In I Cor 7:14, what is meant by "unclean" children"?

[DannyP]

In I Cor 7:14 Paul writes “For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother. Otherwise your children would be unclean, whereas in fact they are holy.” What dose he mean by Otherwise your children would be unclean. Can you expand upon this partially the word unclean?

 

[Jan_Wakelin]

The RSV translates the passage in this way:

“For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy.”

Clean or unclean, in Israelite legislation, referred to certain conditions that would make one fit or unfit legally to enter into the sphere of worship. It had no moral connotations.

As Christianity spead, it was common that in a marriage of two pagans, one would convert to Christianity.
According to the Navarre Commentary,

“The other members of a family (spouse, children) are sanctified by the partner who has received Baptism (vv. 13-14). That is, the conversion of one of the spouses, far from being to the detriment of the family, is something very good and a benefit to all; Baptism is not in any way a cause of division; rather, it reinforces and sanctifies marraige and family.”