Commentary on the Twelve Prophets

Commentary on the Prophet Hosea

COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET HOSEA s an indictment of those who presume to apply themselves to the prophetic utterances without due preparation, and also by way of education of those coming after, let us come to the task of clarifying the prophetic books with God’s assistance, making a start with Hosea, who happens to be the first in time of the other prophets.1 Blessed David, remember, as I said before, had clearly addressed in psalms all the vicissitudes that would befall the people; but silence prevailed during the intervening time for the reason that he had foretold everything satisfactorily. The time came, however , for the ten tribes to begin their suffering, the Assyrians besieging them to the point where Sennacherib completely removed them from their own places and transported them to other places.2 What had long been foretold by blessed David about the disasters that would befall the people had its beginning at that point,3 namely, what happened in the time when Hezekiah reigned over Judah together with Benjamin, divine 1. As noted in the Introduction, Theodore comes to the Twelve Prophets as a young (and intolerant) commentator. If not earlier than Amos among the classical prophets, Hosea is about the same time (in the view of modern commentators ; Amos occurs only third in the order of The Twelve in Theodore’s text—in accord with Jewish practice; see his opening to Comm Hg). 2. Theodore, unlike Theodoret (who finds him too historically-minded), immediately sets Hosea in the historical situation of Israel in the late eighth century . But both Fathers have a blind spot about Sargon II, who (perhaps along with his predecessor Shalmaneser V) should be credited—not his successor Sennacherib —with the fall of Samaria and deportation of the population. (Sargon goes unmentioned in the Bible also; Shalmaneser and the deportation are mentioned in 2 Kgs 17.1–6—another blindspot? or did Antioch’s text read “Sennacherib ”?) 3. Judah being “the people” in question. What is extant of Theodore’s Commentary on the Psalms shows him ready to see the psalmists’ foretelling future historical developments (within the OT). 37 grace communicated to the prophets when the events were close at hand. And before the others it communicated to Hosea, who was recounting what would befall them from God as though recalling what was said by David in the dim and distant past, [125]4 for him to show the Israelites to be responsible for the coming disasters, having, on the one hand, set aside the worship and appreciation of God, and, on the other, showered every attention on the idols and the demons. He was also to make clear that this was not happening by chance; rather, its occurrence has been told and foreseen well in advance by God, who understood these people’s wickedness and clearly realized how he needed to conduct affairs in their regard by way of preparation for the manifestation and coming of Christ the Lord.5 And so in fact to make clear to everyone that he has care for the people on account of the one expected to appear from their midst, on the one hand, he surrenders the ten tribes to captivity under the Assyrians, and, on the other, he keeps Judah alone in its place, since from it the Lord would appear as Christ according to the flesh. After it went into captivity at a later time for its sins, however, when Nebuchadnezzar was ruling the Babylonians , he caused it to return in marvelous fashion: though some few of each of the other tribes returned, the whole of Judah alone was brought back so that it might be obvious that God, had he wished, could have also brought back all the rest in a manner similar to it, but that he passed over the others and gave all his attention to it, from which the Lord was due to be revealed as Christ, who was coming for the salvation of all alike. Now, by the same token the pronouncements of the prophets also proved to be necessary in showing that what had both been decreed of old by God and mentioned by blessed David 38 THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA 4. For readers’ convenience, references are included in our text to the columns of PG 66. 5. Theodore thus maintains it is possible to have at the one time an historical and an eschatological viewpoint on biblical texts, God managing (oijkonomei'n) history with the Incarnation...