was Amos, for that reason, an uneducated
man? This is a question which one may answer either in the affirmative
or negative, according to what he understands by education. So much is
certain, that he was in possession of the essential part of a true
Israelitish education--viz., the knowledge of the law. The most
intimate acquaintance with the Pentateuch everywhere manifests itself;
compare in proof of this the _Dissertations on the Genuineness of the
Pentateuch_, i. p. 136 ff. There are too many instances, down to most
recent times, of living piety breaking, in this respect, through almost
impenetrable barriers, to allow us to consider this as a strange thing,
and to make it necessary for us to excogitate the various ways and
means by which Amos may have received this education. It is only on the
lower ground of the mere forms of language, that the rank of Amos not
unfrequently appears. In all the higher relations he shows himself a
type of the Apostles, who, although they were uneducated fishermen of
Galilee, exhibit the most distinguishing proofs of true education.

Amos belonged to that circle of prophets who received a commission to
prophesy the ruin which was impending over the Covenant-people, before
any human probability existed for it. _Baur_, on Amos, S. 60, is of
opinion that "the definiteness with which he prophesies the destruction
of the kingdom of [Pg 355] Jeroboam, although its power was at that
time still flourishing, leads us to expect that he must have had
distinct indications of its speedy decay." In a certain sense we may
assent to this opinion. The prophet himself continually points to such
indications. These indications are the sins of the people. But if
_Baur_ endeavours to put political indications in the stead of these
moral ones; if he be of opinion that the Assyrians must, at that time,
have stood in a threatening attitude in the background, we must give to
his opinion a decided opposition. We can, in such an assertion, see
only an effect of that naturalistic mode of viewing things, which would
limit the horizon of the prophets to that of their own times.[2] Not
the slightest allusion to the Assyrians occurs. The supposition that
Calneh or Ktesiphon, in chap. vi. 2, appears as having already fallen
(through the Assyrians), rests upon an incorrect interpretation, just
as does the assertion that Hamath, in the same passage, is supposed to
be conquered; concerning the latter point, compare _Theni