Chapter 1

Argument

¹ …having spoken also concerning the things to come, but being inspired rather as to the things that had already happened; for it is not the foretelling of things to come, or these alone, that makes a prophet;[1] …to Caiaphas. But the demonic foreknowledge belongs only to the ministers of the demons, professing to know the future through corpses, and meal, and rams, and entrails, and the flight of birds, and other tokens. And the foreknowledge of the saints is through virtue, but that other through evil craft; and the one is for the correction of souls, while that of the demons seems to foretell concerning wars and money, and diseases, and all such bodily things, or things hurtful to the soul as well. And whatever dreadful things those men foretell come to pass as a coincidence of men telling the truth, and not through anything that depends on us; but whatever the saints foretell both comes to pass through what depends on us, and does not come to pass through the same; for it is that the hearers may be made better that these things are foretold. God too foretells dreadful things, and lays down the undoing of them; and this is our betterment;[2] when, therefore, we are bettered, the things threatened are not brought upon us; but when we are not bettered, they are brought upon us inexorably.[3] And those demons have need of instruments, and matter, and places, and[4] they divine for money also; but to the saints God himself is all these things, and virtue.

² There is also a natural foreknowledge: many of the animals have it — ants, hedgehogs, halcyons — and they foreknow by nature rains and winds and storms. And there is a foreknowledge by skill, among physicians and helmsmen. And there are also certain men who guess at the future from sagacity, whom we often use as counselors; as Balaam counseled Balak to put harlots forward, guessing that through them Israel would give offense to God.[5] And there is a common and popular foreknowledge: as that for three months it will be spring, or summer. Now all the rest are called foreknowledge and prophecy by a common name; but properly prophecy and foreknowledge is that which is given by God, whether through virtue to the worthy, or through dispensation to the unworthy.

³ Not every divine prophecy is written down, but countless men have prophesied unwritten as well; yet those who after David and Solomon are acknowledged to have prophesied conspicuously to the people are reckoned at sixteen; of whom the twelve are accounted worthy of a single volume — not as being contemporaries (for at different times different ones prophesied), but because the things they composed were not of many lines, nor long, nor such that each would suffice for the composition of a single book. Gathered together, the writings of all at once filled out one book; while the four, as being most copious of voice, were marked off into four books. In all of them, however, there is observed an obscurity, both because the discourses are concerning things to come (for every prediction has in it something overshadowed), and further because they were translated out of the Hebrew tongue into the Greek; for many of the idioms of that tongue do not fit this one, whence obscurity also is bred. And if one is more obscure than another, one ought not to wonder; as Isaiah is than both, or Ezekiel than Jeremiah. For obscurity comes about in many ways: either through the nature of the things declared — as it is with the description of the building of the tabernacle in Moses, and in Ezekiel the construction of the temple; or through the hearers, who are not worthy to hear things more plainly — as the Lord too spoke to the crowds in parables. And often the obscurity is bred through the peculiarity of the speaker in his manner of reporting. As here too: the Holy Spirit suggested to each of the prophets, but they thereafter reported the things of the Spirit as each was able; he used the same men. Just as is the standing and folly of the demons,[6] but he willed that they should both know and understand. So that they spoke all things with their own judgment as well; for let us by no means agree with those of the godless Montanus who say that the prophets, possessed by God, do not know what they say. For where then is the saying, Out of the mouth? and where the saying, The Lord will do nothing, unless he reveal his instruction?[7] …not of his sort, nor his yoke-fellow. And the baptism of the Lord, John, and Simeon, and Anna, and the daughter of Philip. And simply, those in each Church, as Paul through many testimonies bears witness, writing to the Hebrews; and a prophet after those among him[8] and for certain other unspeakable reasons, the Paraclete who distributes these things would know; but inasmuch as it has come to us, on account of the firmness of the faith already established. For just as the builders of arches prop them up while they are newly framed, putting certain supports beneath them, but when they have become firm, take those away; so also in the Churches,[9] while the faith was newly framed, there entered in the gift of prophecy to be a citizen among them, holding it up and supporting it. For if any unbeliever, it says, enter into a church, being reproved by those who prophesy, falling down he worships God, and confesses that God is truly among you. But now that the word has been made firm, there is no longer need of the prop; and the crowns are more now, when, seeing nothing such as those of old saw, we nevertheless do not stand away from the firmness in the faith. And perhaps one will also reflect upon this: that the times of old needed prophets, both to introduce other things to the people, and to foreshow the coming of Christ; but moreover the things concerning the consummation, and the son of lawlessness, and the cessation after these things, had been foretold beforehand by the Lord and the apostles; and whatever tends toward an earnest and heavenly life. Since, then, nothing further is lacking, and so necessary that prophecy must be spoken, the gift was reasonably withdrawn. And perhaps it would even have lifted up the lighter sort into conceit, and through the good a death would have been wrought. Concerning these things, then, enough.

⁴ And since among the twelve prophets Hosea is set first — both as far surpassing the others in time, and although a contemporary of Amos and Joel (for these too prophesied under the same kings), yet as having begun to prophesy before them — we must take him in hand first, having called upon the goodness of the Spirit, that what it inspired in him it may make plain to us, so far as may be. Now Hosea is interpreted “Saved”; and he is entrusted with the prophecy for the correction of all the people. For when Jeroboam, the man of the tribe of Ephraim, having drawn off the ten tribes from the remaining two — that of Judah and that of Benjamin — established a kingdom of his own in Samaria, and persuaded the people under him, the ten tribes which were named Israel and Ephraim, to worship idols, the Lord was angered. And since they were in need of chastisement and instruction, and were worthy to be delivered to their enemies, he sends the prophet to proclaim to them beforehand what they would suffer, if they should not turn back to him. For God threatens punishments, not that he may bring them on, but that by fear he may terrify the hearers, and so, being set right, they may escape the punishments; but to the two tribes also, which had the kingdom in Jerusalem (and they were as a whole called Judah, because the tribe of Judah was the more dominant; though sometimes they were also called Benjamin), the prophet is sent, foreshowing both the benefit that would come to them from God in the matter of Sennacherib, and proclaiming beforehand the evils that would come after these things; and through both leading them to correction. But neither were the ten persuaded (wherefore they were given over to utter destruction: first, when Hazael the Syrian warred them down, and Pul the Assyrian exacted tribute, and after him Tiglath-pileser made many of their cities desolate; and last, when Shalmaneser carried them all away as colonists into Babylon), nor were the two tribes set right. Yet God showed his own love for mankind, that he might teach us also to display the same. According to the letter, then, such is the aim of Hosea’s prophecy; but may the Spirit open our eyes, both to perceive from it the wonders, and to behold the mystery according to Christ through the mirror of the letter, and to see the beauty of virtue appearing in it, and calling us forth to the adornment of our ways.