Elisha Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Bible stories== [[File:Palestine in the times of Elijah and Elisha (Smith, 1915).jpg|thumb|Map of Palestine during the times of Elisha.]] ===Anointing=== Elisha's story is related in the [[Books of Kings]] (Second Scroll, chapters 2β14) in the [[Hebrew Bible]] (part of the [[Nevi'im]]). According to this story, he was a prophet and a wonder-worker of the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]] who was active during the reigns of [[Jehoram of Israel|Joram]], [[Jehu]], [[Jehoahaz of Israel|Jehoahaz]], and [[Jehoash of Israel|Jehoash]] (Joash).<ref name="autogenerated1996">Achtemeijer, Paul L. ed., and Dennis R. Bratcher, Ph.D. "Elisha." HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.</ref> Elisha was the son of [[Shaphat]], a wealthy land-owner of [[Abel-meholah]]; he became the attendant and disciple of Elijah.<ref name=je>{{cite web|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5682-elisha|title="Elisha", ''Jewish Encyclopedia''}}</ref> His name first occurs in chapter 19 of the Books of Kings in the command given to Elijah to [[Anointing|anoint]] him as his successor. After learning in the [[Cave of Elijah|cave]] on [[Mount Horeb]], that Elisha, the son of Shaphat, had been selected by [[Yahweh]] as his successor in the prophetic office, Elijah set out to find him. On his way from Mount Horeb to [[Damascus]], Elijah found Elisha ploughing with twelve yokes of oxen.<ref name=Basilica>[https://www.nationalshrine.org/blog/biblical-figures-elisha-miracle-worker/ "Biblical Figures: Elisha, Miracle Worker", Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, February 1, 2021]</ref> Elijah went over to him, threw his [[Mantle (clothing)|mantle]] over Elisha's shoulders, investing him with the prophetic office.<ref name=je/> Elisha delayed only long enough to kill the yoke of oxen, whose flesh he boiled with the wood of his plough. After he had shared this farewell repast with his father, mother, and friends, the newly chosen prophet "went after Elijah, and ministered unto him".<ref name=dothie>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=reQEAAAAQAAJ|title=Dothie, William Plaskett. ''The history of the prophet Elisha''|last1=Dothie|first1=William Plaskett|year=1872}}</ref> Elisha became Elijah's close attendant until Elijah was taken up into [[heaven]], although no details of Elisha are given during those years. ===Elijah taken in the whirlwind=== [[File:Jericho - Elisha's Fountain1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9| [[Ein es-Sultan]] in Jericho (also known as "Elisha's Spring"), believed to be the fountain purified by Elisha in [[2 Kings 2]]:19β22, now inside a protective building.]] Elisha accompanied Elijah to [[Jericho]], where according to 2 Kings 2:3β9,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|2:3β9|HE}}</ref> "the sons of the prophets" tell Elisha that the {{Lord}} would "will take away thy master from thy head to-day". Elijah and Elisha went to the [[Jordan River]]. Elijah rolls up his mantle and strikes the water,<ref>{{Bibleverse|2 Kings|2:8|HE}}</ref> the waters of which divided so as to permit both to pass over on dry ground. Elisha asks to "inherit a double-portion" of Elijah's spirit. Suddenly, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and Elijah was lifted up in a whirlwind. As Elijah was lifted up, his mantle fell to the ground and Elisha picked it up. Some scholars see this as 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. In this interpretation Elisha is asking that he may be seen as the "rightful heir" and successor to Elijah.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rabatchurch.org/sermons/asking-for-a-double-portion|title=Wald, Jack, "Asking for a double share", Rabat International Church, November 2, 2003}}</ref> Critics of this view point out that Elisha was already appointed as Elijah's successor earlier in the narrative and that Elisha is described as performing twice as many miracles as Elijah. In this interpretation the "double-portion" is not merely an allusion to primacy in succession, but is instead a request for greater prophetic power even than Elijah.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gospel.org.nz/index.php/articles/articles-by-rodney/230-the-prophetic-double-anointing|last=Francis|first=RW|title=The Prophetic Double Anointing|work=The Gospel Faith Messenger|publisher=gospel.org.nz}}</ref> === Miracles === [[Image:ElijahRefusingGifts PieterDeGrebber.jpg|left|thumb|''Elisha Refusing the Gifts of [[Naaman]]'', by [[Pieter de Grebber]] 1630]] By means of the mantle left to fall from Elijah, Elisha miraculously recrossed the Jordan and returned to Jericho, where he won the gratitude of the people by purifying the unwholesome waters of their spring and making them drinkable.<ref name=ocarm/> When the armies of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], Israel and [[Edom]], then allied against [[Mesha]], the [[Moab]]ite king, were being tortured by drought in the [[Edom|Idumea]]n desert, Elisha consented to intervene. His double prediction regarding relief from drought and victory over the Moabites was fulfilled on the following morning.<ref name=je/> When a group of boys (or youths){{efn|Hebrew {{transliteration|hbo|na'ar}}, translated 'youths' in the [[New International Version]]. The ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' entry on [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5682-elisha Elisha] states, "The offenders were not children, but were called so ({{transliteration|hbo|"ne'arim"}}) because they lacked ({{transliteration|hbo|"meno'arim"}}) all religion ([[SoαΉah]] 46b)." Although the [[Authorized King James Version]] used the words "little children", theologian [[John Gill (theologian)|John Gill]] stated in his [http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/2-kings-2-23.html ''Exposition of the Bible''] that the word was "used of persons of thirty or forty years of age".}} from Bethel taunted the prophet for his baldness, Elisha cursed them in the name of [[Yahweh]] and two female bears came out of the forest and tore forty-two of the boys.<ref name=duffy>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Duffy|first=D|year=1909|title=Eliseus|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05386c.htm|encyclopedia=[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]|volume=5|location=New York|publisher=Robert Appleton Company|access-date=7 January 2014}}</ref> To relieve a prophet's widow importuned by a harsh creditor, Elisha multiplied a little oil as to enable her not only to pay her debt but to provide for her family needs.<ref>Zucker, David J., "Elijah and Elisha" Part II, ''Jewish Bible Quarterly'', vol.41, no.1, 2013</ref> Jewish tradition identifies the widow's husband as [[Obadiah (1 Kings)|Obadiah]], the servant of [[King Ahab]], who hid 100 prophets of Yahweh in two caves.<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Kings|18:3β16|NKJV}}; cf. [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_kings/4-1.htm Pulpit Commentary on 2 Kings 4], accessed 22 December 2017</ref> According to the first [[Books of Kings|Book of Kings]], Elijah resuscitated [[Raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath|a Phoenician boy]] in the city of [[Sarepta|Zarephath]].<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Kings|17}}</ref> In the second Book of Kings, Elisha obtained for [[Woman of Shunem|a rich lady of Shunem]] the birth of a son. When the child died some years later, Elisha successfully [[Raising of the son of the woman of Shunem|resuscitated the child]].<ref name=oca/> [[File:096.A Famine in Samaria.jpg|thumb|''A Famine in Samaria'' (illustration by [[Gustave DorΓ©]] from the 1866 {{lang|fr|La Sainte Bible}})]] To nourish the sons of the prophets pressed by famine, Elisha changed a pottage made from poisonous [[gourd]]s into wholesome food.<ref name=ocarm/> He fed a hundred men with twenty loaves of new [[barley]], leaving some leftover,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|4:42β44|HE}}</ref> in a story which is comparable with the [[Feeding of the multitude|miracles of Jesus]] in the [[New Testament]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|14:15β21}}, {{bibleverse|Matthew|15:32β38}}, {{bibleverse|John|6:5β14}}</ref> Elisha cured the Syrian military commander [[Naaman]] of [[leprosy]] but punished his own servant [[Gehazi]], who took money from Naaman.<ref name=oca>{{cite web|url=http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/06/14/101718-prophet-elisha|title=Elisha|publisher=Orthodox Church in America}}</ref> Naaman, at first reluctant, obeyed Elisha, and washed seven times in the [[River 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."<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|5:15}}</ref> Elisha allowed Naaman to continue in the service of the Syrian king and therefore be present in the worship of [[Rimmon]] in the Syrian temple. According to the [[Gospel of Luke]], [[Jesus]] referred to Naaman's healing 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."<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|4:27|KJV}}</ref> Elisha's actions included repeatedly saving King [[Jehoram of Israel]] from the ambushes planned by [[Hadadezer|Benhadad]],<ref name=duffy/> ordering the elders to shut the door against the messenger of Israel's ungrateful king,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|6:25β32|HE}}</ref> bewildering with a strange blindness the soldiers of the Syrian king,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|6:13β23|HE}}</ref> making iron float to relieve from embarrassment a son of a prophet,<ref name=ocarm>{{cite web|url=http://ocarm.org/en/content/liturgy/st-elisha-prophet-m|title=Eliseus|publisher=the Order of Carmelites|access-date=2014-01-07|archive-date=2020-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526202542/http://ocarm.org/en/content/liturgy/st-elisha-prophet-m|url-status=dead}}</ref> and confidently predicting the sudden flight of the enemy at the siege of Samaria and the consequent cessation of the famine in the city,<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|7:1β20|HE}}</ref> Elisha then journeyed to Damascus and prophesied that [[Hazael]] would be king over Syria.<ref name=Basilica/> Elisha directs one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu, the son of [[Jehoshaphat (father of Jehu)|Jehoshaphat]], as king of Israel, and commissions him to cut off the house of Ahab.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elisha "Elisha". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 1 December 2023]</ref> The death of Jehoram, pierced by an arrow from Jehu's bow, the end of [[Jezebel]],<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|9:30β34}}</ref> and the slaughter of Ahab's seventy sons, proved how he executed that demand.<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|9:11β10:30|HE}}</ref> ===Elisha's final days=== [[File:The Miracle at the Grave of Elisha by Jan Nagel (d 1602).jpg|thumb|The miracle at the grave of Elisha. ([[Jan Nagel (painter)|Jan Nagel]], 1596)]] While Elisha lay on his death-bed in his own house, [[Jehoash of Israel]], the grandson of Jehu, came to mourn over his approaching departure, and uttered 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".<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|2:12|KJV}}, {{bibleverse|2 Kings|13:14|KJV}}</ref> Jehoash assists Elisha to fire an arrow eastwards from the window of his room, predicting as it lands: {{blockquote|The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at [[Aphek (biblical)|Aphek]] till you have destroyed them.<ref>{{Bibleverse|2 Kings|13:17|NKJV}}</ref>}} Elisha predicted three successful battles over the Arameans, but no absolute victory.<ref name=Basilica/> {{Bibleverse |2 Kings |13:25}} records three victories of Joash whereby cities lost to the Arameans, probably on the [[Cisjordan|west bank]] of the Jordan, were regained.<ref>[http://biblehub.com/commentaries/pulpit/2_kings/13.htm Pulpit Commentary on 2 Kings 13], accessed 9 January 2018</ref> According to the Books of Kings the year after Elisha's death and burial (or, in the following spring) a body was placed in his grave. As soon as the body touched Elisha's remains the man "revived and stood up on his feet".<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Kings|13:20β21|HE}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page