There remains the striking picture of theBaiitist in the character of Elijah, drawn in Lk I""'-. The
passage clearly assumes the developed doctrine of the Messiahship of Jesus, and the career of John the Baptist is analyzed from this point of view. The high spiritual plane of the identification is obvi- ous. John comes in the spirit and power of the great prophet, reconciling lamilies, reducing the disobedient to obedience, preparing Israel for the coming of the Messiah. (Jnly on this high plane could the identification be successful. The work of the forerunner here finds fullest expression. He not simply proclaims, he prepares. This is, how- ever, the implication of the other passages ; other- wise the suggested identification of Jesus with Elijah would not have been possible, for it was the very works of Jesus that called out the suggestion. The same is true in the case of John.
The belief in the reappearance of Elijah, held by the Jews of NT times, is a later stage of the belief which is expressed in Mai 4^ [En^.] : he would come before the great day of Jehovah to reconcile the
hearts of parents and children. Sir 48""''- describes the same work more elaborately, and forms an early interpretation of the passage in Malachi.
The Rabbinical writings abound in expressions of the same belief, with characteristic extravagances and specifications. These Jewish traditions know Elijah as zealous in the service of God, and as a helper in distress, as well as the foremnner of the Messiah. Naturally his work is in behalf of their own people, and is performed in connexion with their own institutions.
As the Jews elaborated the earlier doctrine of the Messiah, and as in their thought He became more and more exalted in holiness and majesty, the impossibility of His appearance in the midst of all the sin and shame of Israel was increasingly felt ; and the character of Elijah, the holy prophet, zealous in his earthly life for the political and religious integrity of the nation, and already en- shrined in tradition as having been spared death, was a fitting one to be chosen to carry on the great work of preparing Israel for the blessings of tlie Messianic era. Indeed, in some passages the doc- trine of Elijah has developed to such an extent as well nigh to u.surp the functions of the Messiah.
LiiERATDRE.— Volz, Judischs Eschatotogie, 192 and passim ; Jewish Encyc. s.r.; Gfrorer, Jahrhundert des Beits, n. 227 f.; Bacher, Agade d. Tannaiten, passim; Weber, Altsyn, pal. Theol. 337-339 ; Schiirer, GJV^ ii. 624 f.
O. H. G.\TES.
ELISABETH.— The NT notice of Elisabeth is confined to the Third Gospel, and its brief record concerning her may well be due to St. Luke's acquaintance with Mary the mother of our Lord. It is interesting to know that she was a kinswoman {uvyyevU, Lk 1^) of Mary, though it is unfortun- ately impossible to verify the exact relationship that e.xisted between them. Elisabeth is describee, with her husband Zacharias (wh. see), as a faithful adherent of the OT type of religion— strict and regular in observance of the Law (v.'). She enjoyed the double distinction, according to Jewish thought, of being both a priest's daughter and a priest's wife (v.°). The joy of such a twofold honour was, however, diminished by the fact that she was barren (v.'), to an Oriental woman little less than a calamity. But a single event in the Gospel narrative at once dispelled her sorrow and entitled her to a place of honour not among Jewish women alone, but in the eyes of the whole world. In her old age (v.**) she "liecame the mother of John the Baptist.
Between the promise and tlie birth of this child she was visited by Mary (v. 3"), who remained with her for a period of three months (v.*"), and to whom she was made a proof of the Almighty's power (vv.'^-'*). On Mary's appearance she re- ceived a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
ELIRHA
EMMAUS
515
which even enabled her to recognize in her kins- woman the uiotlier of lier 'Lord' (v. •""•)> and in Mary's Child a fultilnient of the promise of Jeliovah Himself (v."). Herein she unconsciously illus- trated the meaniug of her own name, which in its Hebrew form signifies ' God is an oath.'
On the theory (upheld by Burkitt, Harnack, et al.) that the Magnijicat ought to be attributed to Elisabeth and not to Mary, see artt. Birth of Christ, p. 203i= note, and Magnificat. H. BiSSEKER.
ELISHA (AV Eliseus).— The famous disciple, companion, and successor of Elijah. In NT he is only once referred to, viz. in Lk 4'-'. Jesus, preach- in" in the synagogue at Nazareth, reminds His feflow-townsmen, who were unwilling to receive His teaching because He was one of themselves, that Elisha, who was an Israelite, healed but one leper, and he was a Syrian. He leaves them to draw the obvious inference as to the probable con- sequence of their rejection of Him. It is clear, however, that in this warning our Lord was look- ing far beyond Nazareth, and that He had in view the casting away of the Jews through unbelief, and the call of the Gentiles. J. Cromaety SMITH.
ELIUD.— An ancestor of Jesus, Mt 1'^'-.
ELMADAM (AV Elmodam). — An ancestor of Jesus, Lk 3^ ; perh. = Heb. Almodad (cf. Gn 102«).