Elijah

The first great prophet of ancient Israel. His name—possibly an assumed one affirming his mission—means “the Lord is my God.” Some translations of the Bible preserve the Greek form “Elias.”


Elijah left nothing in writing, unless we count a letter quoted in 2 Chronicles 21:12–15, but he prepared the way for the literary prophets such as Isaiah. He denounced public wrongdoing and apostasy, even at the highest levels and in spite of personal risk. It was principally because of his warnings that the inspired utterance of Israelite prophecy began to take on its predictive aspect.
He lived in the northern Israelite kingdom during the middle ninth century b.c., when Ahab reigned. Many of the king’s subjects were enjoying a period of prosperity, partly through his close association with the Phoenicians, the chief trading nation of the Mediterranean; Carthage was founded about this time as a Phoenician colony. Ahab married the Phoenician princess Jezebel, an elegant and strong-minded woman who brought a new sophistication to Samaria, his capital. She also brought the cult of the Tyrian Baal, together with a train of priests. “Baal” in the early books of the Bible is usually a general term covering a medley of local gods—nature spirits and fertility spirits whom the Israelites had encountered in the Promised Land and frequently found attractive. Jezebel’s Baal was much more formidable, a major god of fertility and the storm wind, who could be set up as a rival to Yahweh, the God of Israel. With him came the goddess Asherah as his consort, together with absolutist conceptions of royal power.
Ahab was willing to allow both forms of religion. His wife was not. Her new subjects had had their prophets for many years, the seers and minstrels of the Lord, not very influential and not subversive. Nevertheless, Jezebel drove them into hiding. Few of the people were enthusiastic about her Baal, but only a small number offered serious opposition.
Elijah emerged as a prophet in a new style. According to the biblical narrative, he confronted Ahab foretelling a long drought, as a sign of the Lord’s wrath at what the king was allowing; it would end only when he said. This promptly happened. The prophet insisted on a rigorous either-or proposition: the people must make up their minds—Baal or Yahweh? On Mount Carmel, the ridge close to Haifa, he staged a contest to see which god would kindle fire on an altar. Baal did not, Yahweh did. Attempted rationalizations of this miracle are not relevant here. What is interesting is that the author does not present it as a victory turning the tide. The onlookers, he says, acknowledged the true God and killed many of Baal’s “prophets,” but the tide did not turn, though at least the drought ended.
Jezebel threatened Elijah with death, and he escaped to Mount Horeb in Sinai where, long before, Moses had heard the voice of God. He was in despair, but God spoke to him too, not spectacularly in wind and earthquake but in a “still small voice.” Seven thousand Israelites in Ahab’s domains had not submitted to Baal, and in spite of all appearances, a change would come. Elijah went back to Samaria. Meanwhile, Ahab, urged on by Jezebel, was engaged in getting possession of a vineyard he coveted, belonging to
Naboth, one of his subjects. By the queen’s contrivance, Naboth was condemned on a trumped-up charge and stoned to death. Ahab confiscated the vineyard. While he was inspecting his new property, Elijah came to him and denounced his un-Israelite despotism. He would have a disastrous end, his family would be destroyed, Jezebel’s corpse would be food for dogs. Ahab assumed an air of penitence, but he fell in battle soon after. Jezebel was killed, violently and ignominiously, in a revolt led by Jehu, and dogs devoured her. Jehu wiped out the rest of Ahab’s family, massacred the Baal devotees who were still active, and converted their temple into a latrine.
In the Bible, Elijah appoints a disciple, Elisha, as his successor. Beside the Jordan he is mysteriously whirled skyward in a fiery chariot, and no one sees him again.
Besides his uncompromising stand and his predictions, the story foreshadows an enduring prophetic theme. The 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal are a remnant keeping faith. Israel’s prophets come to accept that the Chosen People are not an indivisible bloc. Whole sections may fall away, but a faithful remnant will always inherit the divine promises and live on as the true Israel. This explains the position of the Jews who are descended, not from all the ancient Israelite tribes, but from a minority, mainly of the tribe of Judah, who were deported to Babylon in the sixth century b.c. A crucial number of these were allowed to return and refound Zion, while others preserved Judaism in the Diaspora.
Elijah’s departure in the chariot inspired a belief that he was not dead but alive among the heavenly host. A late scriptural book, Malachi, ended with a prophecy that he would reappear, to prepare for the final Day of the Lord. Evidently, God was reserving him for some great purpose, and there were guesses as to its nature. He would return as a forerunner of the Messiah and anoint him as king (this idea figures in the New Testament in connection with John the Baptist). He would preside over the resurrection of the dead at the end of all things. In the early Christian era, rabbis speculated about his immortality. Perhaps he had never sinned and therefore never incurred the death sentence pronounced in Eden. Or perhaps he was a disguised angel, not human at all.
And perhaps he made unobtrusive visits to Earth. Jewish folklore includes many stories of Elijah descending briefly from heaven as a friend to the poor, as a rescuer from peril, and as a reconciler and settler of disputes. Two important Jewish movements, Cabalism and Hasidism, claimed that he came in person to bless their founders. At the Passover, some Orthodox families keep a chair empty for the prophet, set a glass of wine in front of it, and open the door to let him in if he wishes to enter.
Much of this legendary saga passed into Islam, in which Elijah is called Ilyas, a name probably derived from the Greek form “Elias.” Though barely mentioned in the Koran, he keeps his folklore character as an immortal visitor to the human world. Muslim mystics revere him as a pattern of holiness; visions of him occur in the traditions of Sufi religious orders. However, his future role in the last days has no Muslim counterpart.
The Islamic Elijah is sometimes identified, or rather confused, with a legendary hero called al-Khadir, the “green” one, green being the sacred color. Khadir is also immortal, but his saga is largely derived from non-Islamic sources, such as the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh and medieval romances of Alexander the Great.