Commentary on Hosea
John Chrysostom (347–407)
Therefore in a way similar to those of old who took harlots for wives, even so God too espoused to himself the nature that had played the harlot. This the prophets from the beginning declare to have taken place with respect to the synagogue. But that spouse was ungrateful toward him who had been a husband to her, whereas the church, when once delivered from the evils received from our fathers, continued to embrace the Bridegroom.
Here to prevent their saying that you are deceiving us here with specious reasoning, he calls Hosea to witness, who cries and says, "I will call them my people, who were not my people." Who then are the not-people? Plainly, the Gentiles. And who are the not-beloved? The same again. However, he says, they shall become at once people, and beloved, and children of God. "For even they shall be called," he says, "the children of the living God." But if they should assert that this was said of those of the Jews who believed, even then the argument stands. For if with those who after so many benefits were hardhearted and estranged and had lost their being as a people, so great a change was wrought, what is there to prevent even those who were not estranged after…
See also
Enable JavaScript to read the full text and search the library.