Fragment from the Commentary on Hosea

1Whenever Scripture says things in awkward wording that confuse the reader at the level of the letter, the reader suspects that the passages have not been written correctly, or consistently, or as they actually stand. Some even dare, under pretext of correction, to alter them, changing the sense that lies in passages which seem to have been written consistently. Since the same thing has occurred here, as far as the letter of the passages before us is concerned, we must look at the sense lying in them.

For the prophet first speaks in the plural: "They wept and begged me." Then he makes the next statement in the plural as well: "Being in the house, they found me." But what follows he brings in the singular, saying, "And there it was spoken to him." Anyone who looks only at the bare wording and thinks it was written by error will either write the last part in the plural or change the preceding parts to the singular.

2After reading, “They wept and begged me,” and, “Being in the house, they found me,” someone might say that what follows is also, “There it was spoken to them.” That is, to those who wept and begged, and who, being in the house, found God. And from observation of similar sayings we will show that this too has been said consistently.

In Genesis, when God gives a command to Adam, God speaks like this: “From every tree in the garden you may eat as food; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; and on whatever day you eat from it, by death you shall die” (Genesis 2:16-17). For there too, having begun from the singular in saying, “From every tree in the garden you may eat as food,” God brings in the plural, saying, “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; and on whatever day you eat from it, by death you shall die” (Genesis 2:17). For when it concerns the command through which God willed Adam to be in life by keeping it, he commands in the singular, and says, “From every tree in the garden you may eat as food” (Genesis 2:16).

3Those who walk according to God and hold fast to his commandments, even if they are many, are one by being of one mind. For this reason, when a command about something good is given, it is said in the singular: “You shall eat for food” (Genesis 2:16). But when the matter of transgression is already being distinguished, he no longer speaks in the singular but in the plural: “You shall not eat from it; and on whatever day you eat, by death you shall die” (Genesis 2:17).

So here too, while they are still weeping and beseeching God, it is said in the plural: “They wept and beseeched” (Hosea 12:4). But when they find God, he no longer says in the plural, “There it was spoken to them,” but “to him” (Hosea 12:4). For the many have already become one in having found God and in hearing his word.

4For the one who sins becomes many, because he is split off from God and divided, and he falls out of the unity. But the many who follow the commandments of God are one. The Apostle testifies to this when he says: “Because we, the many, are one bread and one body”. And again: “One God, and one Christ, and one faith, and one baptism”. And elsewhere: “Because we are all one in Christ Jesus”. And again: “For I betrothed you all to one husband, a pure virgin, to present to the Lord”.

And that those who please the Lord are one can be seen from the prayer that the Savior prays to the Father for his disciples. “Holy Father,” he says, “grant that just as I and you are one, so also these may be one in us.” And when the saints are said to be members of one another, what else are they but one body? And in the Shepherd of Hermas, when the building of the tower is built from many stones but the building appears to be from one stone, what else does Scripture signify but the harmony and unity that comes from many?