means of their connection with those who were by their Christian profession saints. Else were your children unclean] If this kind of relative sanctification were not allowed, the children of these persons could not be received into the Christian Church, nor enjoy any rights, or privileges as Christians; but the Church of God never scrupled to admit such children as members, just as well as she did those who had sprung from parents both of whom were Christians.
The Jews considered a child as born out of holiness whose parents were not proselytes at the time of the birth, though afterwards they became proselytes. On the other hand, they considered the children of heathens born in holiness, provided the parents became proselytes before the birth.
All the children of the heathens were reputed unclean by the Jews; and all their own children holy. - See Dr. Lightfoot. This shows clearly what the apostle's meaning is.
If we consider the apostle as speaking of the children of heathens, we shall get a remarkable comment on this passage from Tertullian, who, in his treatise Deuteronomy Carne Christi, chaps. 37, 39, gives us a melancholy account of the height to which superstition and idolatry had arrived in his time among the Romans. "A child," says he, "from its very conception, was dedicated to the idols and demons they worshipped. While pregnant, the mother had her body swathed round with bandages, prepared with idolatrous rites. The embryo they conceived to be under the inspection of the goddess Alemona, who nourished it in the womb. Nona and Decima took care that it should be born in the ninth or tenth month. Partula adjusted every thing relative to the labour; and Lucina ushered it into the light. During the week preceding the birth a table was spread for Juno; and on the last day certain persons were called together to mark the moment on which the Parcae, or Fates, had fixed its destiny. The first step the child set on the earth was consecrated to the goddess Statina; and, finally, some of the hair was cut off, or the whole head shaven, and the hair offered to some god or goddess through some public or private motive of devotion." He adds that "no child among the heathens was born in a state of purity; and it is not to be wondered at," says he, "that demons possess them from their youth, seeing they were thus early dedicated to their service." In reference to this, he thinks, St. Paul speaks in the verse before us: The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife-else were your children unclean; but now are they holy; i.e. "As the parents were converted to the Christian faith, the child comes into the world without these impure and unhallowed rites; and is from its infancy consecrated to the true God."
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife , etc.] That is, by the believing wife; as the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read, and so it is read in some copies; and likewise in the next clause the same is read, by the believing husband ; this is a reason given by the apostle why they should live together. This cannot be understood of internal sanctification, which is never the case; an unbeliever cannot be sanctified by a believer in this sense, for such a sanctification is only by the Spirit of God; nor external sanctification, or an outward reformation, which though the unbelieving yoke fellow may sometimes be a means of, yet not always; and besides, the usefulness of one to another in such a relation, in a spiritual sense, urged as a reason for living together, in ( 1 Corinthians 7:16) nor merely of the holiness of marriage, as it is an institution of God, which is equally the same in unbelievers as believers, or between a believer and an unbeliever, as between two believers; but of the very act of marriage, which, in the language of the Jews, is expressed by being sanctified; instances almost without number might be given of the use of the word dq , in this sense, out of the Misnic, Talmudic, and Rabbinic writings; take the following one instead of a thousand that might be produced f114 . The man dqm , sanctifies, or espouses a wife by himself, or by his messenger; the woman dqtm , is sanctified, or espoused by herself, or by her messenger. The man dqm , sanctifies, or espouses his daughter, when she is a young woman, by himself or by his messenger; if anyone says to a woman, ydqth , be thou sanctified, or espoused to me by this date (the fruit of the palm tree,) ydqth , be thou sanctified, or espoused to me by this (any other thing); if there is anyone of these things the value of a farthing, tdwqm , she is sanctified, or espoused, and if not she is not tdwqm , sanctified, or espoused; if he says, by this, and by this, and by this, if there is the value of a farthing in them all, tdwqm , she is sanctified, or espoused; but if not, she is not tdwqm , sanctified, or espoused; if she eats one after another, she is not tdwqm , sanctified, or espoused, unless there is one of them the value of a farthing; in which short passage, the word which is used to sanctify, or be sanctified, in the Hebrew language, is used to espouse, or be espoused no less than ten times. So the Jews interpret the word sanctified, in ( Job 1:5
