Amos

St. Epiphanius in the Life of Amos, and Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Stromata, hold that Amos was the father of Isaiah; for he himself in chapter 1, 1, calls himself the son of Amos. But that this Amos is different from Amos the father of Isaiah is taught by St. Jerome, St. Basil in chapter 1 of Isaiah, St. Augustine, XVIII On the City of God XXVII, Isidore in the Life of Amos, and others. "The Prophet Amos," says St. Jerome, "is not the same one whom we read was the father of the prophet Isaiah. For that one is written אמוץ amots with the first letter aleph and the last tsade, and is interpreted as strong and robust; but this one is written עמוס amos with ain and samech, and is interpreted as a people torn away; and soon after: 'he was from the town of Thecua, which is six thousand paces to the south of holy Bethlehem, which brought forth the Savior of the world, and beyond it there is no other village, not even rustic huts and furnaces like those which the Africans call mapalia. So great is the desolation of the desert, which extends all the way to the Red Sea, and to the borders of the Persians and Ethiopians and Indians. And because nothing whatsoever grows in the dry and sandy soil, everything is full of shepherds, so that they might compensate for the barrenness of the land by the multitude of flocks. From this number of shepherds Amos the prophet was also one, unskilled in speech, but not in wisdom. For the same Spirit who spoke through all the Prophets spoke in him.' Thus St. Jerome. Concerning the dry soil St. Cyril disagrees, who holds that Thecua was irrigated, and therefore suitable for pasturing: 'In which,' he says, 'very many nations pasture their flocks; for on account of its extent, irrigation, and the diversity of herbs, it is very well suited for feeding flocks of sheep.' Amos was therefore a rustic and a herdsman, and from this the Holy Spirit, who exalts the humble, raised him to prophecy, just as David and others whom the Nazianzen recounts in oration 25, and St. Gregory in homily 30 on the Gospel. Hence he frequently takes comparisons from the countryside. The Rabbis Solomon and David fable that the land of Thecua, being fertile in olives, produced wise men; for regions abounding in olives produce wise men, and therefore Amos names Thecua as the place of his origin, so that from this it might be clear that his wisdom came from there. But this is their fable in the usual manner, perhaps drawn from the Gentiles, who make Minerva, who is the goddess of wisdom, the inventor of the olive, according to that passage of Virgil, Georgics I: 'Be present, O Tegean father, and thou Minerva, Inventor of the olive.'

The Prophet Amos is clearly cited by St. Stephen disputing against the Jews, Acts VII, 42. Isidore in the Life of Amos writes that he prophesied under Amaziah king of Judah, and was struck by him, and was pierced through the temples by his son Oziah with a stake and killed. But his memory failed him, and he was deceived by the identity of the names Amaziah and Oziah. For this Amaziah, the striker of Amos, was not a king, but a priest of idols in Bethel, as is clear from Amos VII, 10. The same is clear from the chronology: for Amos began to prophesy, not under Amaziah the king, but under his son Oziah, as he himself says in chapter 1, 1. Thus Epiphanius in the Life of Amos, the Roman Martyrology, 31 March, Torniellus in the Annals, in the year of the world 3208, and others throughout. "Amos," says Adrichomius in the Description of the Holy Land, "prophesying in Bethel against Israel, was pierced through the temples with a stake, and expired in Thecua from the pain of the wound, whose sepulcher was still shown there in the time of St. Jerome, as he himself writes here in chapter 1 and in Jeremiah, chapter VI, and in the Hebrew Places. But hear St. Jerome himself: 'Amos began to prophesy somewhat before Isaiah (whence also Eusebius in the Chronicle places Amos and Hosea before Isaiah), and spoke especially against the ten tribes, inserting a few things about the two. Him, taken from the number of shepherds, the Lord sent to prophesy in Samaria, whom Amaziah the priest (of calves in Bethel) frequently afflicted with blows; finally his son Hosea pierced him through the temples with a stake. After this, half-dead, he was carried to his own land, and after some days he expired from the pain of the wound, and was buried with his fathers.'"