II. CORINTHIANS 11, 2. 251

This is the reason either why they should bear vdth. him, or why he was assured that they would do so. That is, the connection is either with the first and principal clause of y. 1, or with the latter clause. It makes but little difference. The sense is better if the connection is with the first clause. ' Bear with my folly — for I am jealous over you.' ZrjXo) yap vjj-a^. The word ^r;Aoco may mean, I ardently love, or more specifi- cally, I am jealous. The latter, as the figure of marriage is used, is probably the sense in which the apostle uses the word. With godly jealousy ; t,rj\os ^€ov may mean a zeal of which God is the object, as in Rom. 10, 2; comp. John 2, 17. In that case Paul intends to say that the feeling which he had for the Corinthians was a pious feeling. It was no selfish or mercenary interest, but such as arose from his desire to pro- mote the honour of God. Or, the meaning is, a zeal of which God is the author ; or, a zeal which God approves ; or, the zeal which God has. As the people of God are so often rep- resented in the Bible as standing to God in a relation analo- gous to that of a wife to a husband, so God is represented as being jealous, i. e. moved to deep displeasure when they trans- fer their love to another object. Is. 54, 5. 62, 5. Ez. 16. Hos. 2. In this view, the apostle means to say, that he shares in the feeling which God is represented as entertaining towards his church. The translation given in the English version includes all the meanings above mentioned ; for a godly jealousy (or zeal) is a pious zea], it is a zeal of which God is both the object and the author, and it is such a zeal as he has. JFo?' I have espoused you to one husband. It was natural for the apostle to feel this jealousy over them, /or he stood in a most intimate relation to them. Their union with Christ was his work. 1 Cor. 4, 15. 9, 1. He may compare himself in this verse to a father who gives his daughter to the bridegroom. To this it is objected that Paul became the father of ^he Corinthians by their conversion; whereas the relation here referred to subsisted before their conversion or espousal to Christ. It is commonly assumed that the allusion is to the ofiice of "the friend of the bridegroom," John 3, 29, (TrapavvixcfiLos^) whose business it was to select the bride, to be responsible for her conduct, and to present her to the bride- groom. In this sense Moses was called -jrapavvfx^Los by the Rabbis, as it was through him the people entered into cove- nant with God. In either way the sense is the same. Paul's relation was so intimate with the Corinthians as the author of