Patristic A.D. 735
“His Bride therefore our Lord committed to His friend, i. e. the order of preachers, who should be jealous of her, not for themselves, but for Christ; The friend of the Bridegroom which standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of John, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on John 3:27-30
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1845) ↗