![]() At length the latter resolved to confront the king once more, and, suddenly appearing before Abdias, bade him summon his master (xviii, 7, sq.). Meanwhile Achab had made fruitless efforts and scoured the country in search of Elias. ![]() For three years there fell no rain or dew in Israel, and the land was utterly barren. 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). 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).Īfter the brook had dried up, Elias, under Divine direction, crossed over to Sarepta, within the Tyrian dominion. 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 skin garment and leather girdle (2 Kings, 1, 8), his swift foot ( 1 Kings 18:46), 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. His whole manner of life resembles somewhat that of the Nazarites and is a loud protest against his corrupt age. Some Jewish legends, echoed in a few Christian writings, assert moreover that Elias was of priestly descent but there is no other warrant for the statement than the fact that he offered sacrifices. Of Elias's origin nothing is known, except that he was a Thesbite whether from Thisbe of Nephtali ( Tobit 1:2) 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. 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 16:32) 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. 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" ( 48:1). 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. ![]() 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. The loftiest and most wonderful prophet of the Old Testament. ![]() Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99.Įlias (Hebrew 'Eliahu, "Yahveh is God" also called Elijah). Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. ![]()
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