Commentary on the book of the prophet Amos

Between 412 and 418 St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote a series of interpretations on the minor prophets - a total of 12 parts, according to the number of prophetic books. The preface to each book describes the historical setting and purpose of the prophecies. The beginning of the preface to the interpretation of the Book of the Prophet Hosea is an introduction to the entire corpus of interpretations. Interpretations of St. Kirill are reduced to the unity of typological (proto-educational), spiritual (anagogical) and literal (historical) methods. In his opinion, the books of the prophets do not need allegorical interpretation to clarify their Christological meaning, since by their nature they prophesy about Christ. For St. Cyril of Alexandria, there are only two meanings of Holy Scripture: literal and spiritual, which seem to penetrate each other. The area of ​​spiritual interpretation certainly includes the disclosure of moral meaning, examples of which are contained in these comments. Amos was a goat herder and was raised in herding customs and laws. He spent his life in the desert, located south of the country of Judea, reaching the borders of the Indian Sea and extending to the Persian land; here countless tribes of barbarians graze their flocks; it provides very many conveniences for feeding flocks of sheep: for it is abundant in water, extensive and covered with a variety of herbs. Amos was from Fekua, a village located at the very borders of the desert. He was a virtuous man and a zealous doer of all good, and soon received the prophetic spirit and began to prophesy not in Jerusalem, but in the pastures themselves, at the beginning having concern for his people and their welfare. Then he reached Bethel itself, for Tekuah did not belong to Judah, but to the kingdom of Ephraim. And that our speeches about this are not subject to doubt, you can easily see and be convinced of this from his own words. He prophesied, as I said, at Bethel, saying that “the treasury of laughter will be consumed, and the churches of Israel will be made empty.” And to this he added: “And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboaml with weapons.” Amaziah was the priest at Bethel. This one forbade the Prophet to preach: then he sent word to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying: “Amos is committing debauchery against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the earth will not be able to bear up all his words. This is why Amos says: Jeroboam will die with weapons. But Israel, captive, will be taken away from their land. And Amaziah spoke to Amos, “See, come, and go to the land of Judah, and live there, and prophesy there.” But in Bethel therefore do not prophesy, for the sanctification of the king is, and the house is of the kingdom. And Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet, nor a son to prophesy, but a shepherd, and he took away the buttocks: and the Lord gave me food from the sheep, and said to me: Go, and prophets against my people of Israel” (Amos 7:9-15). So he was taken (to prophetic service) from his shepherd occupations and prophesied in Bethel, where the first Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, built a golden heifer. I think it is not useless to point out that there was another Amos, the father of Isaiah. And what his speeches were and to whom they related, we will reveal this to the best of our ability, when explaining the proposed subject. You might be interested in: