Elijah Project

Chapter One

While Herod Antipas was tetrarch in the North-Israel territories of Galilee and Perea, news came to the religiousauthorities at the temple in Jerusalem that a prophet had appeared and was baptizing people in the Jordan River. Thiswas astonishing news because prophets had not been seen in Israel for many centuries. Students of the holy scriptures knew about the great prophets of ancient times -- Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel -- who lived and taught 600 years earlier, around the time of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile. They knew also of laterprophets Zecharaiah and Malachi, who were active around 500 BCE, when the Jews returned from exile and rebuilt of the Jerusalem temple. Since that time, however, the prophetic voice had apparently fallen silent in Israel.

Hearing of the throngs of people who were gathering at the Jordan River to hear this new prophet and receive his baptism, the temple authorities sent priests and levites to investigate. The priests and levites found John the Baptist, dressed in the classic prophet costume – a coarse garment of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. His food, according to Matthew’s gospel, was locustsand wild honey. People were coming to hear him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the region along the Jordan River.

So the investigators asked John who he was. John recognized that they were not asking for his name and address. They were asking about his role in relation to the long-awaited saviour who would restore Israel. He told themhe was not the Messiah. Jews knew that the ancient prophetshad promised a Messiah who would be sent from God and who would restore Israel, but John told them squarely that he was not the Messiah. “What then?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?” “I am not,” John replied.

The question seems odd to modern ears. Elijah had beenactive in the time of kings Ahab and Ahaziah, 850 years

before John the Baptist began preaching and baptizing at theJordan River. The world of Elijah had long since crumbled to dust. The nations he preached to had been scattered intoexile, had returned from exile, were conquered by the Greek armies of Alexander the Great and then more recently by the armies of Rome. The region where Elijah preached, near the Mediterranean coast, had become more and more separate from Judea, the region around Jerusalem. Samaritans did not worship at the Jerusalem temple.

Elijah was far distant in time from first-century Judea– about 870 years distant. For purposes of comparison, 21st

century Canadians would have to reach back in memory to the year 1170 to find what a great lapse of time John the Baptist and his contemporaries had to cross to call up the memory of Elijah. 21st century Canadians reaching back thatfar would be recalling the time when Archbishop Thomas Beckett was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. If we today heard of an archbishop suddenly appearing and preaching powerfully at Canterbury cathedral, we would probably not goand ask him: “Are you Thomas Becket?” But when First Century Jews heard of a prophet appearing at the Jordan River, their first thought was “Messiah has come” and their second thought was “Elijah has returned.”

The prophet Elijah, who lived more than eight centuriesbefore the birth of Jesus, is discussed frequently in all four Gospels of the New Testament. Jews in first-century Jerusalem, mindful of Malachi’s prophecy, were expecting Elijah to appear in their midst, and when they saw John the Baptist and Jesus at work, they thought they might be witnessing the return of Elijah.

Through all the intervening political and military turmoil, however, the memory of Elijah remained vivid. We know this from a passage in Ecclesiasticus (also known as the book of Sirach), a book of lecture notes of the Jerusalem school principal Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira, which he wrote in Hebrew about 180 BCE. His grandson produced a Greek version for the edification of Jews in Egypt about 117 BCE. Ben Sira’s hymn in praise of Elijah

(Sirach 48:1-11) gives a second-century view of the ancient prophet:

Then Elijah arose, a prophet like fire,   and his word burned like a torch. He brought a famine upon them,   and by his zeal he made them few in number. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens,   and also three times brought down fire. How glorious you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!   Whose glory is equal to yours? You raised a corpse from death   and from Hades, by the word of the Most High. You sent kings down to destruction,   and famous men, from their sickbeds. You heard rebuke at Sinai   and judgements of vengeance at Horeb. You anointed kings to inflict retribution,   and prophets to succeed you. You were taken up by a whirlwind of fire,   in a chariot with horses of fire. At the appointed time, it is written, you are destined   to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury,to turn the hearts of parents to their children,   and to restore the tribes of Jacob. Happy are those who saw you   and were adorned with your love!   For we also shall surely live.

In this context of expectancy, a priest named

Zecharaiah took his turn serving in the Jerusalem temple. While the worshippers stayed in the outer part of the temple, Zecharaiah went into the sanctuary to offer incense.To his astonishment, the Archangel Gabriel appeared and toldhim his wife Elizabeth, who had born no children up to that point, would bear a son named John who would turn people to the Lord. Gabriel told Zecharaiah: “With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts ofparents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom

of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

This announcement echoes the last two verses of the book of Malachi: “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not comeand strike the land with a curse.”

In Malachi’s fifth-century BCE vision, therefore, Elijah was to be sent to the Jews before the day of the Lord. Elijah’s role would be to reconcile parents and children to each other. In Zecharaiah’s vision, his son John was given a similar role: to go before the Messiah to turn parents’ hearts to their children and to bring the disobedient into the wisdom of the righteous. Elijah and John, in these separate visions, are forerunners who will prepare people for the coming of the Lord on the long-awaited day.

John was duly born and in time began his prophetic work, baptized Jesus in the Jordan River and sent him on hisway. John was soon imprisoned by Herod Antipas, the local chieftain appointed by the Romans to keep order in the north-eastern quadrant of Israel. Jesus, meanwhile, after a desert sojourn facing satanic temptations, began his ministry in Galilee. From the outset, he drew on the life and work of Elijah, as the gospel-writer Luke describes (Luke 4:23-30).

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus reads from Isaiah to announce good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. He then preaches, recalling “there were many widowsin Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut upthree years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.” This reminder that God’s mercy was shown through Elijah to a widow who wasnot an Israelite enraged the congregation so that they drovehim out of town and threatened to kill him.

The Nazareth congregation knew the Elijah story well, and they were offended when Jesus used it to show that foreigners sometimes experienced God’s aid when Israel did not. They were not offended when he claimed to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

After disciples of the imprisoned John the Baptist cameto ask Jesus about his identity, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John. “He is Elijah who is to come,” he told them, (Matthew 11:14), meaning that John plays the same role as Elijah, arriving before the day of the Lord to usher in the Kingdom.

King Herod also heard of Jesus’ work (Mark 6:14-16). By this time, Herod had killed John. His courtiers offered Herod different opinions about Jesus. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

In this passage, the identities become blurred. Herod and others think Jesus is a resurrected John. Others think he is Elijah or a prophet like the prophets of old.

Luke tells of the same blurring of identities (Luke 9:7-9) in the minds of Herod and his entourage, among whom some thought Jesus was a resurrected John, some thought Elijah had appeared and some thought an ancient prophet had arisen. Herod, in Luke’s version, was unsure: “John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?”

These passages show that some in Israel were expecting Elijah to return. When they heard of Jesus, they thought Elijah had returned. The passages also suggest that John, Elijah and Jesus were similar enough in appearance and conduct that one might be mistaken for another.

Mark, Matthew and Luke all tell of the moment when Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do people (or the crowds) say that I am (or that the Son of Man is)?” All three evangelists report the same reply from the disciples: “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah and still others, one of theprophets.” (Mark 8:27-30; Matthew 16:13-16; Luke 9:18-20)

This shows that the crowds who heard Jesus preach were confused in the same way as Herod’s entourage. They, too, thought he might be John the Baptist or Elijah or an ancientprophet, because the return of Elijah or an ancient prophet seemed possible, as did resurrection of John.

The three synoptic writers also tell of the moment of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13; Matthew 17:1-13; Luke 9:28-36). All three agree that three disciples -- Peter, James and John – shared a vision in which Jesus, on a high mountain, was talking with Moses and Elijah. Mark and Matthew further report a conversation between Jesus and his disciples about the meaning of the vision and about the death and resurrection of the Son of Man that they will soonwitness. The disciples ask: “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” and Jesus answers (in Mark’s version): “Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they didto him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him.” In Matthew’s version, Jesus answers: “Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, butthey did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.” Matthew explains: Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

The Transfiguration sets Jesus in company with Moses and Elijah, inviting comparison among them. The discussion thatfollows sets Elijah and John the Baptist side by side as forerunners who will restore all things in anticipation of the Day of the Lord. Matthew understands that what Jesus said about Elijah applied to John the Baptist.

Mark and Matthew report the moment when the crucified Jesus cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”Some of the onlookers fail to recognize this quotation of the first verse of Psalm 22 and they think he is calling for

Elijah. They say: “Let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down (or come to save him).”

This may be sarcastic mockery or it may be pious expectation. Either way, it provides further evidence that Elijah was a powerful presence in the minds of people in Jerusalem at that time. They see Jesus and they think of Elijah. They hear Jesus cry out “Eli, Eli” and they think he is calling for Elijah.

From these Gospel passages, we know that Elijah was a vivid presence in the minds of Jesus, his disciples, Herod and his entourage, the Jerusalem temple authorities and the crowds who heard Jesus preach. Though Elijah’s earthly career ended 870 years earlier in a vanished kingdom and a former civilization, his return was eagerly expected and confidently awaited. His story was well known and his memory was highly honoured.

From these gospel passages and from Ecclesiasticus, we also know that Malachi’s prophecy about Elijah’s return was well known in Jerusalem. We know that Elijah and John the Baptist were both recognized as forerunners of Messiah. We know that the role of forerunners was well understood: As ben Sira wrote of Elijah:At the appointed time, it is written, you are destined   to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury,to turn the hearts of parents to their children,   and to restore the tribes of Jacob.

The purpose of this study is to review the life, work and teachings of Elijah in relation to the Gospel story and to draw out the ways in which Elijah prepared the way for Jesus. In what sense, exactly, was Elijah a forerunner?

Chapter 2: Confronting the king

Elijah spent much of his life on the run from theauthorities – first from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, then from their son and heir Ahaziah. Elijah never lived at court the way Nathan, King

David’s household prophet, lived in the palace of his king. Elijah was the other kind of prophet – the desert-dwelling outsider and social misfit who suddenly surfaces every now and then to bring unwelcome news.

And yet there was a level of familiarity between Elijah and the kings he tormented. He announced the drought and famine directly to Ahab’s face, notby leaving a message at the palace gate. He was clearly given access to the king, wild man though he was. When he next showed up at the palace, Ahabshouted an insult at him – “Is it you, you troublerof Israel?” – and Elijah shouted right back at him – “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.” King and prophet were not friends, but they enjoyedabusing each other.

Years later, after Ahab’s son Ahaziah had succeeded to the throne and lay dying from an accidental injury, he sent messengers to inquire about his prognosis from the Phoenician god Baal-zebub in Ekron. The messengers returned to say that a man had come to meet them, blamed them for seeking a foreign god and sent them back to the king. What sort of man was he, the king asked, andthey told him “A hairy man with a leather belt around his waist. The king said: “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” The young king was clearly familiarwith Elijah at least by reputation.

After the slaughter of the prophets of Baal, Jezebel sent messengers to Elijah threatening him with death. The threat was at least plausible because Elijah had just committed mass murder and

because Jezebel herself later showed herself capable of murder. But if she really meant to kill, why would she send messengers to warn him, giving him the chance to escape? Why would she notsend killers to finish the job immediately. After the spectacular display on Mount Carmel, Elijah wasa celebrity whose murder would cause a scandal. Better to get him quietly out of town. The sending of the threatening messengers seems more like an attempt to get Elijah out of town – and it worked.

Elijah’s style of speech was short and to the point. When he turned up in Ahab’s court to announce drought, he delivered his message in one short, dramatic sentence. When the priests of Baaland the Israelite crowd assembled before him on Mount Carmel for the great showdown, his speech wasvery short: “How long will you go limping with twodifferent opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him.But if Baal, then follow him.” And he went on to propose a contest to see which god will answer a prayer and accept a sacrifice.

This style is very different from that of David’sprophet Nathan. When David first speaks of building a temple, the prophet’s first response is to tell the king what he wants to hear. Nathan immediately tells David to go ahead. The next day, Nathan returns to court with an elegantly composed prophecy saying that David will not build a temple but God will perpetuate the Davidic dynasty. Later, when it is time to denounce David for the monstrous crime of raping Bathsheba and contriving the murder of her husband Uriah, Nathan frames the accusation in an elegant parable that allows him toapproach the difficult subject indirectly. Nathan

is a courtier with a courtier’s manners and a courtier’s rhetorical skills. Elijah, by contrast, shows no manners, no social graces and no regard for the king’s majesty.

Elijah was subject to wide mood swings, from intense exaltation to black despair. In his confident state, he dared Ahab to stage a grand showdown on Mount Carmel between Baal and the God of Israel. As the priests of Baal were praying andmutilating themselves and begging Baal to receive their sacrificial bull, Elijah taunted them. As hewas preparing his own sacrificial bull for Yahweh, he made a great show of soaking the sacrifice and the altar with water and then soaking them again and again. He was beside himself with excitement. Yet after he won the contest, slaughtered the priests and fled to the desert to avoid Jezebel’s retaliation, he fell into a state of despair and wished to die. He prayed: “It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than myancestors.”

When he encountered God at Mount Horeb, Elijah gave a despairing account of his own failure to uphold the worship of Yahweh, as though he was the only surviving worshipper in Israel. The Lord knewthis is not true and sent Elijah back to Israel to pull the faithful together and resume the struggle against Baal worship. Left to himself, Elijah would let his own feelings of despair paint a falsepicture, but God did let him off the hook so easily.

Ahab’s crime, corresponding to David’s rape of Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, was the murder of Naboth and seizure of his vineyard. When Ahab

arrived to take possession of the coveted vineyard,Elijah was there to meet him crying: “Thus says theLord: Have you killed and also taken possession? In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.” But after Ahab confessed his crime and humbled himself before the Lord, the threatened punishment was transferred to Ahab’s son, Ahaziah.

Elijah lived in a violent age and he shared its violent ways. Once he had defeated the priests of Baal at the contest on Mount Carmel, he told the crowd to seize the 450 priests. He did not invite them to switch their allegiance to Yahweh. He did not exile them to Sidon, where Baal-worship prevailed. He brought them down to the Wadi Kishon and slaughtered them. That was not an end of the matter, because Ahab and Jezebel and later kings ofIsrael continued to sponsor Baal-worship.

Elijah pronounced a terrible curse on Ahab and Jezebel as punishment for their murder of Naboth and seizure of his vineyard. “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood,” he told the king. Concerning Jezebel, he announced: “The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.”

When King Ahaziah sent a captain and 50 soldiers to arrest Elijah on his hilltop, Elijah called downlightning, which consumed them. A second captain and 50 soldiers suffered the same fate. When a third captain with 50 men came and approached him more politely, he withheld the lightning and came quietly to meet King Ahaziah and announce his imminent death.

At Mount Horeb, the Lord spoke to Elijah, ignoring his self-pity, and told him to go an anoint Hazael as king over Aram, Jehu as king over Israel and Elisha as prophet in place of Elijah. “Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill.”

In the event, it fell to Elisha to anoint Jehu, an army commander who accepted the task of wiping out Baal-worship by slaughtering Queen Jezebel and the heirs of Ahab. He invited the remaining Baal-worshippers to a service of worship in the temple Ahab had built in Samaria and then slaughtered themall. Jehu became king in Samaria and suppressed Baal-worship. The violence of Jehu carried forwardthe ruthlessly violent work of Elijah.

In this context, what might we say of Jesus andhis dealings with the ruling authorities in Jerusalem and Galilee?

Jesus was in trouble with the authorities from the start. As Luke records, King Herod the Great was alarmed by reports of Persian astrologers who turned up in Jerusalem asking to see a newborn child who had been born king of the Jews. Herod ordered the slaughter of all children two years oldor less in and around Bethlehem. But by then Mary, Joseph and their baby had already fled to Egypt. After Herod’s death, they left Egypt and settled inNazareth, in the district of Galilee, keeping out of sight of Herod’s son and successor Archelaus.

Once he began his public ministry, Jesus neither sought nor avoided the public authorities. Herod Antipas in the north and the temple

authorities in Jeruslaem were keeping a close eye on him, in much the same way as governments in our own time send their secret police out to keep an eye on subversives and plotters. He moved gradually from the north toward Jerusalem, explaining to his puzzled followers that he must suffer at the hands of the authorities, die and then rise again. He taught in public places where the authorities could arrest him any time they wanted.

Jesus seemed to threaten the authorities because he assumed the manner of a prophet and proclaimed a coming Kingdom of God. He attracted huge crowds, which looked a lot like the beginningsof a political movement and perhaps a revolution. He was not actually saying anything about an armed rising against Rome or against the local princelings who were keeping order on behalf of Rome. Nor was he denouncing crimes of the rulers asNathan denounced David and as Elijah denounced Ahab. He criticized the practices and teachings ofthe Pharisees, a purist movement within Judaism.

Unlike Elijah, Jesus was not asking any king oremperor to correct Israel’s religious beliefs or practices. He himself was announcing the Kingdom of God, which must come about whether the authorities like it or not. He needed the authorities to arrest and kill him to open the way for his resurrection. Apart from that, he was not asking the authorities for anything in particular.

Jesus was preaching from town to town on his way to Jerusalem when some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” This was very like the message that

Queen Jezebel sent to Elijah after the slaughter ofthe priests of Baal. Elijah took the hint and leftfor a sojourn in the desert.

Jesus, however, told the Pharisees to take an answer back to King Herod Antipas. ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on thethird day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it isimpossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.”’ And he added: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem,the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, youwill not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’ (Luke 13:32-35)

This answer showed that Jesus was not afraid ofHerod any more than he was afraid of a fox. Herod,a puppet in the hands of the Roman occupiers of Israel, was cast as a small, burrow-dwelling eater of carrion, not given even the dignity of a bear ora lion. Jesus had a mission to fulfil and could not be turned aside by the likes of Herod. More than that, he had to go to Jerusalem because that is the place for killing prophets. A threat of death could not dissuade him because he was relyingon the Jerusalem authorities to take his life in fulfillment of his mission.

Far from going into hiding, Jesus makes a spectacular entrance into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and receiving the acclamations of an excited

crowd. If he had slipped in unobtrusively, the authorities might have pretended to ignore him and hope he would go away. He denied them that option.

Another side of Jesus’ relation to the authorities is seen when his disciple Judas Iscariot approaches the chief priests and offers tobetray Jesus into their hands. Police forces and intelligence agencies commonly seek to recruit insiders in a target organization, both as a sourceof information and as a means of disruption. Jesusclearly knew that there was a police informant in the group of disciples and the Gospel writers thought he knew Judas was the one. Jesus condemnedthe traitor, but took no step to prevent him.

When the temple police come to arrest him at Gethsemane, Jesus at last confronted the power of the state. He calmly submitted to arrest. “All this has taken place so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled,” he said (Matthew 26:56).

Brought before the scribes and elders at the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, Jesus silently heard the testimony of false witnesses who testified that Jesus had said he could destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. When Caiaphas demanded to know if Jesus was the Messiah,the son of God, Jesus paraphrased the apocalyptic vision of Daniel – “You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on clouds out of heaven.” The temple authorities concluded that Jesus was a blasphemer who deserved death. They bound him and took him before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea.

Appearing before Pilate, Jesus made no answer to the accusations against him. Pilate found that Jesus has done no evil but since the crowd was demanding his punishment, Pilate had him flogged and sent him for crucifixion. He had no notion whyJesus should be punished but in view of the mob’s demands, it seemed politically expedient to let themob rule.

In Luke’s account, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod Antipas. Herod, who had been hoping to see Jesus and have him perform a miracle, questioned him but Jesus gave no answer to the vehement accusations ofthe chief priests and scribes. Herod sent him backto Pilate, who sent him for crucifixion.

Elijah, in similar circumstances, sometimes fled to the wilderness and sometimes inflicted great violence on his enemies. When King Ahaziah sent companies of soldiers to arrest him, Elijah twice called down lightning bolts to destroy them. When he had the priests of Baal at his mercy, he slaughtered them.

Jesus, by contrast, refrained from all violence. At the arrest in Gethsemane, one of the disciples swung a sword at the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Jesus told him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’ In the same way, as Jesus and his disciples were travelling through Samaritan territory on their way toward Jerusalem, some of the villages

did not receive him because of his focus on Jerusalem. His disciples James and John suggested calling down lightning strikes upon those villages to destroy them. But Jesus turned and rebuked them.(Luke 9:55). Similarly, after he preached at the synagogue in Nazareth, the crowd kicked him out andwas threatening to stone him to death but he slipped quietly away from them. (Luke 4:28-30)

In summary, Elijah and Jesus both made trouble for the political authorities but for very different reasons and in very different ways.

Elijah’s efforts were directed at changing the policy and correcting the conduct of the king. He was trying to compel King Ahab to suppress Baal-worship in Israel. He sought to punish him for his crime against Naboth and he sought to anoint successors who would stamp out Baal-worship. From time to time, he vanished into the wilderness to save his skin from retaliation. He occasionally applied horrifying violence against his adversaries.

Jesus, by contrast, made the authorities nervous because he appeared to be the leader of a revolutionary political movement aimed at overthrowing the rulers. But Jesus was not changing the government, he was changing the relations between God and all humanity. He didn’t much care what the tetrarchs and governors did and he paid them little heed. He was counting on them eventually to arrest and kill him. He made himselfavailable for punishment. He used no violence and stopped his disciples when they wanted to use violence.

Chapter 3: Miracles

Elijah suddenly bursts into the narrative of the kings of Israel with his announcement of a drought.There will be neither rain nor dew in Israel until I say so, Elijah tells King Ahab. Then he promptlyvanishes into the wilderness, hiding out across theJordan River by the Wadi Cherith.

His claim to control the weather was slightly exaggerated. In the third year of the drought, theLord told the prophet, “Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.” And that is, indeed, what happens. By divine revelation, Elijahknew rain was coming. By close observation of the sky, he sees clouds forming over the sea and knows the rain is imminent. He seems to be controlling the weather. God, however, is in control and Elijah is paying attention. In our own time, we sometimes blame the weatherman for bad weather eventhough we know the weatherman only sees it coming before the rest of us.

Elijah’s work as a meteorologist finds an echo inthe gospel story of Jesus calming the sea, as told in Mark 4:35-41, Matthew 8:23-27 and Luke 8:22-25. In Mark’s version, Jesus was sleeping on a cushion in the bottom of the boat in the midst of a storm when the disciples woke him. “He woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still.’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a deadcalm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another. ‘Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’”

Jesus does not say he commands the winds and the sea. That is the conclusion the disciples immediately draw. But divine revelation, common sense and close observation – as in the case of Elijah and the rain – could show that the storm will end. The point Jesus draws from the incident is not about his powers but about fear and faith. “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” he asks in Mark’s account. “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” he asks in Matthew. “Where is your faith,” he asks in Luke. He does not say anything remotely like “I am more powerful that Baal the storm god, so worship me” or “I have magical powers over the winds and the sea.”

A rain that ends a three-year drought and a storm that nearly sinks a boat are impressive events. Elijah and Jesus use these impressive moments for teaching purposes. Elijah teaches thatthe Lord God of Israel deserves worship and the Baals of the Sidonians do not. Jesus teaches that his disciples should not let fear overcome their faith. The magical power both of them seem to exercise is incidental.

The miracle of the sacrifice on Mount Carmel isan awe-inspiring display of Yahweh’s power. Elijah organizes the event and gives the priests of Baal abundant opportunity to induce their god to receivethe sacrificial bull they are offering. Their prayers achieve no result. The Elijah prays to Yahweh to receive a sacrifice. A bolt of lightningconsumes the bull, the altar and the water in the trench around it. The people fall on their faces and say that the Lord indeed is God. The demonstration showed that Baal was no god and Baal-

worship was totally pointless, though Baal-worship continued in Israel as it did in the neighbouring kingdom of Sidon.

Elijah again called down lighting bolts when King Ahaziah sent companies of soldiers to arrest him (2 Kings 1:9-12). He destroyed two groups of soldiers in this way. When a third company approached and the officer politely asked him to spare their lives, an angel of the Lord told Elijahto go easy on this group.

Elijah’s feeding miracle was related to the drought he had announced. The widow he met at the well at the Sidonian town of Zarephath was about tofeed the last of her flour to her son and herself and then lie down and die of starvation on account of the famine. Elijah, however, promised her that her jar of meal and her jug of oil would never be empty as long as the famine continued, and the supplies indeed did not run out.

The feeding miracle of Jesus was similar in some ways but on a much vaster scale. He fed five thousand people (Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:12-17) or four thousand people (Matthew 15:32-38) with five or seven loaves and a few small fish and the leftovers filled many baskets. As in Elijah’s case,a tiny quantity of food proved to be an abundant supply. Jesus used the occasion to prefigure the Last Supper. He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. While Elijah was staying with the widow at Zeraphath (1 Kings 17:17-24), her son fell ill -- so severely ill that he was no longer breathing. The widow blamed Elijah for causing his death. He

took the child to the upper chamber, blamed God forcausing the child’s death, stretched himself out upon the child three times and prayed for his revival. The child revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber intothe house and gave him to his mother. The widow concluded that Elijah truly was a man of God.

Jesus was approached by Jairus, leader of the Nazareth synagogue, asking for revival of his deceased daughter (Mark 5:35-43; Matthew 9:18-26). Jesus brought Peter, James and John with him to thehouse of Jairus and ordered the mourners out of thehouse. With three disciples and the child’s mother and father, he took her by the hand and said: “Little girl, get up.” She got up and walked about.

Arriving at the village of Nain (Luke 7:11-17),Jesus encountered the funeral procession of a widow’s only son. “Do not weep,” he told the widow. He touched the bier and said: “Young man, Isay to you, rise.” The dead man sits up and beginsto speak and Jesus gives him to his mother. Fear seizes all of them; and they glorify God, saying: “A great prophet has arisen among us,” and “God haslooked favourably upon his people.” The crowd had recognized the echo from ancient times because Jesus, like Elijah before him, had raised a widow’sonly son from the dead. Without such a revival miracle, each of these widows was going to be destitute.

At Bethany, Jesus founds Martha and her sister Mary mourning for their brother Lazarus who had already been in the tomb four days. Martha blamed Jesus for her bother’s death and asked for his

revival. Jesus told them to roll away the stone from the mouth of the tomb, despite the stench. Jesus prayed to God and then cried out: “Lazarus, come out.” Lazarus, wrapped in strips of cloth, came out.

Jairus and Martha had learned from the Elijah story that revival of the dead was something one could ask from Elijah or from Jesus. The crowd at Nain who saw the widow’s only son revived were seized with fear and glorified God because they recognized the Jesus was re-enacting the revival ofthe Zarephath widow’s only son. Jesus did not waitfor the Nain widow to ask for revival of her son. Luke’s account echoes 1 Kings with the words “and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

Martha, like the Zarephath widow, first blamed Jesus for her brother’s death and then asked for his revival, which was granted.

Unlike Elijah, Jesus did not call down lightning strikes upon anyone. He performed many healing miracles, something Elijah never attempted.

Chapter 4: Life everlasting

The widow who sheltered Elijah at the Sidonian town of Zarephath was heart-broken to find that herson had sickened and died. The loss of her only sonwas an emotional tragedy for the widow and it was also an economic disaster: in the absence of a husband, her son was going to be the support for her old age. With no husband and no son, she wouldbe destitute and powerless, wholly dependent on thecharity of others to feed and protect her.

She immediately concluded that the stranger shetook into her house was responsible for the child’sillness and death. She said to Elijah: ‘What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!’ She addresses him as man of God,but there is a sharp edge of anger in her use of the term: how can he be a man of God if he causes such pain and suffering to a child and a widowed mother?

The accusation hurt Elijah deeply. He had no wish to bring about the child’s death and no wish to inflict pain on the widow who had offered him shelter under her roof. What kind of house guest, after all, brings disease and death into a family? “Give me your son,” he said, and he took the child to the upper room where he was staying.

Then Elijah prayed to the Lord and accused God of causing the child’s death. ‘O Lord my God, haveyou brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?’ He stretched himself out upon the dead child and asked God to let the child’s life return. The child revived. Elijah took him back down stairs and gave him to his mother.

The widow had been shown that the prophet’s presence in her house was a blessing and not a curse. She concluded that Elijah was a man of God and that the word of the Lord in his mouth was truth.

This is the earliest recorded case in the Biblewhere a dead person was brought back to life. Elisha later revived the dead son of a Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:32-37). A dead man thrown hastily

into the grave of Elisha immediately revived and stood up. (2 Kings 13:21).

At the end of his earthly life, Elijah did not die but was physically taken up into heaven while still living. Enoch, the great grandfather of Noah,as Genesis records, “walked with God; then he was no more because God took him.” (Gen 5: 24). This may mean that he did not die but was taken straightinto heaven while still living, though the details are scanty.

In the case of Elijah, the details are abundant. Elijah and his anointed successor Elisha were travelling together, first to Bethel, then to Jericho and then to the Jordan River. At each stop, the company of prophets, followers of Elijah,asked Elisha if he knew that Elijah was about to betaken away and he told them: “Yes, I know; keep silent.” Elijah repeatedly asked his young sidekick to stay behind and Elisha refused each time and continued to accompany the prophet.

Elijah parted the water of the Jordan with his mantle and they crossed the river. Elisha asked to receive a double portion – the eldest son’s portion– of Elijah’s spirit but Elijah could not promise such a thing. “As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in awhirlwind into heaven.” (2 Kings 2:11) Unmistakably, in this account, Elijah did not die but what taken bodily up into heaven, still living.

By reviving the widow’s son, Elijah showed thatdeath might not be the end of human life. By rising bodily into heaven without dying, he showed that there might be a life in heaven accessible to

human beings. Ben Sirah included the revival and the chariot of fire in his hymn to Elijah. The concluding verse says: “Happy are those who saw youand were adorned with your love! For we also shallsurely live.” The Greek text and its meaning are uncertain, but this suggests a hope for everlastinglife based on Elijah’s example.

In the district of Caesarea Philippi, north of Galilee, Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah and Jesus designated Peter as the rock on whom he would build his church. “From that time on,” Matthew reports (Mt 16:21), “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” From there, Jesus andhis disciples proceeded toward Jerusalem. Matthew reports (Mt 20:17-19):  “While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside bythemselves, and said to them on the way, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he willbe raised.’”

The arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, death,burial and resurrection of Jesus are described in great detail by all the Gospel writers and witnessed by the disciples. Appearances of the risen Jesus are also described in great detail. Luke alone reports the ascension of Jesus into heaven, once in his gospel narrative and a second time, in somewhat different terms, in Acts.

Both Elijah and Jesus were surrounded by disciples who assured a kind of corporate immortality.

Both Elijah and Jesus appointed successors to carry on their work, giving rise to an organized, structured immortality.

Both Elijah and Jesus were the subjects of memorable stories, which were recorded in Kings andin the four gospels. The vivid presence of Elijah in the gospel era 800 years after his earthly life is one form of his immortality. The vivid presenceof Jesus in world civilization 21 centuries after his death and resurrection is one form of his life everlasting.

The conclusions of their earthly lives were, however, different in crucial ways.

Elijah made a spectacular and painless exit from earthly life, rising into heaven in a whirlwind while still living. Jesus died a very public, agonizing death by crucifixion and was laidin the tomb, so that there was no room for doubt that he was physically dead. His numerous appearances to the disciples showed that bodily resurrection from the dead was possible. His ascension into heaven, though it recalls Elijah’s departure, is accorded little attention in the gospel story and is not even mentioned by Matthew, Mark or John.