In regard to the activity of Elisha it is note- worthy that, while he is called by preference (28 times) ‘man of God,’ he also appears in the Elisha- narratives as ndab@’, and that in the later sense of the term. Soin 1 K 191%, where Elijah is directed to anoint * him to be a nabi; 2 K 3", where Jehoshaphat recognizes him as a true prophet, through whom Jahweh may be consulted; cf. also 58, where Elisha classes himself amongst the nébvim. In the mouth of others he is called without qualification ‘the prophet’ (5° 94), receiving this title even from heathen speakers (5 622),
The methods by which Elisha works are partly the usual ones, which are recorded also of Samuel and Elijah—namely, the proclaiming of a word that has come to him from Jahweh (2 K 316# 4% 7), and prayer (4 6!-), Along with these, how- ever, we meet in his case again with a variety of features which have been already described in speaking of Elijah, and which recall the ecstatic conditions and magical methods of the ancient nébvim. He needs the services of a harper if ‘the hand of Jahweh’ (see above, on 1 K 18%) is to come upon him. Quite peculiar to him is the gift which we nowadays call telepathic sight and hearing (2 K 5% 6! * 7? 8%; cf. also 6%, where Elisha and, at his prayer, his servant also gee the heavenly horses and tiery chariots on the mountain). But with special frequency miraculous acts are attributed to him. Even if stories like the purifying of the spring at Jericho by using salt (21°), the making of bitter fruits palatable through meal (4°5*:), or the causing of the axe to spring to the surface of the water (6°) are not
* Since we never hear elsewhere of prophets being anointed, and as it is not even performed by Elijah in this instance (cf. v.19), ‘anoint’ must here be used in the weakened sense of ‘install.’
656 RELIGION OF ISRAEL
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
meant to be taken as recording miracles, but merely prove what a fondness there was for hand- ing down the memory even of less important incidents of his life, there remain a number of others which, to say the least, place him alongside of Elijah. The wonder wrought on the widow’s cruse of oil (2 K 4°8:) exhibits a heightened form as compared with the general promise of 1 K 174# ; and the same is the case with the raising from the dead recorded in 2 K 4”, seeing that a much longer time had elapsed since the death than in 1 K 17, At the same time 2 K 4°". expressly teaches that magical weapons are not efficacious in every hand: in vain Gehazi lays the staff of Elisha upon the face of the dead—it is only the prayer and the personal pe influence of the man of God that can call back to life. The ful- filment of Elisha’s promise to the Shunammite (416) and of that to Naaman the leper (in the latter instance the promise being carried by a messenger) might also be attributed to the intercession of the prophet. In reality, however, the narrative may be intended to be understood to mean that the promise of the prophet is as certain to be inevitably fulfilled as was his curse (2¥"), In 61% 2 it is the prayer of Elisha that strikes the Syrians blind and restores them to sight; and in both these cases (as already in 6’) the efficacy of the prayer is instantaneous. The feeding of 100 men with 20 barley loaves (4%) is the counterpart of the miracle of the widow’s oil-cruse ; the transferring of the leprosy of Naaman to Gehazi (5*’) corre- sponds to the instantaneous effect of the curse im 2?4,
All this may be regarded as furnishing sufficient evidence that even Elisha is still closely allied to the nébv’tm in the old sense, but at the same time also that, like Elijah, he is distinguished from them, and forms along with him a connecting link between the old seers and the prophets proper. That his political activity, too, as exercised in the interest of pure Jahwism, was no slight one, would be sufficiently evidenced even by 91, and it is not without reason that he too received from king Joash the honourable appellation of ‘ chariot and horsemen of Israel.’ Regarding what was perhaps his most important activity, the direction of the guilds of néb?’im, we shall have to speak below.
(c) But we have still to notice one Israelitish prophet who in the reign of Ahab holds as peculiar a place as Elijah himself, namely Micaiah ben- Imlah, the subject of the narrative of 1 K 228#-, Ahab cannot endure him, because it is his wont always to prophesy evil to him. Jehoshaphat deprecates Ahab’s remark; evidently he sees, in the very fact that Micaiah is mostly a prophet
_ of ill, the evidence of true inspiration, whereas the unbroken harmony with which the numerous other prophets promise good fortune had awakened his distrust. In fact, Micaiah will speak only what Jahweh bids him (v.4). It is thus the intention of Jahweh that he, like the others, should at first hold out deceitful promises (v.°). Ahab, however, sees through this conduct, and Micaiah, when the king presses him, delivers Jahweh’s message of woe, explaining at the same time, by relating his remarkable vision, why all the rest of the pro- phets had_ become victims of the ‘lying spirit’: Jahweh Himself has ordered it to be so. The circumstance that Micaiah himself does not share their fate, but is informed in his vision as to the real course of Jahweh’s purpose, shows sutficiently the height at which he stands above the ordinary néb?im ; and his threat against Ahab finds speedy realization at Ramoth-gilead. Hence we may say that Micaiah ben-Imlah is the first who bears all the marks of the true prophet of Jahweh, without