Elijah

Elijah (Heb. 'Eliahu, "Yahveh is God"; also called Elijah). 

The loftiest and most wonderful prophet of the Old Testament. What 
we know of his public life is sketched in a few popular narratives 
enshrined, for the most part, in the First (Third) Book of Kings. 
These narratives, which bear the stamp of an almost contemporary 
age, very likely took shape in Northern Israel, and are full of 
the most graphic and interesting details. Every part of the 
prophet's life therein narrated bears out the description of the 
writer of Ecclesiasticus: He was "as a fire, and his word burnt 
like a torch" (xlviii, 1). The times called for such a prophet. 
Under the baneful influence of his Tyrian wife Jezabel, Achab, 
though perhaps not intending to forsake altogether Yahveh's 
worship, had nevertheless erected in Samaria a temple to the 
Tyrian Baal (1 Kings, xvi, 32) and introduced a multitude of 
foreign priests (xviii 19); doubtless he had occasionally offered 
sacrifices to the pagan deity, and, most of all, hallowed a bloody 
persecution of the prophets of Yahveh. 

Of Elijah's origin nothing is known, except that he was a 
Thesbite; whether from Thisbe of Nephtali (Tob., i, 2, Gr.) or 
from Thesbon of Galaad, as our texts have it, is not absolutely 
certain, although most scholars, on the authority of the 
Septuagint and of Josephus, prefer the latter opinion. Some Jewish 
legends, echoed in a few Christian writings, assert moreover that 
Elijah was of priestly descent; but there is no other warrant for 
the statement than the fact that he offered sacrifices. His whole 
manner of life resembles somewhat that of the Nazarites and is a 
loud protest against his corrupt age. His skin garment and leather 
girdle (2 Kings, 1, 8), his swift foot (1 Kings, xviii, 46), his 
habit of dwelling in the clefts of the torrents (xvii,3) or in the 
caves of the mountains (xix, 9), of sleeping under a scanty 
shelter (xix, 5), betray the true son of the desert. He appears 
abruptly on the scene of history to announce to Achab that Yahveh 
had determined to avenge the apostasy of Israel and her king by 
bringing a long drought on the land. His message delivered, the 
prophet vanished as suddenly as he had appeared, and, guided by 
the spirit of Yahveh, betook himself by the brook Carith, to the 
east of the Jordan, and the ravens (some critics would translate, 
however improbable the rendering, "Arabs" or "merchants") "brought 
him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the 
evening, and he drank of the torrent" (xvii, 6). 

After the brook had dried up, Elijah, under Divine direction, 
crossed over to Sarepta, within the Tyrian dominion. There he was 
hospitably received by a poor widow whom the famine had reduced to 
her last meal (12); her charity he rewarded by increasing her 
store of meal and oil all the while the drought and famine 
prevailed, and later on by restoring her child to life (14-24). 
For three years there fell no rain or dew in Israel, and the land 
was utterly barren. Meanwhile Achab had made fruitless efforts and 
scoured the country in search of Elijah. At length the latter 
resolved to confront the king once more, and, suddenly appearing 
before Abdias, bade him summon his master (xviii, 7, sq.). When 
they met, Achab bitterly upbraided the prophet as the cause of the 
misfortune of Israel. But the prophet flung back the charge: "I 
have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, who 
have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and have followed 
Baalim" (xviii, 18). Taking advantage of the discountenanced 
spirits of the silenced king, Elijah bids him to summon the 
prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel, for a decisive contest between 
their god and Yahveh. The ordeal took place before a great 
concourse of people (see CARMEL, MOUNT) whom Elijah, in the most 
forcible terms, presses to choose: "How long do you halt between 
two sides? If Yahveh be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow 
him" (xviii, 21). He then commanded the heathen prophets to invoke 
their deity; he himself would "call on the name of his Lord"; and 
the God who would answer by fire, "let him be God" (24). An altar 
had been erected by the Baal-worshippers and the victim laid upon 
it; but their cries, their wild dances and mad self-mutilations 
all the day long availed nothing: "There was no voice heard, nor 
did any one answer, nor regard them as they prayed" (29). Elijah, 
having repaired the ruined altar of Yahveh which stood there, 
prepared thereon his sacrifice; then, when it was time to offer 
the evening oblation, as he was praying earnestly, "the fire of 
the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the 
stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the 
trench" (38). The issue was fought and won. The people, maddened 
by the success, fell at Elijah's command on the pagan prophets and 
slew them at the brook Cison. That same evening the drought ceased 
with a heavy downpour of rain, in the midst of which the strange 
prophet ran before Achab to the entrance of Jezrael. 

Elijah's triumph was short. The anger of Jezabel, who had sworn to 
take his life (xix, 2), compelled him to flee without delay, and 
take his refuge beyond the desert of Juda, in the sanctuary of 
Mount Horeb. There, in the wilds of the sacred mountain, broken 
spirited, he poured out his complaint before the Lord, who 
strengthened him by a revelation and restored his faith. Three 
commands are laid upon him: to anoint Hazael to be King of Syria, 
Jehu to be King of Israel, and Eliseus to be his own successor. At 
once Elijah sets out to accomplish this new burden. On his way to 
Damascus he meets Eliseus at the plough, and throwing his mantle 
over him, makes him his faithful disciple and inseparable 
companion, to whom the completion of his task will be entrusted. 
The treacherous murder of Naboth was the occasion for a new 
reappearance of Elijah at Jezrael, as a champion of the people's 
rights and of social order, and to announce to Achab his impending 
doom. Achab's house shall fall. In the place where the dogs licked 
the blood of Naboth will the dogs lick the king's blood; they 
shall eat Jezabel in Jezrael; their whole posterity shall perish 
and their bodies be given to the fowls of the air (xxi, 20-26). 
Conscience-stricken, Achab quailed before the man of God, and in 
view of his penance the threatened ruin of his house was delayed. 
The next time we hear of Elijah, it is in connexion with Ochozias, 
Achab's son and successor. Having received severe injuries in a 
fall, this prince sent messengers to the shrine of Beelzebub, god 
of Accaron, to inquire whether he should recover. They were 
intercepted by the prophet, who sent them back to their master 
with the intimation that his injuries would prove fatal. Several 
bands of men sent by the king to capture Elijah were stricken by 
fire from heaven; finally the man of God appeared in person before 
Ochozias to confirm his threatening message. Another episode 
recorded by the chronicler (II Par., xxi 12) relates how Joram, 
King of Juda, who had indulged in Baal-worship, received from 
Elijah a letter warning him that all his house would be smitten by 
a plague, and that he himself was doomed to an early death. 

According to 2 Kings 3, Elijah's career ended before the death of 
Josaphat. This statement is difficult -- but not impossible -- to 
harmonize with the preceeding narrative. However this may be, 
Elijah vanished still more mysteriously than he had appeared. Like 
Enoch, he was "translated", so that he should not taste death. As 
he was conversing with his spiritual son Eliseus on the hills of 
Moab, "a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder, 
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (2 Kings 2:11), and 
all the efforts to find him made by the sceptic sons of the 
prophets disbelieving Eliseus's recital, availed nothing. The 
memory of Elijah has ever remained living in the minds both of 
Jews and Christians. According to Malachias, God preserved the 
prophet alive to entrust him, at the end of time, with a glorious 
mission (iv, 5-6): at the New Testament period, this mission was 
believed to preceede immediately the Messianic Advent (Matt., 
xvii, 10, 12; Mark, ix, 11); according to some Christian 
commentators, it would consist in converting the Jews (St. Jer., 
in Mal., iv, 5-6); the rabbis, finally, affirm that its object 
will be to give the explanations and answers hitherto kept back by 
them. I Mach., ii, 58, extols Elijah's zeal for the Law, and Ben 
Sira entwines in a beautiful page the narration of his actions and 
the description of his future mission (Ecclus., xlviiii, 1-12). 
Elijah is still in the N.T. the personification of the servant of 
God (Matt., xvi, 14; Luke, i, 17; ix, 8; John, i, 21). No wonder, 
therefore, that with Moses he appeared at Jesus' side on the day 
of the Transfiguration. 

Nor do we find only in the sacred literature and the commentaries 
thereof evidences of the conspicuous place Elijah won for himself 
in the minds of after-ages. To this day the name of Jebel Mar 
Elyas, usually given by modern Arabs to Mount Carmel, perpetuates 
the memory of the man of God. Various places on the mountain: 
Elijah's grotto; El-Khadr, the supposed school of the prophets; 
El-Muhraka, the traditional spot of Elijah's sacrifice; Tell el-
Kassis, or Mound of the priests -- where he is said to have slain 
the priests of Baal -- are still in great veneration both among 
the Christians of all denominations and among the Moslems. Every 
year the Druses assemble at El-Muhraka to hold a festival and 
offer a sacrifice in honour of Elijah. All Moslems have the 
prophet in great reverence; no Druse, in particular, would dare 
break an oath made in the name of Elijah. Not only among them, but 
to some extent also among the Jews and Christians, many legendary 
tales are associated with the prophet's memory. The Carmelite 
monks long cherished the belief that their order could be traced 
back in unbroken succession to Elijah whom they hailed as their 
founder. Vigorously opposed by the Bollandists, especially by 
Papenbroeck, their claim was no less vigorously upheld by the 
Carmelites of Flanders, until Pope Innocent XII, in 1698, deemed 
it advisable to silence both contending parties. Elijah is 
honoured by both the Greek and Latin Churches on 20 July. 

The old stichometrical lists and ancient ecclesiastical writings 
(Const. Apost., VI, 16; Origen, Comm. in Matth., xxvii, 9; 
Euthalius; Epiphan., Haer., xliii) mention an apocryphal 
"Apocalypse of Elijah", citations from which are said to be found 
in I Cor. ii, 9, and Eph., v, 14. Lost to view since the early 
Christian centuries, this work was partly recovered in a Coptic 
translation found (1893) by Maspero in a monastery of Upper Egypt. 
Other scraps, likewise in Coptic, have since been also discovered. 
What we possess now of this Apocalypse -- and it seems that we 
have by far the greater part of it -- was published in 1899 by G. 
Steindorff; the passages cited in I Cor., ii, 9, and Eph., v, 14, 
do not appear there; the Apocalypse on the other hand, has a 
striking analogy with the Jewish "Sepher Elia". 

CHARLES L. SOUVAY 
Transcribed by Paul T. Crowley 

Dedicated to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and the Carmel Monastery of 
Santa Fe, NM