As in verses 14 and 15, the question at the beginning of verse 16 is rhetorical (see comments on verses 14-15). And as in the previous verses, the verb has is understood. The noun translated agreement does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. It is used outside the Bible for mental assent to philosophical insights. But most English versions have translated the idea of a contractual agreement or coming to terms, with: “compromise with” (New Jerusalem Bible); “what bargain can … make” (An American Translation); “what compact can there be” (Moffatt). Some other languages have attempted to render the idea here by using the verbal expression “to exist together” or “to be in the same place.”
As Good News Translation makes explicit, idols refers to the gods worshiped by pagans. New Jerusalem Bible says “false gods.” The meaning is clearly translated in Contemporary English Version: “Do idols belong in the temple of God?”
Though good manuscript support exists for the reading “you are the temple of the living God” (so Reina-Valera revisada, King James Version, NRSV footnote) instead of we are the temple, the editors of the UBS Greek New Testament think it is more likely that a scribe changed the pronoun “we” to “you” in light of 1 Cor 3.16 and in light of the second person plural pronouns in the verses before and after verse 16.
The temple of the living God: using metaphorical language, Paul calls the Christian believers the temple of … God. In 1 Cor 6.19 Paul declares that the physical body of each believer is the temple where God dwells, but here in 6.16 the sense is that the community as a whole is the temple where God dwells (see 1 Cor 3.16; Eph 2.21). Just as the temple of … God is metaphorical language, perhaps the word idols is to be understood as metaphorical and not literal. If Paul’s words are metaphorical, the sense is “What agreement has the Christian community with things contrary to God?” Translators, however, should make every effort to keep the image of temple and idols.
On the phrase the living God, see comments on 3.3.
The quotation in verse 16 is a combination of two verses from the Old Testament, Lev 26.12 and Ezek 37.27. Just as God may be said to live in a temple, so here he lives “in” the Christian community, which is said to be God’s temple. Since the point in this context is that God lives “among” the people in the community as a whole rather than living in the heart of each believer, the preposition in of Revised Standard Version may be incorrectly understood to mean “in the individual’s heart.” New Jerusalem Bible captures the sense better: “I shall fix my home among them and live among them” (so also God’s New Covenant “I will live in their midst and move among them”).
I will live in them and move among them: the second of the two verbs live and move (see Acts 17.28) literally gives the idea of “walking about” among the people, but they actually speak of the same event rather than two separate and distinct happenings. The quotation is intended to emphasize the fact that God will actually be present with his people.
I will be their God, and they shall be my people: this statement is virtually identical with Jer 31.33 and Ezek 37.27 and is repeated in Heb 8.10. It is a dual reminder of the relationship between God and his people. In some languages it may be necessary to say something like “They will worship me as [the only] God, and I will care for them as my people.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .