Elijah

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Elijah was a prophet in Israel in the 9th century BCE. He appears in the Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Mishnah, Christian Bible, and the Qur'an. According to the Books of Kings, Elijah raised the dead, miraculously demonstrated that Yahweh (and not Baal) is God, and was taken into heaven on a whirlwind. Based on a prophecy in Malachi, Jews await his return as the harbinger of the Messiah.

Christians (but not all^[1]) believe that Elijah arrived prior to Jesus Christ as John the Baptist (Matthew 17:10-13) but was not recognized, and appeared with Moses during the transfiguration of Jesus.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 In the Hebrew Bible 2.1 Christian controversy over Elijah's assumption into heaven 3 Other Biblical Elijahs 4 New Testament references 5 Elijah in other traditions 6 Bibliography 7 External links

[edit] Etymology

His name (אֵלִיָּהוּ or אֵלִיָּה, Standard Hebrew Eliyáhu or Eliyáh, Tiberian Hebrew ʾĒliyyāhû or ʾĒliyyāhû), also Elias (NT Greek Hλίας), Ilia (NT Bulgarian and Russian Илия) has been variously translated as "Yah is God,” "whose God is Yah,” "the strong Yah,” "God of Yah,” "Yah is my God,” and "my God is Yah.” Given his opposition to any worship save that of Yahweh, the name seems to have been one he took for himself^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] In the Hebrew Bible

Elijah is first introduced in 1 Kings 17:1 as Elijah "The Tishbite." He gives a warning to Ahab, king of Israel, that there will be years of drought, a drought so severe that not even dew will fall. This catastrophe will come because Ahab and his queen--Jezebel, stand at the end of a line of kings of Israel who are said to have "done evil in the sight of the Lord." In particular, Ahab and Jezebel had encouraged the worship of Baal and killed the prophets of Yahweh (YHWH (יהוה)).

After Elijah's confrontation with Ahab, God tells him to flee to a hiding place by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan, where he will be fed by ravens. When the brook dries up, God sends him to a widow living in the town of Zarephath. When Elijah finds her and asks to be fed, she complains that she does not have sufficient food to keep her and her own son alive. Elijah tells her that God will not allow her supply of flour or oil to run out. Sometime later, the widow's son dies. Elijah prays that God might restore the son. 1 Kings 17:22 relates how God "heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived."

After more than two years of drought and famine, God tells Elijah to return to Ahab and announce the end of the drought. While on his way, Elijah meets Obadiah, the head of Ahab's household, who had hidden a hundred prophets of Yahweh when Ahab and Jezebel had been killing them. Elijah sends Obadiah back to Ahab to announce his return to Israel. When Ahab confronts Elijah, he refers to him as the "troubler of Israel." Elijah responds by saying that it is Ahab who has troubled Israel by allowing the worship of false gods.

At this point Elijah proposes a test of the powers of Baal and Yahweh. The people of Israel, 450 prophets of Baal, and 450 prophets of Asherah are summoned to Mount Carmel. Two altars are built, one for Baal and one for Yahweh. Wood is laid on the altars. Two oxen are slaughtered and cut into pieces; the pieces are laid on the wood. Elijah then invites the priests of Baal to pray for fire to light the sacrifice. They pray from morning to noon without success. Elijah ridicules their efforts. They respond by cutting themselves and adding their own blood to the sacrifice. They continue praying until evening without success.

Elijah now orders that the altar of Yahweh, and its sacrifice, be drenched with water (twelve barrels of water). He asks God to accept the sacrifice. Fire falls from the sky igniting the sacrifice. The people who witness this immediately begin worshiping Yahweh. Elijah siezes the moment and orders the death of the priests of Baal. This episode ends with the return of rains to Israel.

Jezebel, enraged that Elijah had ordered the deaths of her priests, threatens to kill Elijah (1 Kings 19:1-13). Elijah flees to Beersheba on the edge of the Sinai, goes alone into the wilderness, and finally sets down under a juniper tree and prays that he should be allowed to die. He falls asleep under the tree; an angel touches him and tells him to wake and eat. When he wakes he finds a bit of bread and a jar of water. He eats, drinks, and goes back to sleep. The angel comes a second time and tells him to eat and drink because he has a long journey ahead of him.

Elijah travels (forty days and forty nights) to Mount Horeb and seeks shelter in a cave. God again speaks to Elijah: (1 Kings 19:9) "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Elijah lays out all his complaints and his despair. Up until this time Elijah has only the word of God to guide him, but now he is told to go outside the cave and "stand before the Lord." A terrible wind passes, but God is not in the wind. A great earthquake shakes the mountain, but God is not in the earthquake. Then a fire passes the mountain, but God is not in the fire. Then a "still small voice" comes to Elijah and asks again, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Elijah responds again with his complaints and his sense of hopelessness. God responds by sending him out again, this time to Damascus to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as his replacement.

The second encounter with Elijah (1 Kings 21) occurs when Ahab has acquired possession of a vineyard by murder. Ahab desires to have the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel. He offers a better vineyard or a fair price for the land. But, Naboth tells Ahab that God has told him not to part with the land. On hearing this, Jezebel plots a method for acquiring the land. She sends letters, in Ahab's name, to the elders and nobels who lived near Naboth. They are to arrange a feast and invite Naboth. At the feast, false charges of cursing God and Ahab are to be made against him. This is done and Naboth is stoned to death. When word comes that Naboth is dead, Jezebel tells Ahab to take possession of the vineyard.

God again speaks to Elijah and sends him to confront Ahab with a prophesy: "In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick up your own blood (1 Kings 22:19)." Ahab begins the confrontation by calling Elijah his enemy. Elijah responds by telling him that he has made himself the enemy of God by his own actions.

Elijah then goes beyond the prophecy he was given and tells Ahab that his entire kingdom will reject his authority; that Jezebel will be eaten by dogs within Jezreel; and, his family will be consumed by dogs (if they die in a city) or by birds (if they die in the country). When Ahab hears this he repents to such a degree that God relents in punishing Ahab but will punish Jezebel and their son--Ahaziah.

The third encounter is between Elijah and [Ahaziah]. It opens with Ahaziah serrously ill. He sends to the priests of Baal [Ballzebub] in [Ekron] to know if it will be a fatal illness. Elijah intercepts his messengers and sends them back to Ahaziah with a judgment: Because he chooses Baal over Yahweh "you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die (2 Kings 1:7)." Ahaziah asks the messengers to describe the person who gave them this message. They tell him he wore a hairy coat with a leather belt and he instantly recognizes the description as Elijah the Tishbite.

Ahaziah sends out three groups of soldiers to arrest Elijah. The first two Elijah calls down fire to destroy. The leader of the third group asks for mercy for himself and his men. Elijah agrees to accompany this third group to Ahaziah where he gives his prophecy in person.

Elijah's career in the Hebrew Bible now draws to a close. Elijah, in company with Elisha, approaches the river Jordan. He rolls up his mantle and strikes the water (2 Kings 2:8). The water immediately divides and Elijah and Elisha cross on dry land. Suddenly, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and Elijah was lifted up to heaven in a whirlwind. As Elijah was lifted up, his mantle fell and Elisha picked it up.

Elijah's final memtion in the Hebrew Bible is in Malachi in connection with the "end times," or eschaton. The great day of the Loard is said to be comming. That day will be like a great furnace. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them (Malachi 4:1)." But before this terrable day of judgment, Elijah will come to announce the comming of the Messiah and to reconcicle the generations.

Elijah is memtioned once more in 2nd Chronicles 21. A letter is sent under the prophets's name to Jehoram. It tells him that he has lead the people of Judah astray in the same way that Israel was led astray. The prophet ends the letter with a prophecy of a painful death.

This letter is problematic for several reasons. First, it concers a king of the southern kingdom, when Elijah concernd himself with the kindgom of Israel. Second, the message begins with "Thus has Yahweh God of you father David" rather that the more ususal "in the name of Yahweh the God of Israel." Also, this letter does come after Elijah's assention in a whirlwind. Jacob Myers suggests a number of possible reasons for this. Chief among them is that this may be an example of a better known prophet's name being substututed for that of a lesser known prophet.^[2]

Jews believe that the prophet Elijah will return to foretell the coming of the promised Messiah due to what the Prophet Malachi had said (Mal 4:5,6).

[edit] Christian controversy over Elijah's assumption into heaven

The Gospel of John quotes Jesus as saying that none have gone to heaven other than the Son of Man (Jesus Himself). Accordingly, some Christians believe that Elijah was not assumed into heaven but simply transferred to another assignment, to wicked King Jehoram of Judah. Here he writes a letter to the King expressing God's condemnation which soon is fulfilled (2Ch 21:12-15; 2Ch 21:7, 16-20; 22:1; 1Ch 3:10, 11). We know these events take place after Elijah leaves Elisha due to the fact that King Jehoram ruled after the separation of Elijah and Elisha; for eight years starting from 913 B.C.E. at the age of 32 (2Ki 1:17; 8:16, 2Ki 8:17, 2Ch 21:1-3, 5, 20). This is in harmony with the fact that Elisha did not mourn for Elijah as was the custom for the dead in his day; although mourning would not necessarily have been appropriate for one assumed into heaven while living.^[3]

Other Christians understand that Elijah was taken to the Bosom of Abraham where he awaited the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

[edit] Other Biblical Elijahs

The Elijah spoken of in 2 Chronicles 21:12-15 is supposed by some to be a different person from the foregoing. He lived in the time of Jehoram, to whom he sent a letter of warning (compare 1 Chr. 28:19; Jeremiah 36), and acted as a prophet in Judah; while the Tishbite was a prophet of the northern kingdom. But there does not seem any necessity for concluding that the writer of this letter was some other Elijah than the Tishbite. It may be supposed either that Elijah anticipated the character of Jehoram, and so wrote the warning message, which was preserved in the schools of the prophets till Jehoram ascended the throne after the Tishbite's translation, or that the translation did not actually take place until after the accession of Jehoram to the throne (2 Chr. 21:12; 2 Kings 8:16). The events of 2 Kings 2 may not be recorded in chronological order, and thus there may be room for the opinion that Elijah was still alive in the beginning of Jehoram's reign.

How deep the impression which Elijah made "on the mind of the nation" of Israel may have been, can be judged from the fixed belief, which rested on the words of Malachi (4:5, 6), which many centuries after, prevailed that Elijah would again appear for the relief and restoration of the country. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."(Malachi 4:5-6, King James)

In some aspects of Judaism, there is a tradition of leaving an empty chair at the feast table, or in the assembly place specifically reserved for Elijah, or perhaps to serve as a reminder of his promised return.

When Jesus asks who people say the Son of Man or Christ is, his disciples replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets" (Matthew 16:14), which was referring to the belief of some of the Jews at the time that Jesus was, in fact, Elijah returned from heaven.

[edit] New Testament references

None of the prophets is so frequently referred to in the New Testament as is Elijah. The priests and Levites said to John the Baptist (John 1:25), "Why, then, dost thou baptize, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah?" Paul (Romans 11:2) refers to an incident in his history to illustrate his argument that God had not cast away His people that He foreknew. James (5:17) finds in him an illustration of the power of prayer. (See also Luke 4:25; 9:54.)

John the Baptist shared several characteristics with Elijah: the reproofs of both were noted for their sternness and power (Luke 9:8); and according to Matthew 11:11, John the Baptist was the Elijah that "was to come" (Matt. 11:11, 14). They also had "the same connection with a wild and wilderness country; the same long retirement in the desert; the same sudden, startling entrance on his work (1 Kings 17:1; Luke 3:2); even the same dress, a hairy garment, and a leathern girdle about the loins (2 Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4)." The disciples understood John to be Elijah (Matthew 17:10-13).

Elijah appears in the Synoptic Gospels at the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus became vividly bright, and was accompanied by both Moses and Elijah. This event was witnessed by the apostles Peter, John, and James.

Many Eastern orthodox theologians, along with modern Christian theologians of a conservative, pre-millennial perspective, believe that Elijah must return to physically die here on earth eventually, as one of the 'two witnesses' in the Book of Revelation. The second witness, according to Orthodox tradition, is the prophet Enoch, who like Elijah, did not taste death in his life, and so will taste death at the hands of Antichrist before the second coming of Christ. This plays into many eschatological scenarios, for these two are deemed forerunners to the second coming of Christ. Conservatives who come from amillennial or preterist positions would see John the Baptist as a fulfillment of this expectation. Christian theologians of a more liberal persuasion would interpret Elijah's eschatological significance in a less literal sense. Still others may cite Moses as the other witness, because it was he, not Enoch, who 'witnessed' the Transfiguration of Jesus along with Elijah in Luke 9:28-30[1].

They may also cite Revelation 11:6 as further evidence: "These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will." Moses could, and did, both turn water to blood and smite the earth with plagues using Aaron's rod in the book of Exodus.

[edit] Elijah in other traditions

Elijah is counted as a saint in many Christian churches. He is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod on July 20.

In the Qur'an, Elijah is a prophet known as Ilyas in Arabic. The Turks believe that Elijah and Job were buried at Eyyup Nebi, near Viranşehir.^{[citation needed]}

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also acknowledge Elijah as a prophet. Latter-day Saints believe that the Malachi prophecy of the return of Elijah was actually fulfilled on April 3, 1836 when Elijah visited the prophet and founder of the church, Joseph Smith, Jr. in the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio. This event is chronicled in The Doctrine and Covenants Section 110 (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) verses 13-16: After this vision had closed, another great and glorious vision burst upon us; for Elijah the prophet, who was taken to heaven without tasting death, stood before us, and said: Behold the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi--testifying that he [Elijah] should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come-- To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse-- Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors. According to the teachings of Joseph Smith, this authority returned to man the priesthood keys to bind on earth and bind in heaven, to seal husbands and wives together and parents and children together, both those living, and those that have passed on, (the children to their fathers, and the fathers to their children) and is the basis of the work in gathering records of genealogy and family history.

As Elijah was described as ascending into heaven in a fiery chariot, the Christian missionaries who converted Slavic tribes likely found him an ideal analogy for Perun, the supreme Slavic god of storms, thunder and lightning bolts. In many Slavic countries Elijah is known as Elijah the Thunderer (Ilija Gromovnik), who drives the heavens in a chariot and administers rain and snow, thus actually taking the place of Perun in popular beliefs.

Elijah is mentioned in the Bahá'í Writings and is considered a lesser prophet. Bahá'ís also believe that He has returned as the Báb, the Forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, Founder of the Bahá'í Faith. The Báb is buried on Mount Carmel, where Elijah was wont to dwell. Bahá'ís also accept that Elijah returned in Biblical times as John the Baptist.

[edit] Bibliography

Elijah: Prophet of Carmel, by Jane Ackerman, ICS Publications, 2003. ISBN 0-935216-30-8

[edit] External links

• Elijah Details various events in the life of Elijah and relates Elijah to the Passover/Pesach story.
• Jewish Encyclopedia Entry on Elijah
• Catholic Encyclopedia Entry on Elijah
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cosmic Voyages - Mentions (in passing) the story of Elijah being carried up to heaven in a flaming chariot as an inspiration for human flight
• Elijah by Rob Bradshaw Extensive dictionary style article.
• Biblaridion magazine: Elijah redivivus: The role of Elijah in New Testament eschatology
• LDS Bible Dictionary Entry on Elijah