For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife,.... 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 1Co 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 vdq, in this sense, out of the Misnic, Talmudic, and Rabbinic writings; take the following one instead of a thousand that might be produced ."
The man vdqm, "sanctifies", or espouses a wife by himself, or by his messenger; the woman vdqtm, "is sanctified", or espoused by herself, or by her messenger. The man vdqm, "sanctifies", or espouses his daughter, when she is a young woman, by himself or by his messenger; if anyone says to a woman, yvdqth, "be thou sanctified", or espoused to me by this date (the fruit of the palm tree,) yvdqth, "be thou sanctified", or espoused to me by this (any other thing); if there is anyone of these things the value of a farthing, tvdwqm, "she is sanctified", or espoused, and if not she is not tvdwqm, "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, tvdwqm, "she is sanctified", or espoused; but if not, she is not tvdwqm, "sanctified", or espoused; if she eats one after another, she is not tvdwqm, "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.