2 Corinthians 6:16-18
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
16 (A)What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said:
“I will live with them and move among them,[a]
and I will be their God
and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore, come forth from them
and be separate,” says the Lord,
“and touch nothing unclean;
then I will receive you(B)
18 and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”(C)
Footnotes
- 6:16c–18 This is a chain of scriptural citations carefully woven together. God’s covenant relation to his people and his presence among them (2 Cor 6:16) is seen as conditioned on cultic separation from the profane and cultically impure (2 Cor 6:17); that relation is translated into the personal language of the parent-child relationship, an extension to the community of the language of 2 Sm 7:14 (2 Cor 6:18). Some remarkable parallels to this chain are found in the final chapters of Revelation. God’s presence among his people (Rev 21:22) is expressed there, too, by applying 2 Sm 7:14 to the community (Rev 21:7). There is a call to separation (Rev 18:4) and exclusion of the unclean from the community and its liturgy (Rev 21:27). The title “Lord Almighty” (Pantokratōr) occurs in the New Testament only here in 2 Cor 6:18 and nine times in Revelation.
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