John 3:29

He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is made full.

In the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Christ; but this verse does not mean that the church was, at that time, established and that Jesus had possession of it. "The bride" here has reference to the spiritual Israel of God, that portion of the external Israel which were in fact the spiritual seed of Abraham. Although the spiritual Israel had been commingled with secular Israel throughout history to that time, the separation was then being made through the instrumentality of the baptism preached by John, a separation that would become final at Pentecost and afterward. As Westcott said, "The Baptist had fulfilled his office in preparing and bringing the representatives of the spiritual Israel - the new divine Bride - to Christ the Bridegroom."[25]

Rejoiceth greatly ... Far from being envious or jealous of Christ, John was delighted and gratified to see his popularity, even going so far as to say that his joy was made full.

It is erroneous to infer any kind of anachronism from John's use of the term "bride" in this place. Some have alleged that the apostle here imputed words to John the Baptist which were prevalent in the church at the time the Gospel was written. On the contrary, it was this statement of the great herald, along with our Saviour's frequent employment of the same metaphor, as in the parables of the ten virgins and of the marriage feast, which gave rise to preference for this metaphor in the early church. Such a perceptive leader as John the Baptist, to say nothing of his inspiration, found this metaphor most appropriate. The image of the bride and the bridegroom is found often in the prophetic books of the Old Testament, where it was invariably used to describe the relationship between God and his people Israel (Hosea 2:19; Ezekiel 16; Malachi 2:11, etc.). Thus, it should be concluded that John the Baptist received the metaphor from the Old Testament. It was his before it became the apostle's. Thus, the author of John did not impute his own words here, but gave an accurate account of what was truly said.