Ver. 1. In my folly] How foolish were the Pharisees, John 7:49, and after them the Gnostics, the Illuminates, and now the Jesuits, that boast themselves to be the only knowing men! Palemon the Grammarian, that bragged that all learning was born with him, and would die when he died! Epicurus, that he first found out the truth! (Sueton.) Richardus de S. Victore, that gave out that he knew more in divinity than any prophet or apostle of them all! These were fools to purpose; the apostle was put upon a necessity of commending himself, so to vindicate his ministry from the contempt cast upon him by the Corinthians.
Ver. 2. For I am jealous] q.d. My dear love to you puts me upon thus praising myself. With a godly jealousy] Gr. with a zeal of God, called the flame of God, Song of Solomon 8:6, such as was that of Job over his children, for fear they should sin against God; not such as was that of the Pharisees over the Galatians, the hypocrisy of jealousy, Galatians 4:17. For I have espoused you] Gr. I have fitted you, as things that are pieced together are glued or soldered. ηρμοσαμην, Velut ea quae glutino aut ferrumine committuntur. (Erasm.) To one husband] Here the cedar taketh the thistle to wife (tantus tantillos), and doth all the offices of a husband to her, 2 Kings 14:9 Eze 16:8 1. He first loveth his Church, and then purifieth her, Ephesians 5:25,26. (Ahasuerus had the virgins first purified and perfumed before he took them to his bed.) 2. He puts upon her his own comeliness, as Eleazar put the jewels upon Rebecca (hence she is called Callah of the perfection of her attire, ornaments, and beauty, Jeremiah 2:32). 3. He maketh love to her by his paranymphs, his ministers, who woo for him, and present her to Christ as a chaste virgin. 4. He cohabits with her; Song of Solomon 7:5 “The king is tied in the rafters.” 5. He rejoiceth over her, Isaiah 62:4,5 6. He doth the marriage duty to her, and maketh her the mother of us all, Galatians 4:26 Ro 7:1 7. He nourisheth and cherisheth her, Ephesians 5:29 8. He hateth putting away, Malachi 2:16, and provideth for her eternal welfare, Ephesians 1:7 Col 1:21,22.
Ver. 3. But I fear] Jealousy is made up of love, fear, and anger. By his subtilty] He mustered all his forces, or rather all his frauds, together to cheat her. That old serpent, when he was young, outwitted our first parents; now that he is old, and we young, Ephesians 4:14, what will he not do, if we watch not? Bellarmine saith of his Romanists, Romani sicut non acumina, ita nec imposturas habent, that they are neither sharp nor subtle. The devil is both, and so are they; witness their crafty cruel both positions and dispositions; this old serpent having lent them both his seven heads to plot and his ten horns to push. So your minds should be corrupted] Satan hath his νοηματα, set and composed machination, 2 Corinthians 2:11, whereby he adulterateth our νοηματα, our judgments. From the simplicity, &c.] Of all graces Satan would beguile us of this simplicity; the world calls it silliness, sheepishness.
Ver. 4. But if he that cometh] Giddy hearers, whirred about with every novelty, have no mould but what the next teacher casts them into; being blown like glasses into this or that shape at the pleasure of his breath. See John 5:43.
Ver. 5. The very chiefest apostles] Either he meaneth those pillars, Peter, James, John, &c., Galatians 2:6; or the false apostles, whom he styleth chiefest by an irony, because they sought to bear away the bell, and be counted prime preachers.
Ver. 6. But though I be rude in speech] Gr. an idiot, a plain, downright, homespun, homely spoken person. The ancient s busied themselves (saith Cyril), ουκ εν ευρεσιλογια, not about coin and newly coined language, but εν αποδειξει των θειων γραφων, about solid demonstrations drawn out of the Holy Scriptures. Jerome reports of Didymus that he was an apostolic writer, as you might easily gather by his style, Tam sensuum nomine quam simplicitate verborum. His matter was as lofty as his language low and ordinary. Jerome himself is much commended by learned men, Quod ubique non sit aeque Latinus, that he is not always so curious and choice of his words. But what reason he had, I see not, to censure St Paul so sharply as he doth, Ob sensus involutos, eloquium implicatum, et artis Grammaticae imperitiam, for his intricate sense, dark elocution, and unskilfulness in grammar learning. True it is, he was a plain preacher, as he here acknowledgeth; and why he affected plainness, he telleth us, 1 Corinthians 1:17, as stooping to common people’s capacities. But that he could play the orator if he pleased, appears Acts 17:22-31 26:2; insomuch as the Lycaonians called him Mercury, because he was “a master of speech,” Acts 14:12. And as for his Epistles, there is as good rhetoric found in them as in any heathen orator whatsoever. Demosthenes is but dull to him; and Austin’s wish was to have seen Paulum in ore, Paul preaching, which he would have esteemed a high happiness.