{Is sanctified in the wife} (h(8867)iastai en t(8869) gunaiki).
Perfect passive indicative of hagiaz(935c), to set apart, to hallow,
to sanctify. Paul does not, of course, mean that the unbelieving
husband is saved by the faith of the believing wife, though Hodge
actually so interprets him. Clearly he only means that the
marriage relation is sanctified so that there is no need of a
divorce. If either husband or wife is a believer and the other
agrees to remain, the marriage is holy and need not be set aside.
This is so simple that one wonders at the ability of men to get
confused over Paul's language. {Else were your children unclean}
(epei ara ta tekna akatharta). The common ellipse of the
condition with epei: "since, accordingly, if it is otherwise,
your children are illegitimate (akatharta)." If the relations
of the parents be holy, the child's birth must be holy also (not
illegitimate). "He is not assuming that the child of a Christian
parent would be baptized; that would spoil rather than help his
argument, for it would imply that the child was not hagios till
it was baptized. The verse throws no light on the question of
infant baptism" (Robertson and Plummer).