Is God nu nóg jaloers?

Samenvatting

In what sense God is called ‘jealous’ in the New Testament? This article examines four texts − James 4:5, 2 Corinthians 11:2, John 2:17 and Romans 10:19 − in order to answer the question: What does the New Testament mean when it calls God ‘jealous’? James stresses the fact that though man closed the door to God, God opens it again and by yearning for the spirit He created in man. In 2 Corinthians God’s ‘jealousy’ returns God’s people to their original relationship with Him. In both cases God’s jealousy is an expression of his grace. John, by quoting Psalm 69, applies the term ‘jealousy’ or ‘zeal’ to Jesus’s clearing of the Temple. The context of the citation sheds a special light on Jesus’s action: his zeal not only brings his people back to the original purpose of God’s house, he also shows them the way in which God will fulfill this purpose. Romans 10 can only be understood by hearing the intertextual relations with the citation of Deuteronomy 32 in its context. God’s jealousy brings Israel and the Gentiles to the experience of his grace, in an interdependent relationship. The article concludes that God’s jealousy does not imply nor motivate an exclusivist attitude.