1 Corinthians 6:16

THE MESSAGE

There's more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one." Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never "become one." There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
The Scriptures say, "The two people will become one." So you should know that anyone who is joined with a prostitute becomes one with her in body.

Revised Standard Version
Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh."

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Do ye not vnderstonde that he which coupleth him selfe with an harlot is become one body? For two (saith he) shalbe one flesshe.

Hebrew Names Version
Or don't you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, "The two," says he, "will become one flesh."

International Standard Version
You know that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her, don't you? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."Genesis 2:24">[fn]Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Ephesians 5:31;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."

New Century Version
It is written in the Scriptures, "The two will become one body." So you should know that anyone who joins with a prostitute becomes one body with the prostitute.

Update Bible Version
Or do you not know that he that is joined to a prostitute is one body? for, The two, he says, shall become one flesh.

Webster's Bible Translation
What? know ye not that he who is joined to a harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

English Standard Version
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh."

World English Bible
Or don't you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, "The two," says he, "will become one flesh."

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
God forbid. Know ye not, that he who is joined to an harlot is one body? For they two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

Weymouth's New Testament
Or do you not know that a man who has to do with a prostitute is one with her in body? For God says, "The two shall become one."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether ye witen not, that he that cleueth to an hoore, is maad o bodi? For he seith, Ther schulen be tweyne in o fleisch.

English Revised Version
Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh.

Berean Standard Bible
Or don't you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."

Contemporary English Version
Don't you know that a man who does that becomes part of her body? The Scriptures say, "The two of them will be like one person."

Amplified Bible
Do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BE ONE FLESH."

American Standard Version
Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh.

Bible in Basic English
Or do you not see that he who is joined to a loose woman is one body with her? for God has said, The two of them will become one flesh.

Complete Jewish Bible
Don't you know that a man who joins himself to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? For the Tanakh says, "The two will become one flesh";

Darby Translation
Do ye not know that he [that is] joined to the harlot is one body? for the two, he says, shall be one flesh.

Etheridge Translation
Know you not that whosoever attacheth to a harlot is one body? For it is said, The two shall be one body.

Murdock Translation
16 Or know ye not, that whoever joineth himself to a harlot, is one body [fn] ? For it is said, They twain shall be one body.

King James Version (1611)
What, know ye not that he which is ioyned to an harlot, is one body? for two (saith he) shalbe one flesh.

New Living Translation
And don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one."

New Life Bible
Do you not know that a man who joins himself to a woman who sells the use of her body becomes a part of her? The Holy Writings say, "The two will become one."

New Revised Standard
Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, "The two shall be one flesh."

Geneva Bible (1587)
Doe ye not knowe, that he which coupleth himselfe with an harlot, is one body? for two, sayeth he, shalbe one flesh.

George Lamsa Translation
Or do you not know that he who joins his body to a harlot is one body with her? For it is said, The two shall become one body.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Or know ye not that, he that joineth himself unto the harlot, is, one body? For, saith he, the two, shall become, one flesh;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Or know you not that he who is joined to a harlot is made one body? For they shall be, saith he, two in one flesh.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Know ye not, that he whiche coupleth him selfe with an harlot, is one body? For two (sayth he) shalbe one fleshe.

Good News Translation
Or perhaps you don't know that the man who joins his body to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? The scripture says quite plainly, "The two will become one body."

Christian Standard Bible®
Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh.

King James Version
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

Lexham English Bible
Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, "The two will become one flesh."

Literal Translation
Or do you not know that he being joined to a harlot is one body? For He says, "The two shall be into one flesh." Gen. 2:24

Young's Literal Translation
have ye not known that he who is joined to the harlot is one body? `for they shall be -- saith He -- the two for one flesh.'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Or do ye not knowe, that he which cleueth vnto an harlot, is one body? For they shalbe two ( sayeth he) in one flesshe.

Mace New Testament (1729)
it cannot be. why, don't you perceive, that where there is such an attachment, they are but as one person? for the scripture says , "they two shall be as one."

New English Translation
Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, " The two will become one flesh ."

New King James Version
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." Genesis 2:24">[fn]

Simplified Cowboy Version
Did you not know that when you sleep with a prostitute, you become part of her and she becomes part of you. The Good Book says, "Two will be joined together forever."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."

Legacy Standard Bible
Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "The two shall become one flesh."

Contextual Overview

¹² Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims. ¹³ You know the old saying, "First you eat to live, and then you live to eat"? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that's no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body! ¹⁴God honored the Master's body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master's body. You wouldn't take the Master's body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not. ¹⁶There's more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one." Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never "become one." There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

an harlot: Genesis 34:31, Genesis 38:15, Genesis 38:24, Judges 16:1, Matthew 21:31, Matthew 21:32, Hebrews 11:31

for: Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Matthew 19:6, Mark 10:8, Ephesians 5:31

Reciprocal: Isaiah 40:28 - thou not known Hosea 4:14 - for Romans 6:3 - Know 1 Corinthians 1:1 - through 1 Corinthians 3:16 - Know 1 Corinthians 6:9 - Know 1 Corinthians 6:19 - What Hebrews 8:10 - I will be

Cross-References

2 Kings 9:30
When Jezebel heard that Jehu had arrived in Jezreel, she made herself up—put on eyeshadow and arranged her hair—and posed seductively at the window. When Jehu came through the city gate, she called down, "So, how are things, ‘Zimri,' you dashing king-killer?"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot,.... Not in marriage, but in carnal copulation, and unclean embraces, is one body with her

for two ("saith he", Adam, or Moses, or God, or the Scripture, or as R. Sol. Jarchi says, the Holy Spirit, Genesis 2:24)

shall be one flesh; what is originally said of copulation in lawful marriage, in which man and wife, legally coupled together, become one flesh, is applied to the unlawful copulation of a man with an harlot, by which act they also become one body, one flesh; and which is made use of by the apostle, to deter the members of Christ from the commission of this sin, which makes a member of Christ one body and flesh with an harlot, than which nothing is more monstrous and detestable. The apostle here directs to the true sense of the phrase in Genesis, "and they shall be one flesh"; that is, man and wife shall only have carnal knowledge of, and copulation with each other. Some Jewish k writers interpret this phrase, מצד הולד "on account of the foetus", which is formed by the means of them both, and which becomes "their one flesh": others l, thus as if they were, or because they are, like as if they were one flesh; but others m, in more agreement with the apostle, think that this has respect אל החבור, "to that conjunction", by which the fixing of the species is completed; and others n expressly thus, "they two shall be one flesh",

למקום ששניהם עושים בשר אחד, "that is, in the place where both of them make one flesh": which is equally done by unlawful copulation with an harlot, as with a man's own wife.

k Tzeror Hammor, fol. 6. 3. Jarchi in Gen. ii. 24. l Aben Ezra in ib. m R. Levi ben Gersom in ib. n Bereshit Rabba, sect. 18. fol. 15. 3. T. Hieros. Kiddushin, fol. 58. 3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Know ye not ... - This is the third argument against licentiousness. It is, that we as Christians are united to Christ (compare the notes at John 15:1 ff); and that it is abominable to take the members of Christ and subject them to pollution and sin. Christ was pure - wholly pure. We are professedly united to him. We are bound therefore to be pure, as he was. Shall that which is a part, as it were, of the pure and holy Saviour, be prostituted to impure and unholy embraces?

God forbid! - See the note at Romans 3:4. This expresses the deep abhorrence of the apostle at the thought. It needed not argument to show it. The whole world revolted at the idea; and language could scarcely express the abomination of the very thought.

Know ye not ... - This is designed to confirm and strengthen what he had just said.

He which is joined - Who is attached to; or who is connected with.

Is one body - That is, is to he regarded as one; is closely and intimately united. Similar expressions occur in Classic writers. See Grotius and Bloomfield.

For two, saith he ... - This Paul illustrates by a reference to the formation of the marriage connection in Ger. Romans 2:14. He cannot be understood as affirming that that passage had original reference to illicit connections; but be uses it for purposes of illustration. God had declared that the man and his wife became one; in a similar sense in unlawful connections the parties became one.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 6:16. He that is joined to a harlot is one body — In Sohar Genes., fol. 19, we have these remarkable words: Whosoever connects himself with another man's wife, does in effect renounce the holy blessed God, and the Church of the Israelites.