Hosea 1-2 and the Search for Unity

Abstract

Hosea’s early chapters have borne the weight of much of the critical commentary and scholarly discussion of the book throughout the history of its interpretation. Although much of this attention has been the result of what Yvonne Sherwood has termed the ‘critical obsession with Hosea’s marriage’, and its related assumptions about the biographical basis of this material, much of this scrutiny has also focused on the issues of genre and literary structure. Hosea is affirmed as a unified work of exceptional quality, in spite of the initial impression the text often gives of being comprised of distinct and loosely connected units whose meaning is obscured by an admittedly corrupt textual tradition. Chapters 1-2 are often described as a microcosm of this exceptionally subtle book, although this study’s close examination of these chapters calls scholarly affirmations of Hosea’s unity into question.