2 Corinthians 11:2

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

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Ambrosiaster

AD 400

Paul is making it clear that what he is about to say he will say out of love for them, so that it may be conducive to their progress as much as to his praise and that they may learn from it how to do a favor to their father in the gospel. For to speak ill of a father harms the sons, and the praise of sons is a father’s glory. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.

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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

Do you wish to know how the church is a virgin? Hear the apostle Paul; hear the friend of the Bridegroom who is zealous not for himself but for the Bridegroom: “I betrothed you to one spouse.” He spoke to the church. To which church? To all that his letter could reach. “I betrothed you to one spouse, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest,” he said, “as the serpent seduced Eve by his guile … ” That serpent never physically defiled Eve, did he? Yet he did destroy her virginity of heart. On that account Paul said: “I fear lest … your minds may be corrupted from that chastity which is in Christ.” Therefore, the church is a virgin; she is a virgin, may she be a virgin. Let her beware of the deceiver, lest he turn out to be a corrupter. The church is a virgin. Are you, perhaps, going to say to me: “If the church is a virgin, how does she bring forth children? Or, if she does not bring forth children, how did we give our names so that we might be born of her?” I ... Read More

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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

To the same church the apostle says: “For I have promised you to one spouse, that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” … The church, then, like Mary, has inviolate integrity and incorrupt fecundity. What Mary merited physically, the church has guarded spiritually, with the exception that Mary brought forth one Child, while the church has many children destined to be gathered into one body by One.

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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

Why does Paul address all these different people as a “chaste virgin,” unless he is referring to their faith, hope and love? Feast of the Nativity

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Caesarius of Arles

AD 542

The souls of all men and women know that they are spouses of Christ if they are willing to preserve both bodily chastity and virginity of heart. For Christ is to be understood as the spouse of their souls, not of their bodies.

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Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215

Directly in point is the instance of the apostle, who says, writing the Corinthians: "For I have espoused you to one man, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ". Zelo enim vos zelo Dei; despondi enim vos uni viro, virginem cast am exhibere Christo.". "Vere or autem, ne sicut serpens seduxit Evam in astutia, corrumpantur sensus vestri a simplicitate, quae in Christo est"

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Cornelius a Lapide

AD 1637

For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. I cannot endure any rivals, such as these false apostles, who seek to seduce you. Paul calls his great and unbounded love "jealousy," implying that he seeks to be first in the affections of the Corinthians. S. Chrysostom remarks on this jealousy being a jealousy of God, which implies that Paul does not seek the bride for himself but for Christ and God—not for his own glory, pleasure, or gain. Christ is the Bridegroom, he is but the paranymph. For I have espoused you to one husband. "I have fitted you" (Augustine, contra Manich. lib. ii.); "I have prepared you" (Ambrose); "I have united you " (Theophylact). The Greek verb may well bear the three meanings of, "I have invited you," "I have betrothed you," I have united you in wedlock." The three duties of the paranymph are: (1.) to gain the maiden"s affections for the bridegroom, and to do all he can to get her to be the wife of his friend; (2.) to see that she is espoused to him; and, (3.... Read More

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Cyprian of Carthage

AD 258

For there are not many spouses of Christ, since the apostle says, "I have espoused you, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ; "

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George Leo Haydock

AD 1849

With the jealousy of God, or that came from God: it may also signify a great, or godly jealousy. To present you, that is, the Church of Corinth, a chaste virgin to Christ, as the whole Catholic Church is called the chaste spouse of Christ. See Matthew ix. 13.; Apocalypse xxi. 2. (Witham) I cannot suffer these false prophets thus to destroy what has been prepared with so much labour, but I am not jealous for my own sake; it is for the honour of God; for I do not wish to prepare this spouse for myself, but for God. (Tirinus) It is a duty incumbent on me to preserve you in the purity of the faith you have received, to present you to him as a virgin, holy, and free from every spot or blemish, and hence arise my fear and solicitude, lest by insinuating and designing men, you suffer yourselves to be drawn away from the simplicity of your faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord.

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John Chrysostom

AD 407

Paul uses a word here which is far stronger than mere love. Jealous souls burn ardently for those whom they love, and jealousy presupposes a strong affection. Then, in order that they should not think that Paul is after power, wealth or honor, he adds that his jealousy is “divine.” For God is said to be jealous, not in a human way but so that everyone may know that he claims sovereign rights over those whom he loves and does what he does for their exclusive benefit. Human jealousy is basically selfish, but divine jealousy is both intense and pure. Note the difference between human brides and the church. In the world, a woman is a virgin before her marriage, when she loses her virginity. But in the church, those who were anything but virgins before they turned to Christ acquire virginity in him. As a result, the whole church is a virgin.

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Methodius of Olympus

AD 311

Who sees her daughters after a long separation, she embraced and kissed each one of us with great joy, saying, 'O, my daughters you have come with toil and pain to me who am earnestly longing to conduct you to the pasture of immortality; toilsomely have you come by a way abounding with many frightful reptiles; for, as I looked, I saw you often stepping aside, and I was fearing lest you should turn back and slip over the precipices. But thanks to the Bridegroom to whom I have espoused. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy; "meaning by Jerusalem, as I said, these very undefiled and incorrupt souls, which, having with self-denial drawn in the pure draught of virginity with unpolluted lips, are "espoused to one husband "to be presented "as a chaste virgin to Christ"

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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220

); when, again, he "espouses the church as a chaste virgin to Christ". For flesh not yet manumitted to Christ, for whom it was being kept,

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