Prophet Elijah

This paper aims to address the importance of the Mediterranean setting for the study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. A region’s climatic pattern and geological conditions are important in the formation of its religion and history of longue durée (Fernand Braudel). Unfortunately, the twentieth-century western scholarship of the Hebrew Bible has ignored these natural elements in their study of the religious and historical texts, as Theodore Hiebert (1996/2007) has concluded. In this article, I demonstrate that the climatic and geological setting of the East Mediterranean, or the Levant, is crucial to interpreting the Hebrew Bible in multi-dimensions.
For this purpose, the paper discusses the following exemplary Mediterranean religions and Hebrew Bible passages that illustrate the usefulness of reading the Hebrew Bible in the context of a Mediterranean setting. (1) The Ba‘alu cycle and Demeter myth of Israel’s neighbors demonstrate that climatic patterns played important roles in myth-making in the Mediterranean regions. (2) The Föhn effect in Israel creates different environmental settings between the west and the east of the central hills. The Föhn wind causes the east parts to be arid and without rain. However, grasses grow, and flowers blossom in the wilderness of the rainy season thanks to rainfall flowing down from the central hills. Dramatic changes in the Judean wilderness landscape caused by flowing water (wadi) might have inspired some eschatological visionaries (Isaiah 35:6-7; 43:19-20). (3) The Fall feast or the feast of Booths played a central role in Israel’s religion. It was celebrated not only in memory of wilderness life (Leviticus 23:33-43) but also for the restoration of the rainy season in the Fall (Psalm 126). Jeroboam’s reform of the calendar (1 Kings 12:31-33) was understood as apostasy by the Deuteronomistic historian. However, it should have been understood as an insertion of a leap month to adjust to the difference between the lunar calendar (roughly 355 days) and the actual seasons based on the solar calendar (365 days). (4) The Book of Amos and Psalm 46 can be understood better in light of a tectonic earthquake (ca. 750 BCE). This earthquake of 7.8-8.2 magnitude probably occurred north of the kingdom of Israel, or today’s Lebanon (Austin-Franz-Frost 2000) and devastated many anti-Assyrian coalition countries. The epicenter’s location and estimated magnitude are very helpful when analyzing historical mysteries, such as the rapid decline of the northern kingdom after Jeroboam II’s most glorious period, or how the Assyrian king was able to conquer enemies through short Blitzkrieg, how weaker Judah survived longer than stronger Israel, and so on.
These case-studies above could motivate Hebrew Bible researchers to pay greater attention to the Eastern Mediterranean’s environmental and geographical setting.

The file contains my Biblical Litographs from years 2007-2015. They include: Hagar, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, The Great Father Jesse, Gabriel, Mary Meets Elisabeth, Joseph Shares His Dream, The Baptism of Jesus, A Journey towards the Mountain of Transfiguration, A Woman Caught in Adultery, A Samaritan Woman at the Well, Zacheus, Crucifixion, Descent into Hell, Noli me tangere, Ascention, Pentecost, With the Moon under Her Feet, Pantokrator and others. The file also includes various posters of and invitations to exhibitions.

Il culto del profeta Elia ha incontrato una grandissima espansione in Oriente, ove tuttora la sua figura è oggetto di devozione, ma non in Occidente.
Nella Chiesa Cattolica pare infatti che questo personaggio dell’Antico Testamento sia stato un po’ accantonato e non abbia mai goduto dell’attenzione che sarebbe stato lecito attendersi.
Utilizzando questa osservazione come spunto iniziale, il presente articolo si pone il fine di indagare lo sviluppo del culto di Elia partendo dalle prime manifestazioni in Palestina e seguendo la successiva diffusione nel Medio Oriente e in Russia.
Particolare attenzione è riservata alle deboli tracce lasciate dal culto di Elia in Occidente e, in particolare, in Italia.
Dal confronto tra la ricchezza delle tradizioni, o leggende, orientali e la scarsità delle informazioni reperibili in Occidente emerge una netta separazione a cui solo in parte pare aver posto rimedio l’attività dell’ordine carmelitano.







The cult of Elia has reached a high level of expansion in the Orient, where he is still venerated, but not in the West.
In the catholic church indeed Elia hasn't received a lot of attention (less of what it could have been expected)
That is the starting point of this paper, indeed the purpose of this article is to evaluate the Cult of Elia at first in Palestina and then the expansion in the Middle East and Russia. Another relevant part of the paper is the evaluation of the cult in the West and in particular in Italy.
The activity of the carmelite order has covered only in part the difference between the abundant availability of traditions and stories related to Elia in the East and the lack of information in the West.

Le raffigurazioni che vedono protagonista il profeta Elia riguardano, generalmente, gli episodi più noti della sua vita: il sacrifico sul Monte Carmelo, la comparsa della nube che annuncia la fine della siccità, l’incontro con l’angelo nel deserto, la visita alla vedova di Sarepta, l’ascensione sul carro di fuoco.
Raramente gli artisti si sono soffermati invece sulla lotta che il profeta, insieme a Enoch, dovrà combattere con l’Anticristo durante gli ultimi giorni della civiltà umana prima del Giudizio Universale.
I rari esempi a noi noti di opere con questo soggetto sono debitori in primo luogo, naturalmente, dell’Apocalisse di San Giovanni.
Esistono tuttavia anche altri testi, riconducibili alla letteratura apocalittica apocrifa, ai quali gli artisti e i committenti possono aver attinto informazioni e suggestioni.
Questo studio intende passare in rassegna le principali fonti letterarie apocrife nel tentativo di contestualizzare questi particolari soggetti iconografici nell’ambito del vasto ed articolato corpus di tradizioni legate al profeta Elia.

The primary purpose of 1 Kings 18:41-46 is to demonstrate how the Lord is faithful to fulfill his covenant promises. Despite the fact that the Lord had just demonstrated his incredible and overwhelming power over Baal by bringing down fire from heaven on Elijah’s sacrifice in the previous pericope, he still needs to bring about the rain that he promised earlier in the chapter. 

Idolatry had never been so widespread and endorsed in Israel as it was under Ahab.  The worship of Yahweh had been replaced by pagan worship and was not permitted to coexist with it.  The withholding of rain from the people was a sign of God’s judgment for Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness.  It is also meant to demonstrate the Lord’s superiority over Baal.  It was a way to demonstrate that the Lord, not Baal, controlled the harvest and that the Lord, not Baal, controlled the rain.

In 1 Kings 18:1 the Lord tells Elijah to show himself to Ahab, “and I will send rain upon the earth.”  Elijah does this and instructs Ahab to go up and eat and drink on Mount Carmel, which serves as a covenant renewal ceremony after which the covenant blessing of rain should flow.  Whether or not the Lord will fulfill this word to Elijah and thereby vindicate himself and his prophet is the main point of tension that drives 1 Kings 18:41-46.

The Lord does bring rain. He brings a great rain. Paul R. House points out that this is to demonstrate one more time that Yahweh is Lord but that single point not quite do this pericope justice.  In addition to instructing the reader that Yahweh is Lord, this passage also demonstrates what type of Lord Yahweh is. He is a Lord who is faithful to his word.

Blending innovative art historical analysis with archaeology, epigraphy, history, liturgy, theology, and landscape and memory studies, The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary study of a deeply intelligent yet understudied male Benedictine convent near Rome. The only monastery known to have been dedicated to the prophet Elijah in the Latin West, it was rebuilt c.1122–26 with papal patronage.

Today, the monastery is represented by its church of Sant’Elia, a stone basilica endowed with its original Cosmati marble pavement and liturgical furnishings, early and high medieval sculptures and inscriptions, and vibrant wall paintings that include unique depictions of the prophet Elijah and the twelve tribes of Israel as warriors, an apse program with a distinctly elite Roman origin, and an important narrative cycle of the Apocalypse. An outlying chapel marks the site of a theophany that sanctified the landscape and gave the monastery its raison d’être. The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah makes significant contributions to current art historical debates concerning communal identity and the construction of social memory, artistic creativity and processes, the multisensory and exegetical capacities of works of visual art, intersections of topography and sanctity, and the effects of medievalism on our understanding of the Middle Ages.

Alison Locke Perchuk (Ph.D. Yale University) is an art historian specializing in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Her work on the Monastery of St. Elijah received the 2018 Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize of the Medieval Academy of America and she has held fellowships at CASVA (2016) and the Institute for Advanced Study (2018–19). Currently Associate Professor of Art at California State University Channel Islands, her next projects are on medieval Italy’s sacred landscapes and medievalism in California.

ISBN: 978-2-503-58943-5
https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503589435-1
Brepols.net

The ancient sages of the Talmud used stories as a method to teach people how to behave ethically. Elijah stories remain extremely popular today and he becomes an important figure in Jewish folklore and Chassidic tales. Elijah is supposed to show up at every Jewish circumcision and at the Passover Seder. This paper will examine the Elijah stories that appear in rabbinic literature, principally the Talmud. The diverse roles he plays include: (a) miracle worker, rescuer, and healer; (b) discloser of heavenly secrets; (c) helper and comforter of the poor; (d) promoter of social justice; (e) teacher and scholar; and (f) punisher of the wicked.

Nonostante il suo ruolo nell’Antico e nel Nuovo Testamento, il profeta Elia non è oggetto di un culto particolarmente diffuso in occidente.
Poiché, ad eccezione delle chiese carmelitane, i casi nei quali il profeta viene offerto alla venerazione dei fedeli non sono numerosi come si ci potrebbe attendere, indagare su quali e quante opere raffiguranti il fondatore dei Carmelitani esistano in una città come Genova può aiutare a riflettere sui motivi di questa presenza limitata.
Obiettivo del presente lavoro è dunque quello di effettuare una prima ricognizione in territorio genovese per valutare, senza addentrarsi nel dibattito critico né ponendosi limiti cronologici, quali siano stati e siano tuttora i messaggi e i temi che hanno condizionato, positivamente o negativamente, la diffusione del culto di Elia.

From Preface

Prophets were and still remain an echo of God’s voice. The aim of the international biblical conference Intrabiblical Interpretation of the Former Prophets, 13 – 15 December in Badín is to help gain a more acute hearing to pick up the sound of that divine voice.
This Conference Guidebook intends to serve you, dear conference attendants, as a source of information about the main speakers at the conference, about the topics of the individual conference papers as well as about the conference programme. Last but not least, the aim of the Conference Guidebook is to make your stay at the conference more pleasant and inspiring by presenting you with the possibilities offered by the conference venue.
As a part of the conference, a unique exhibition Prophets in Icons, thematically linked to the conference topic, was opened at Diocesan St. Francis Xavier Seminary in Badín, so that both hearing and sight might have been touched by the prophetic words. The exhibition was solemnly open on 14 December 2019 and the icons, that are from the personal collection of Mr. Milan Urbaník.
Besides listening to the conference papers, you may further draw from the written prophetic words of your own, studying them individually and in an undisturbed manner in the seminary’s library. Moreover, in the seminary’s church, God’s word will speak to you visually through the installed works of art such as Via Crucis made with a glass etching technique by Ladislav Záborský (1921 – 2016), and the mosaic dedicated to St. Francis Xavier (installed in 2003) by the renowned artist, Marko Ivan Rupnik, S.J. You can also visit the most ancient primeval forest in Slovakia, one of the Slovakian nature conservation areas, located near Badín to “breathe in” the word of God heard at the conference and/or recognized by your walk in the nearby created nature.

Dear conference attendants, in name of all the conference staff members and many generous people and donors who have made the conference possible, we wish you a pleasant stay in Badín. May we all together be able to hear God’s word in the prophetic voice during the conference and may we all embody the divine voice by our lives as the Word’s living interpretation.

In recent research a distinction has been made between the healing miracles of Jesus and his socalled nature miracles. Whereas the former are considered as possible (be it as real miracles or as psycho-somatic phenomena), the latter are said to be post-Easter enhancements of normal events in the life of Jesus, such as eating or going in a boat together. R. Zimmermann has argued that this distinction is untenable on literary grounds: Both kinds of stories are presented as factual stories, claiming to report real events in the life of Jesus. "e present paper argues that that distinction is also untenable because both kinds of stories share the same conceptual background. "ey all present Jesus as the one who performed miracles like the miracles of Moses and Elijah/Elisha, but at the same time superseded them. As the Son of God he brought about the kingdom of God in his healing miracles and restored the rule of God over his creation through his nature miracles.

If you want to talk about one of the greatest heroes to ever walk the earth. If you want to talk about someone who God really did incredible miracles through, if you want to talk about someone who walked hand in hand with the living God, if you want to talk about someone who changed the world forever, then you've gotta talk about one man, his name was Elijah. And Elijah would one day be followed up his apprentice, a man named Elisha. So we recall from last week, after the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was split between Jeroboam in the north and Rehoboam in the south. This takes us through one of the darkest times for Israel, the time of 1 st and 2 nd kings. These books of the Bible walk us through all these various kings that ruled in the north and the south. And for the most part, they simply went from bad to worse. Today we focus in on the northern kingdom, also called Samaria. This is where Jeroboam reigned. But now there is a new king, and his name is Ahab. And his queen is a wicked woman named Jezebel. Two really bad people.

The Last Judgement in the narthex of the Church of St George in Banjani,near Skopje, was painted in 1846 by the famous painter Dičo Zograf. He created an impressive and complex composition enriched with numerous scenes, episodes and inscriptions. In it he incorporated many new themes with a moralizing-didactic character, motifs with Russian and Bulgarian provenance, and apocalyptic components. On this occasion, most strikingly, we distinguish the representations of the Fiery River, the Aerial Tollbooths and three scenes related to the prophet Elijah,the righteous Enoch and the Antichrist, which make the Last Judgment in Banjani exceptional.

ELIAS _An Epic of the Ages_
by Latter Day Saint ORSON FERGUSON WHITNEY

Turn-of-the-century Teddy Roosevelt days.

_Progress eterne!
thou goest hand in hand With Life eterne,
and naught but death e'er dies_.

Possibly inspired writ.
The guy wrote a poem about Elijah and all the stuff he was doing.  Sort of the way that the people living on the Western frontier were living in the wilderness.

Scholars present themes of faith and prayer that are linked with Elijah and with the Land of Israel. The publication of these essays provides a context for re-issuing my study of “Elijah the Peacemaker- Jewish and Early Christian Interpretations of Malachi 3:23-24”, which appeared in the SIDIC Review, edited by the Sisters of Sion in Rome.

The other essays in this issue (XVII no. 2, 1984) include: Nello Pavoncello, “The Prophet Elijah in Jewish Liturgy;” Editors of SIDIC, “Gleaning- The Prophet Elijah;” M. J. Stiassny, “Elijah in Kabbalah and Mysticism;” Michel De Goedt, “Elijah- A Victorious, Persecuted, Discouraged Prophet- First of a Long Line (1 Kings 17-19).”

Lists 15 examples of the Ascension of the prophet Elijah in frontal view in Byzantine and post-Byzantine painting (10th-19th cs.). Argues that this particular iconographic type is not derived from images of Alexander the Great's aerial flight. Instead, both images belong to the same encompassing theme, which was often used to represent an apotheosis.

This article focuses on the relation between two scenes from the complex of Elijah-narratives in 1Kgs 17–18, known as the “story of the draught”: 1Kgs 17,17-24, which refers to the resurrection of a widow’s boy, performed by the prophet, and the well-known gods-contest on Mount Carmel (1Kgs 18,20-40). The structural analysis emphasizes the numerous elements these two scenes have in common. Moreover, both episodes share the theme of the ‘knowledge of Jahwe’ and the failing of the draught. Thus we can assert that the resurrection scene (17,17-24) functions as a bridge in the story of the draught, and as a prelude to the combat on Mount Carmel: what Israel will confess in 18,39 is anticipated by the widow’s confession in 17,24. The relation between the two scenes and the function of 1Kgs 17,17-24 indicate the probability of their literary dependence. It appears that the resurrection scene was introduced in its present place during a pre-deuteronomistic stage of redaction of the story of the draught.

Scholars of Christian monasticism are familiar with the importance of the prophet Elijah to the desert fathers, with the development of his cult in the Greek- and Syriac-speaking churches of the eastern Mediterranean, and with his role in the forging of Carmelite monastic identity in the context of the Crusades. Much less is known about Elijah’s place in the medieval Latin church. This paper is part of a
project that seeks to redress that omission by examining the handful of known medieval churches dedicated to Elijah in the Latin West, all located on the Italian peninsula. Taking as its point of departure the twelfth-century Monastery of Elijah near Nepi (VT), and drawing on evidence from art history, liturgy, theology, and landscape studies, this paper presents Elijah as an effective monastic exemplar within the Latin church, whose life of isolation, abstinence, and prayer served as a behavioral model while his heavenly ascent and encounters with God validated their desire to reach God. The position of these foundations in central Italy and on Sardegna suggests a basis in a shared Mediterranean culture, though with varied ramifications— including different feast days—East and West.

From the King’s Jug to the Prophet’s. Exploring the Motif of “Jug” צַפַּחַת in the Masoretic Text .

The subject of the study is the word צַפַּחַת “jug” in its seven occurrences in the Masoretic text. The appearance of the “water jug” of Saul in Sam 26 is not only remarkable, but also David’s explicit interest in it. However, David’s intention with it, which remains unspecified, as well as the unexpected disappearance of the jug in the narrative, raises the question of what happened to the jug. A similar oil jug appears in the story of Elijah’s miracle with oil and flour at the house of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:8-16). The last occurrence of the word is again related to the prophet Elijah when he escapes from Jezebel in 1 Kings 19:3b-8. The study points to the connection between the story in which the prophet receives a miraculous jug and the story where the water jug has been removed from Saul. The motif of the withdrawal of the jug from the king and its miraculous attribution to the prophet suggests some preferences for the prophetic leader who fulfills the Lord’s word.

Predmetom štúdie je sedem výskytov slova צַפַּחַת „krčah“ v masoretskom texte. Pozoruhodné je nielen objavenie sa „krčaha na vodu“ pri Šaulovi v 1Sam 26, ale Dávidov výslovný záujem oň. Avšak Dávidov zámer s ním, ktorý zostáva nešpecifikovaný, a tiež i nečakané vytratenie sa krčaha v narácii, vzbudzuje u čitateľa otázku, čo sa stalo s krčahom. Podobný krčah na olej sa objaví v príbehu o Eliášovom zázraku s olejom a múkou u vdovy v Sarepte (1Kr 17,8-16). Posledný výkyt slova súvisí opäť s prorokom Eliášovom, keď uniká pred Jezabel v 1Kr 19,3b-8. Štúdia poukazuje na súvis medzi príbehom, v ktorom dostane prorok zázračne krčah na vodu a medzi príbehom, kde sa krčah na vodu odníme od Šaula. Motív odňatia krčaha od kráľa a zázračné prisúdenie prorokovi naznačuje istú preferenciu v prospech prorockého vodcu, ktorý plní Pánovo slovo.
Kľúčové slová: krčah, צַפַּחַת, Šaul a Dávid, Eliáš a vdova, 1Kr 19,6.

M. Lass, Grafische Überlegungen zur Struktur von 1 Kön 17,17–24 und Apg 20,7–12, in: Protokolle zur Bibel 26 (2017) 105–114, https://www.protokollezurbibel.at/index.php/pzb/article/download/1917/1766.

This article deals with the text of 1 Kgs 17:17–24 and its spatial structures, which shape the composition of the text as well as they mould the contents of the story. Its framework using changes of location can be found in others of the Bible’s narratives of awakening (cf. 2 Kgs 4:8–37; Acts 9:36–42), too. Arrangements of persons or things, spaces and the dynamics thereof are connected graphically and thus 1 Kgs 17:17–24 is examined more closely. A second step compares the text to Acts 20:7–12, which reverses the spacing and sets different priorities.

The picture of Elijah in Luke-Acts is complex. Elijah appears once as an independent story character (in Luke 9:30) in a scene together with Jesus. So Jesus cannot be an appearance of Elijah, as some people of the crowd suppose (9:8,19).  All other times, the name of Elijah sounds from the mouth of story characters.  John (the Baptist) is associated with Elijah a few times, explicitly in 1:17 and implicitly in 1:76 and 7:27, by authoritative persons (the angel Gabriel, the spirit-filled Zacharias and Jesus). So the reader has to listen carefully to what is said about John in relationship to Elijah. According to Jesus, John is the forerunner and preparer of the way of the Lord (= Jesus) in the way Malachi speaks (3:1). Here, Jesus identifies John with this messenger, i.e. Elijah, (see Mal 3:23 = 4:5). Also Jesus is associated with Elijah, explicitly in 4:25,26; 9:8,19 and implicitly in 7:11-17; 9:51-55 and 24:50-53 + Acts 1:1-11. But he is not associated with the Elijah figure of Malachi, but with the Elijah of 1 Kings 17 – 2 Kings 2. Sometimes there is an identification of Jesus with Elijah (7:15), another time Jesus does not resemble Elijah at all (9:54-55). The identification of John with Elijah of Malachi is greater than those of Jesus with the Elijah of the Book of Kings.
For a translation in English, use: https://www.deepl.com/nl/translator.

This paper has some interesting comparisons between Elijah and Enoch that did not make it into my book: Elijah and the Rabbis.
“Non-Rabbinic Sources for Elijah Legends in Rabbinic Literature.” Society of Biblical Literature 1994 Seminar Papers. Ed. Eugene H. Lovering, Jr. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994. 752-766.