John 3:29. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore hath been fulfilled. He that hath the bride,' he and no other, ‘is the bridegroom. The Lord is taking home His bride-His people. To the name of bridegroom I have no claim, nor can I have the bridegroom's joy. But in his joy his friends must needs share. The friend of the bridegroom that standeth and heareth his voice, catching the first sound as he draws near, listening to the words and tones in which his joy breaks forth throughout the marriage feast, he too has his joy, a reflection of the rejoicing of the bridegroom: this joy is mine, and it is now filled to the full.' In these exquisitely tender and beautiful words does the Baptist at once reprove the natural but petty jealousies of his disciples and set forth his own relation to Jesus. The image employed is common in the Old Testament (Isaiah 54; Jeremiah 3 : 31; Hosea 2; Ezekiel 16:23), even if nothing be said of the Song of Solomon, and is taken up in the New (Matthew 9:15; Matthew 9:25; 2 Corinthians 11; Ephesians 5; Revelation 19:21). By the ‘friend' John does not mean the particular friend who presided over the marriage ceremonies (the Shoshben), for the words ‘standeth and heareth' are unsuitable to a functionary whose duties were those of action. But these words exactly correspond to the position of the Baptist as one who stood apart and listened. Once only does the Forerunner seem to have met with Jesus: afterwards he watched His course and rejoiced, and pointed his disciples to his Lord.

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Old Testament