📖 Biblical Definition
The NT prohibition against entering covenantal partnership with unbelievers — most especially in marriage, but with application also to deep business partnerships, deep co-creative arrangements, and any binding alliance that demands shared core values. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 lists rhetorical impossibilities: fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, communion between light and darkness, concord between Christ and Belial, agreement between the temple of God and idols. The image rests on Deuteronomy 22:10's agricultural prohibition: a strong animal (ox) and a weaker one (ass) cannot plow together because their stride is different and the yoke will gall both. The biblical man does not marry an unbeliever; he does not enter a business partnership that requires moral compromise; he does not bind himself to a man whose ultimate allegiances differ.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
2 Cor 6:14 prohibition against covenantal partnership with unbelievers; rooted in Deut 22:10 image; primarily about marriage and binding alliances.
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YOKING WITH UNBELIEVERS, n. phr. The NT prohibition (2 Cor 6:14-18) against entering covenantal partnership with unbelievers. Greek heterozygeo: unequally yoked. Rooted in the OT agricultural prohibition of Deuteronomy 22:10 against plowing with an ox and an ass together (two animals of different strength, stride, and disposition). The NT application: marriage primarily (1 Cor 7:39 explicitly: only in the Lord), and binding alliances generally (deep business partnerships, co-creative arrangements that demand shared values). Distinguished from ordinary association with non-Christians (Paul commends going out into the world; 1 Cor 5:9-10) — the prohibition is on covenantal binding, not on neighborly engagement.
📖 Key Scripture
2 Corinthians 6:14-16 — "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"
1 Corinthians 7:39 — "The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord."
Deuteronomy 7:3-4 — "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me."
Deuteronomy 22:10 — "Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
A clear apostolic prohibition (especially regarding marriage) treated as advisory; the predictable outcomes follow.
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The contemporary church's treatment of 2 Cor 6:14 is the equivalent of treating it as old advice rather than apostolic command. Young Christians regularly date and marry non-Christians on the strength of he's a really good guy or maybe I can help him grow into the faith. The biblical pattern (and the predictable pastoral outcome) is what Deut 7:4 names: they will turn away thy son from following me. Decades of pastoral counseling case files testify that the biblical warning is not theoretical.
The prohibition's range is wider than marriage. 2 Cor 6 frames the principle of covenantal partnership with unbelievers: not ordinary neighborly engagement (Paul welcomes that, 1 Cor 5:9-10), but the binding kind of partnership where a man's daily decisions depend on the other's allegiance to Christ. Marry only in the Lord. Enter business partnerships that require shared core values only with brothers and sisters. Build the household, the ministry, the company, the army-unit-of-formation around men who serve the same Lord. The biblical man does not yoke himself to those pulling a different direction.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek heterozygeo; rooted in Deut 22:10's ox-and-ass image; primary application: marriage (1 Cor 7:39).
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['Greek', 'G2086', 'heterozygeo', 'to be unequally yoked (2 Cor 6:14)']
['Hebrew', 'H6776', 'tsemed', 'yoke, pair (cf. Deut 22:10)']
Usage
"Marriage primarily — 1 Cor 7:39's only in the Lord."
"Binding partnerships generally — not ordinary neighborly engagement."
"Deut 7:4 predicts the predictable outcome of the failure."