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Adam Clarke on 2 Corinthians 11:2

Commentary and Critical Notes. Browse this work.

2 Corinthians11:2

I am jealous over you, etc. - The apostle evidently alludes either to the שושבינים shoshabinim or paranymphs among the Hebrews, whose office is largely explained in the notes on Joh 3:29, and the observations at the end of that chapter (see note at Joh 3:36); or to the harmosyni, a sort of magistrates among the Lacedemonians who had the care of virgins, and whose business it was to see them well educated, kept pure, and properly prepared for married life.

That I may present you as a chaste virgin - The allusion is still kept up; and there seems to be a reference to Lev 21:14, that the high priest must not marry any one that was not a pure virgin. Here, then, Christ is the high priest, the spouse or husband; the Corinthian Church the pure virgin to be espoused; the apostle and his helpers the shoshabinim, or harmosyni, who had educated and prepared this virgin for her husband, and espoused her to him. See the observations already referred to at the end of the third chapter of John. (Joh 3:36 (note))

Adam Clarke, Commentary and Critical Notes, 2 Corinthians 11:2. Public domain.

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