| Prophet Elisha | |
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Elisha raising the Shunammite’s Son, early 1900s Bible Card illustration |
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| Prophet | |
| Died | Samaria |
| Honored in | Judaism Roman Catholic Church Eastern Catholic Churches Eastern Orthodox Church Lutheranism Islam |
| Feast | June 14 |
| Attributes | Clothed as a prophet, often holding a scroll |
Elisha ( /ɨˈlaɪʃə/;[1] Hebrew: אֱלִישָׁע, Modern Elisha Tiberian ʼĔlîšāʻ ; "My God is salvation", Greek: Ἐλισσαῖος, Elissaîos or Ἐλισαιέ, Elisaié, Arabic: الْيَسَع Elyasaʻ) is a prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic.
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Elisha was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who was active during the reign of Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Jehoash (Joash).[2]
Elisha was the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah; he became the attendant and disciple of Elijah (1 Kings 19:16–19), and after Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind, he was accepted as the leader of the sons of the prophets, and became noted in Israel. He possessed, according to his own request, "a double portion" of Elijah's spirit (2 Kings 2:9); and for sixty years (892–832 BC) held the office of "prophet in Israel" (2 Kings 5:8).
His name first occurs in the command given to Elijah to anoint him as his successor (1 Kings 19:16). After learning, in the cave on Mount Horeb, that Elisha, the son of Shaphat, had been selected by God as his successor in the prophetic office, Elijah set out to make known the Divine will. On his way from Sinai to Damascus, Elijah found Elisha "one of them that were ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen". Elisha delayed only long enough to kill the yoke of oxen, whose flesh he boiled with the very wood of his plough. He went over to him, threw his mantle over Elisha's shoulders, and at once adopted him as a son, investing him with the prophetic office. Elisha accepted this call about four years before the death of Israel's King Ahab. For the next seven or eight years Elisha became Elijah's close attendant until Elijah was taken up into heaven. During all these years we hear nothing of Elisha except in connection with the closing scenes of Elijah's life.
After he had shared this farewell repast with his father, mother, and friends, the newly chosen Prophet "followed Elijah and ministered to him". (1 Kings 19:8–21) He went with his master from Gilgal to Bethel, to Jericho, and thence to the eastern side of the Jordan, the waters of which, touched by the mantle, divided, so as to permit both to pass over on dry ground. Elisha then was separated from Elijah by a fiery chariot. He then beheld Elijah taken up by a whirlwind into heaven. By means of the mantle let fall from Elijah, Elisha miraculously recrossed the Jordan, and so won from the prophets at Jericho the recognition that "the spirit of Elijah hath rested upon Elisha" (2 Kings 2:1–15). He won the gratitude of the people of Jericho for healing its barren ground by adding salt to its waters.
Before Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind, Elisha asked to "inherit a double-portion" of Elijah's spirit. This is indicative of the property inheritance customs of the time, where the oldest son received twice as much of the father's inheritance as each of the younger sons. For example, if a man had three sons, his property was divided into fourths. Each son received one-fourth, with the oldest receiving two-fourths (twice as much as the others). In this instance with Elijah, Elisha is not asking to become twice as powerful as Elijah, but that he may be seen as the "rightful heir" to the work of the Lord that Elijah had done.
Before he settled in Samaria, the Prophet passed some time on Mount Carmel (2 Kings 2:25). When the armies of Judah, Israel and Edom, then allied against Mesha, the Moabite king, were being tortured by drought in the Idumean desert, Elisha consented to intervene. His double prediction regarding relief from drought and victory over the Moabites was fulfilled on the following morning (2 Kings 3:4–24). When a group of children from Bethel taunted the prophet for his baldness, Elisha cursed them in the name of God and two female bears came out of the forest and mauled 42 of them (2 Kings 2:23–25).
Elisha's work within Israel involved two areas: personal and political. He tried to be accessible to the people and interceded in moments of crisis. He is termed a patriot, as he had involvement in helping soldiers and kings.[2]
That Elisha inherited the wonder-working power of Elijah is shown throughout the whole course of his life. To relieve the widow importuned by a hard creditor, Elisha so multiplied a little oil as to enable her, not only to pay her indebtedness, but to provide for her family needs (2 Kings 4:1–7). To reward the rich lady of Shunam for her hospitality, he obtained for her from YHWH, at first the birth of a son, and subsequently the resurrection of her child (2 Kings 4:8–37). To nourish the sons of the prophets pressed by famine, Elisha changed into wholesome food the pottage made from poisonous gourds (2 Kings 4:38–41). By the cure of Naaman, who was afflicted with leprosy, Elisha, little impressed by the possessions of the Syrian general, whilst willing to free King Joram from his perplexity, principally intended to show "that there is a prophet in Israel". Naaman, at first reluctant, obeyed the Prophet, and washed seven times in the Jordan. Finding his flesh "restored like the flesh of a little child", the general was so impressed by this evidence of God's power, and by the disinterestedness of His Prophet, as to express his deep conviction that "there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel" (2 Kings 5:1–19). In the Christian tradition, Jesus referred to this event when he said, "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian" (Luke 4:27).
In punishing the avarice of his servant Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20–27), in repeatedly saving King Jehoram of Israel from the ambushes planned by Benhadad (2 Kings 6:8–23), in ordering the elders to shut the door against the messenger of Israel's ungrateful king (2 Kings 6:25–32), in bewildering with a strange blindness the soldiers of the Syrian king (2 Kings 6:13–23), in making iron float to relieve from embarrassment a son of a prophet (2 Kings 6:1–7), in confidently predicting the sudden flight of the enemy and the consequent cessation of the famine (2 Kings 7:1–20), in unmasking the treachery of Hazael (2 Kings 8:7–15), Elisha proved himself a divinely appointed Prophet of the one true God, whose knowledge and power he was privileged to share.
After Elijah's departure, Elisha returned to Jericho, and there healed the spring of water by casting salt into it (2 Kings 2:21).
Elisha is next encountered in Scripture when he asks for a fall of rain when the army of Jehoram was faint from thirst (2 Kings 3:9–20). Other miracles Elisha accomplishes include multiplying the poor widow's jar of oil (4:1–7), restoring to life the son of the woman of Shunem (4:18–37), and multiplying the twenty loaves of new barley into a sufficient supply for a hundred men (4:42–44). During the military incursions of Syria into Israel, Elisha cures Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy (5:1–27), punishes his servant Gehazi for his falsehood and his greed, and recovers an axe lost in the waters of the Jordan (6:1–7). He administered the miracle at Dothan, half-way on the road between Samaria and Jezreel, and at the siege of Samaria by the king of Syria, Elisha prophesied about the terrible sufferings of the people of Samaria and their eventual relief (2 Kings 6:24–7:2).
Elisha then journeyed to Damascus and prophesied that Hazael would be king over Syria (2 Kings 8:7–15); thereafter he directs one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel, instead of Ahab. Mindful of the order given to Elijah (1 Kings 19:16), Elisha delegated a son of one of the prophets to quietly anoint Jehu King of Israel, and to commission him to cut off the house of Ahab (2 Kings 9:1–10). The death of Joram, pierced by an arrow from Jehu's bow, the ignominious end of Jezabel, the slaughter of Ahab's seventy sons, proved how faithfully executed was the Divine command (2 Kings 9:11–10:30). After predicting to Joash his victory over the Syrians at Aphek, as well as three other subsequent victories, ever bold before kings, ever kindly towards the lowly, "Elisha died, and they buried him" (2 Kings 13:14–20).
While Elisha lies on his death-bed in his own house (2 Kings 13:14–19). Joash, the grandson of Jehu, comes to mourn over his approaching departure, and utters the same words as those of Elisha when Elijah was taken away, indicating his value to him: "My father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."
The very touch of his corpse served to resuscitate a dead man. "In his life he did great wonders, and in death he wrought miracles" (Ecclesiasticus, xlviii, 15). After his death, a dead body was laid in Elisha's grave a year after his burial. No sooner does it touch Elisha's remains than the man "revived, and stood up on his feet" (2 Kings 13:20–21).
He is venerated as a saint in a number of Christian Churches. His feast day is on June 14, on the Eastern Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic liturgical calendars (for those churches which use the traditional Julian Calendar, June 14 falls on June 27 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). St. John of Damascus composed a canon in honor of the Prophet Elisha, and a church was built at Constantinople in his honor.
In Western Christianity he is commemorated on the Carmelite religious order's calendar of saints.[3] He is also commemorated as a prophet on the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Both calendars also celebrate him on June 14. Both the Orthodox and Roman Catholics believe that he was unmarried, celibate.[4]
Julian the Apostate (361–363) gave orders to burn the relics of the prophets Elisha, Obadiah and John the Baptist, but they were rescued by the Christians, and part of them were transferred to Alexandria. Today, the relics of the prophet Elisha are claimed to be among the possessions of the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Scetes, Egypt.[5]
Elisha is also mentioned in the Qur'an as a prophet. He is seen by Muslims to be the prophetic successor to Elijah, known in Islam as Ilyas. Elisha is mentioned twice in the Qur'an as a prophet, and is mentioned both times alongside fellow prophets:
Ibn Kathir traces Elisha's genealogy through his father, in Islamic tradition named Ukhtub, back to the lineage of Aaron.[6] In the various Stories of the Prophets compilations in Islamic literature, Elisha's story is often grouped with that of his contemporary Elijah. The historian Hasan of Basra said:
Elisha came after Elias, peace be upon them. He called his people to the way of God and followed the laws and Shariah revealed to Elias, till he passed away.[7]
Muslims believe that Elijah was directed by God to appoint Elisha as the succeeding prophet before vanishing into the protection of God.[8] The narrative of Elisha in Muslim tradition is similar to that in the Hebrew Bible. Muslim scholars believe Elisha that prophesied through the reign of four kings: Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Jehoash[9] but that Israel refused to hear his words.[10]
There is also "the tomb of the prophet Elisha" in Aloujam in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. Reports from the city of Aloujam say that the shrine was removed by the authorities, because it is not in accordance with Sunni Islam, although in ancient times people used to visit it from afar.[11]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.