Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Hosea 1

There are 29 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 204, footnote 1 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter XIX.—Circumcision unknown before Abraham. The law was given by Moses on account of the hardness of their hearts. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1991 (In-Text, Margin)

... beginning of our race; yet, uncircumcised, along with his children he went into the ark. Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High, was uncircumcised; to whom also Abraham the first who received circumcision after the flesh, gave tithes, and he blessed him: after whose order God declared, by the mouth of David, that He would establish the everlasting priest. Therefore to you alone this circumcision was necessary, in order that the people may be no people, and the nation no nation; as also Hosea,[Hosea 1] one of the twelve prophets, declares. Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned, though they kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to God; and after them Abraham with all his descendants until Moses, under whom your nation appeared unrighteous ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 492, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XX.—That one God formed all things in the world, by means of the Word and the Holy Spirit: and that although He is to us in this life invisible and incomprehensible, nevertheless He is not unknown; inasmuch as His works do declare Him, and His Word has shown that in many modes He may be seen and known. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4106 (In-Text, Margin)

12. However, it was not by means of visions alone which were seen, and words which were proclaimed, but also in actual works, that He was beheld by the prophets, in order that through them He might prefigure and show forth future events beforehand. For this reason did Hosea the prophet take “a wife of whoredoms,” prophesying by means of the action, “that in committing fornication the earth should fornicate from the Lord,”[Hosea 1:2-3] that is, the men who are upon the earth; and from men of this stamp it will be God’s good pleasure to take out a Church which shall be sanctified by fellowship with His Son, just as that woman was sanctified by intercourse with the prophet. And for this reason, Paul ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 492, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XX.—That one God formed all things in the world, by means of the Word and the Holy Spirit: and that although He is to us in this life invisible and incomprehensible, nevertheless He is not unknown; inasmuch as His works do declare Him, and His Word has shown that in many modes He may be seen and known. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4109 (In-Text, Margin)

... earth should fornicate from the Lord,” that is, the men who are upon the earth; and from men of this stamp it will be God’s good pleasure to take out a Church which shall be sanctified by fellowship with His Son, just as that woman was sanctified by intercourse with the prophet. And for this reason, Paul declares that the “unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband.” Then again, the prophet names his children, “Not having obtained mercy,” and “Not a people,”[Hosea 1:6-9] in order that, as says the apostle, “what was not a people may become a people; and she who did not obtain mercy may obtain mercy. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said, This is not a people, there shall they be called the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 155, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1186 (In-Text, Margin)

... with manna, was wrought to the semblance of eternity, and not contaminated with human passions, or fed on this world’s meats, but fed on “angel’s loaves” —the manna—and sufficiently bound to God by His benefits—forgot his Lord and God, saying to Aaron: “Make us gods, to go before us: for that Moses, who ejected us from the land of Egypt, hath quite forsaken us; and what hath befallen him we know not.” And accordingly we, who “were not the people of God” in days bygone, have been made His people,[Hosea 1:10] by accepting the new law above mentioned, and the new circumcision before foretold.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 372, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
The Precept of Loving One's Enemies. It is as Much Taught in the Creator's Scriptures of the Old Testament as in Christ's Sermon. The Lex Talionis of Moses Admirably Explained in Consistency with the Kindness and Love Which Jesus Christ Came to Proclaim and Enforce in Behalf of the Creator.  Sundry Precepts of Charity Explained. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4077 (In-Text, Margin)

... charity first to the Jews, but afterwards extended it to the whole race of mankind. So long, therefore, as the mystery of His government was confined to Israel, He properly commanded that pity should be shown only to a man’s brethren; but when Christ had given to Him “the Gentiles for His heritage, and the ends of the earth for His possession,” then began to be accomplished what was said by Hosea: “Ye are not my people, who were my people; ye have not obtained mercy, who once obtained mercy”[Hosea 1:6] —that is, the (Jewish) nation. Thenceforth Christ extended to all men the law of His Father’s compassion, excepting none from His mercy, as He omitted none in His invitation. So that, whatever was the ampler scope of His teaching, He received it all ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 372, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
The Precept of Loving One's Enemies. It is as Much Taught in the Creator's Scriptures of the Old Testament as in Christ's Sermon. The Lex Talionis of Moses Admirably Explained in Consistency with the Kindness and Love Which Jesus Christ Came to Proclaim and Enforce in Behalf of the Creator.  Sundry Precepts of Charity Explained. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4077 (In-Text, Margin)

... charity first to the Jews, but afterwards extended it to the whole race of mankind. So long, therefore, as the mystery of His government was confined to Israel, He properly commanded that pity should be shown only to a man’s brethren; but when Christ had given to Him “the Gentiles for His heritage, and the ends of the earth for His possession,” then began to be accomplished what was said by Hosea: “Ye are not my people, who were my people; ye have not obtained mercy, who once obtained mercy”[Hosea 1:9] —that is, the (Jewish) nation. Thenceforth Christ extended to all men the law of His Father’s compassion, excepting none from His mercy, as He omitted none in His invitation. So that, whatever was the ampler scope of His teaching, He received it all ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 79, footnote 13 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Examples of Such Offences Under the Old Dispensation No Pattern for the Disciples of the New.  But Even the Old Has Examples of Vengeance Upon Such Offences. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 768 (In-Text, Margin)

... apostate, because we find the People itself, so often guilty of these crimes, as often reinstated in their former privileges. You will maintain communion, too, with the murderer: because Ahab, by deprecation, washed away (the guilt of) Naboth’s blood; and David, by confession, purged Uriah’s slaughter, together with its cause—adultery. That done, you will condone incests, too, for Lot’s sake; and fornications combined with incest, for Judah’s sake; and base marriages with prostitutes, for Hosea’s sake;[Hosea 1:2-3] and not only the frequent repetition of marriage, but its simultaneous plurality, for our fathers’ sakes: for, of course, it is meet that there should also be a perfect equality of grace in regard of all deeds to which indulgence was in days ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 73, footnote 9 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Oath Used by the Justinian Heretics; The Book of Baruch; The Repertory of Their System. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 602 (In-Text, Margin)

... water and water; and there is water, that below the firmament of the wicked creation, in which earthly and animal men are washed; and there is life-giving water, (that) above the firmament, of the Good One, in which spiritual (and) living men are washed; and in this Elohim washed Himself. and having washed did not repent. And when, he says, the prophet affirms, “Take unto yourself a wife of whoredom, since the earth has abandoned itself to fornication, (departing) from (following) after the Lord;”[Hosea 1:2] that is, Edem (departs) from Elohim. (Now) in these words, he says, the prophet clearly declares the entire mystery, and is not hearkened unto by reason of the wicked machinations of Naas. According to that same manner, they deliver other ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 512, footnote 11 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
That two peoples were foretold, the elder and the younger; that is, the old people of the Jews, and the new one which should consist of us. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3891 (In-Text, Margin)

In Genesis: “And the Lord said unto Rebekah, Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy belly; and the one people shall overcome the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” Also in Hosea: “I will call them my people that are not my people, and her beloved that was not beloved. For it shall be, in that place in which it shall be called not my people, they shall be called the sons of the living God.”[Hosea 1:10]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 621, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Novatian. (HTML)

A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)

That Christ is God, is Proved by the Authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5089 (In-Text, Margin)

Why, then, should we hesitate to say what Scripture does not shrink from declaring? Why shall the truth of faith hesitate in that wherein the authority of Scripture has never hesitated? For, behold, Hosea the prophet says in the person of the Father: “I will not now save them by bow, nor by horses, nor by horsemen; but I will save them by the Lord their God.”[Hosea 1:7] If God says that He saves by God, still God does not save except by Christ. Why, then, should man hesitate to call Christ God, when he observes that He is declared to be God by the Father according to the Scriptures? Yea, if God the Father does not save except by God, no one can be saved by God the Father unless he ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 43, footnote 4 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 201 (In-Text, Margin)

III. “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth,” both terrestrial and celestial things. And that this is true, the Lord said to Osee, “Go, take to thyself a wife of fornication, and children of fornication: because the land committing fornication, shall commit fornication, departing from the Lord.”[Hosea 1:2] For it is not the element of earth that he speaks of, but those that dwell in the element, those who have an earthly disposition.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 43, footnote 7 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 204 (In-Text, Margin)

IV. And that the Son is the beginning or head, Hosea teaches clearly: “And it shall be, that in the place in which it was said to them, Ye are not my people, they shall be called the children of the living God: and the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered to the same place, and they shall place over them one head, and they shall come up out of the land; for great is the day of Jezreel.”[Hosea 1:10-11] For whom one believes, him He chooses. But one believes the Son, who is the head; wherefore also he said in addition: “But I will have mercy on the sons of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God.” Now the Saviour who saves is the Son of God. He is then the head.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 43, footnote 8 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 205 (In-Text, Margin)

... said to them, Ye are not my people, they shall be called the children of the living God: and the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered to the same place, and they shall place over them one head, and they shall come up out of the land; for great is the day of Jezreel.” For whom one believes, him He chooses. But one believes the Son, who is the head; wherefore also he said in addition: “But I will have mercy on the sons of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God.”[Hosea 1:7] Now the Saviour who saves is the Son of God. He is then the head.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 322, footnote 1 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
“And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4659 (In-Text, Margin)

... was God. ” In the preceding section, my revered brother Ambrosius, brother formed according to the Gospel, we have discussed, as far as is at present in our power, what the Gospel is, and what is the beginning in which the Word was, and what the Word is which was in the beginning. We now come to consider the next point in the work before us, How the Word was with God. To this end it will be of service to remember that what is called the Word came to certain persons; as “The Word of the Lord[Hosea 1:1] which came to Hosea, the son of Beeri,” and “The Word which came to Isaiah, the son of Amos, concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem,” and “The Word which came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.” We must enquire how this Word came to Hosea, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 452, footnote 8 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)

Book XII. (HTML)
Why Jesus Called Them an Adulterous Generation.  The Law as Husband. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5581 (In-Text, Margin)

... also every power that is hostile, which gains the mastery over the human soul, and has intercourse with it, commits adultery with her who had a bridegroom given to her by God, namely, the Word. After these things it is written that “He left them and departed.” For how was the bridegroom—the Word—not going to leave the adulterous generation and depart from it? But you might say that the Word of God, leaving the synagogue of the Jews as adulterous, departed from it, and took a wife of fornication,[Hosea 1:2] namely, those from the Gentiles; since those who were “Sion, a faithful city,” have become harlots; but these have become like the harlot Rahab, who received the spies of Joshua, and was saved with all her house; after this no longer playing the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 508, footnote 16 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)

Book XIV. (HTML)
Christ and the Gentiles. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6205 (In-Text, Margin)

... said to this, that, if she shall be saved by her former husband returning and taking her to himself as wife, she will in any case be saved after she has been polluted. A priest, then, will not take to himself as a wife one who has been a harlot and an outcast, but no other, as being inferior to the priest, is hindered from doing so. But if you seek for the harlot in regard to the calling of the Gentiles, you may use the passage, “Take to yourself a wife of fornication, and children of fornication,”[Hosea 1:2] etc.; for, as “the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless,” so he who, casting out his former wife, takes in due season “a wife of fornication,” having done it according to the command of Him who says, when it is necessary, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 375, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)

Of the Times of the Prophets Whose Oracles are Contained in Books and Who Sang Many Things About the Call of the Gentiles at the Time When the Roman Kingdom Began and the Assyrian Came to an End. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1148 (In-Text, Margin)

In order that we may be able to consider these times, let us go back a little to earlier times. At the beginning of the book of the prophet Hosea, who is placed first of twelve, it is written, “The word of the Lord which came to Hosea in the days of Uzziah, Jothan, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”[Hosea 1:1] Amos also writes that he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, and adds the name of Jeroboam king of Israel, who lived at the same time. Isaiah the son of Amos—either the above-named prophet, or, as is rather affirmed, another who was not a prophet, but was called by the same name—also puts at the head of his book these four kings named by Hosea, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 375, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)

Of the Things Pertaining to the Gospel of Christ Which Hosea and Amos Prohesied. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1153 (In-Text, Margin)

The prophet Hosea speaks so very profoundly that it is laborious work to penetrate his meaning. But, according to promise, we must insert something from his book. He says, “And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there they shall be called the sons of the living God.”[Hosea 1:10] Even the apostles understood this as a prophetic testimony of the calling of the nations who did not formerly belong to God; and because this same people of the Gentiles is itself spiritually among the children of Abraham, and for that reason is rightly called Israel, therefore he goes on to say, “And the children of Judah and the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 375, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)

Of the Things Pertaining to the Gospel of Christ Which Hosea and Amos Prohesied. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1154 (In-Text, Margin)

... called the sons of the living God.” Even the apostles understood this as a prophetic testimony of the calling of the nations who did not formerly belong to God; and because this same people of the Gentiles is itself spiritually among the children of Abraham, and for that reason is rightly called Israel, therefore he goes on to say, “And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together in one, and shall appoint themselves one headship, and shall ascend from the earth.”[Hosea 1:11] We should but weaken the savor of this prophetic oracle if we set ourselves to expound it. Let the reader but call to mind that cornerstone and those two walls of partition, the one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles, and he will recognize them, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 562, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

On Christian Doctrine (HTML)

Book III (HTML)

Rule for Interpreting Those Sayings and Actions Which are Ascribed to God and the Saints, and Which Yet Seem to the Unskillful to Be Wicked. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1865 (In-Text, Margin)

... good report which is earned by a life of good works; and the man who wins this, while following in the footsteps of Christ, anoints His feet (so to speak) with the most precious ointment. And so that which in the case of other persons is often a sin, becomes, when ascribed to God or a prophet, the sign of some great truth. Keeping company with a harlot, for example, is one thing when it is the result of abandoned manners, another thing when done in the course of his prophecy by the prophet Hosea.[Hosea 1:2] Because it is a shamefully wicked thing to strip the body naked at a banquet among the drunken and licentious, it does not follow that it is a sin to be naked in the baths.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 274, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 789 (In-Text, Margin)

... dress which Tamar put on, knowing that her father-in-law was in the habit of associating with such characters; or how David, after having a number of wives, seduced the wife of his soldier Uriah, and caused Uriah himself to be killed in the battle; or how his son Solomon had three hundred wives, and seven hundred concubines, and princesses without number; or how the first prophet Hosea got children from a prostitute, and, what is worse, it is said that this disgraceful conduct was enjoined by God;[Hosea 1:2-3] or how Moses committed murder, and plundered Egypt, and waged wars, and commanded, or himself perpetrated, many cruelties. And he too was not content with one wife. We are neither directly nor remotely the authors of these and similar narratives, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 304, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 926 (In-Text, Margin)

80. Another of Faustus’ malicious and impious charges which has to be answered, is about the Lord’s saying to the prophet Hosea, "Take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms."[Hosea 1:2] As regards this passage, the impure mind of our adversaries is so blinded that they do not understand the plain words of the Lord in His gospel, when He says to the Jews, "The publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of heaven before you." There is nothing contrary to the mercifulness of truth, or inconsistent with Christian faith, in a harlot leaving fornication, and becoming a chaste wife. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 62, footnote 5 (Image)

Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Of the Synod at Ariminum, and the Creed there published. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 401 (In-Text, Margin)

... impiety, so that those who deny the Son to be eternal, have styled him eternal emperor. Thus are they proved to be the enemies of Christ by their profanity. But perhaps the holy prophets’ record of time afforded them a precedent for [noticing] the consulate! Now even if they should presume to make this pretext, they would most glaringly expose their own ignorance. The prophecies of these holy men do indeed mark the times. Isaiah and Hosea lived in the days of Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah;[Hosea 1:1] Jeremiah in the time of Josiah; Ezekiel and Daniel in the reign of Cyrus and Darius; and others uttered their predictions in other times. Yet they did not then lay the foundations of religion. That was in existence before them, and always was, even ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 100, footnote 5 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Paulinus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1465 (In-Text, Margin)

... regard the narrative, the words are simple enough, but if you look beneath the surface at the hidden meaning of it, you find a description of the small numbers of the church and of the wars which the heretics wage against it. The twelve prophets whose writings are compressed within the narrow limits of a single volume, have typical meanings far different from their literal ones. Hosea speaks many times of Ephraim, of Samaria, of Joseph, of Jezreel, of a wife of whoredoms and of children of whoredoms,[Hosea 1:2] of an adulteress shut up within the chamber of her husband, sitting for a long time in widowhood and in the garb of mourning, awaiting the time when her husband will return to her. Joel the son of Pethuel describes the land of the twelve tribes as ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 149, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Magnus an Orator of Rome. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2137 (In-Text, Margin)

... handmaid, a matron of the true Israel? Or that shaving off and cutting away all in her that is dead whether this be idolatry, pleasure, error, or lust, I take her to myself clean and pure and beget by her servants for the Lord of Sabaoth? My efforts promote the advantage of Christ’s family, my so-called defilement with an alien increases the number of my fellow-servants. Hosea took a wife of whoredoms, Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and this harlot bore him a son called Jezreel or the seed of God.[Hosea 1:2-4] Isaiah speaks of a sharp razor which shaves “the head of sinners and the hair of their feet;” and Ezekiel shaves his head as a type of that Jerusalem which has been an harlot, in sign that whatever in her is devoid of sense and life must be removed.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 234, footnote 17 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Ageruchia. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3282 (In-Text, Margin)

13. It is true that the patriarchs had each of them more wives than one and that they had numerous concubines besides. And as if their example was not enough, David had many wives and Solomon a countless number. Judah went in to Tamar thinking her to be a harlot; and according to the letter that killeth the prophet Hosea married not only a whore but an adulteress.[Hosea 1:2-3] If these instances are to justify us let us neigh after every woman that we meet; like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah let us be found by the last day buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage; and let us only end our marrying with the close of our lives. And if both before and after the deluge the maxim ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 82, footnote 4 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 729 (In-Text, Margin)

37. The fact is obvious from His own words. For He says to Hosea the prophet, I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but will altogether be their enemy. But I will have mercy upon the children of Judah, and will save them in the Lord their God[Hosea 1:6-7]. Here God the Father gives the name of God, without any ambiguity, to the Son, in Whom also He chose us before countless ages. Their God, He says, for while the Father, being Unoriginate, is independent of all, He has given us for an inheritance to His Son. In like manner we read, Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thine inheritance. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 223, footnote 5 (Image)

Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)

Ephraim Syrus:  Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. (HTML)

Hymn I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 359 (In-Text, Margin)

... fulfilled, and thus were the whole of them indeed performed! For the Virgin this day brought forth Immanuel in Bethlehem. The voice that of old Isaiah spake, to-day became reality. He was born there who in writing should tell the Gentiles’ number! The Psalm that David once sang, by its fulfilment came to-day! The word that Micah once spake, to-day was come indeed to pass! For there came from Ephrata a Shepherd, and His staff swayed over souls. Lo! from Jacob shone the Star, and from Israel rose the Head.[Hosea 1:11] The prophecy that Balaam spake had its interpreting to-day! Down also came the hidden Light, and from the Body rose His beauty! The light that spake in Zachary, to-day shined in Bethlehem!

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 298, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)

Ephraim Syrus:  The Pearl.  Seven Hymns on the Faith. (HTML)

Hymn VI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 542 (In-Text, Margin)

He blamed the righteous,[Hosea 1:2] and He held up and lifted up [to view] their delinquencies: He pitied sinners, and restored them without cost: and made low the mountains of their sins: He proved that God is not to be arraigned by men, and as Lord of Truth, that His servants were His shadow; and whatsoever way His will looked, they directed also their own wills; and because Light was in Him, their shadows were enlightened.

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs