5. The Context of the Text
The Longman Contemporary English Dictionary describes the term context as the situation, events, or information that are related to something, and that help one to understand it better. By establishing the immediate and remote contexts of the Text under study, we shall be able to remain relevant to the intended set up of the text.
5.1 Immediate Context In his own personal testimony, the prophet Hosea recounts his vocation to renew his efforts in loving a woman. The said woman is, by her previous foolishness, trapped in an adulterous relationship. Hosea’s actions in chapter 3 are supremely the aspirations of chapter 2. It therefore presupposes that Gomer’s infidelity to Hosea and his rejection of her are described in chapter 2; and in this chapter under study, out of Divine command, Hosea relates his subsequent display of redemptive love toward her. In chapter 4, what follow immediately is Israel’s …show more content…
According Hos1:1, Hosea can be said to have began to prophesying towards the end of the 8th Century B.C. At the time of his prophecy, Jeroboam II, who reigned from 786 BCE to 746 BCE was on the throne. In Hosea’s career as a prophet, he witnessed a transition from a prosperous nation through a comparatively stable epoch to periods of social turbulence and political disaster. Hosea’s prophecy can rightfully be dated during the last periods of Jeroboam II’s reign. Such a conclusion has been quite elusive, this is because, some prophecies such as the prediction of the judgment in the line of Jehu (Hosea 1:4) appears to be associated with the earlier parts of Hosea’s ministry. Zechariah too is assassinated in 752 B.C. which was only six months into Jeroboam’s reign. Equally, the charges labelled against Israel in the first section of the book of Hosea (ch 1-3) seem best related to the later periods of the reign of Jeroboam
The Longman Contemporary English Dictionary describes the term context as the situation, events, or information that are related to something, and that help one to understand it better. By establishing the immediate and remote contexts of the Text under study, we shall be able to remain relevant to the intended set up of the text.
5.1 Immediate Context In his own personal testimony, the prophet Hosea recounts his vocation to renew his efforts in loving a woman. The said woman is, by her previous foolishness, trapped in an adulterous relationship. Hosea’s actions in chapter 3 are supremely the aspirations of chapter 2. It therefore presupposes that Gomer’s infidelity to Hosea and his rejection of her are described in chapter 2; and in this chapter under study, out of Divine command, Hosea relates his subsequent display of redemptive love toward her. In chapter 4, what follow immediately is Israel’s …show more content…
According Hos1:1, Hosea can be said to have began to prophesying towards the end of the 8th Century B.C. At the time of his prophecy, Jeroboam II, who reigned from 786 BCE to 746 BCE was on the throne. In Hosea’s career as a prophet, he witnessed a transition from a prosperous nation through a comparatively stable epoch to periods of social turbulence and political disaster. Hosea’s prophecy can rightfully be dated during the last periods of Jeroboam II’s reign. Such a conclusion has been quite elusive, this is because, some prophecies such as the prediction of the judgment in the line of Jehu (Hosea 1:4) appears to be associated with the earlier parts of Hosea’s ministry. Zechariah too is assassinated in 752 B.C. which was only six months into Jeroboam’s reign. Equally, the charges labelled against Israel in the first section of the book of Hosea (ch 1-3) seem best related to the later periods of the reign of Jeroboam