Not a few passages in the NT indicate the pre- valence of this conception. Tlie four winds have their four angels (Kev 7^* ^), and the fire has its angel (14'^). Each of the Seven Churches has its angel (2. 3). Angels take the form of winds and fire (He 1' II Ps 104^). _ The inferiority of the law to the gospel is due to its administration by angels (Gal 3^^). The belief in a world of intermediate spirits is the basal thought of Gnosticism, wliich St. Paul
encounters in its incipient forms. • Jewish wor- ship of law and pagan worship of gods are for him fundamentally the same bondage under the loAver world-powers which stand between God and men.' Grant that this language is paradoxical, ' it is still extremely significant that Paul dares to speak in this way of the law ' (Bousset in Die Schriften des NT, ii. 62).
Even in 2 P 3'°- ^ it is possible that the ffToixela which are to be • dissolved,' or * melted,' are ele- mental spirits. ' This may or may not seem strange to us, but \ve must ever learn anew that bygone times had a different conception of the world ' (Holl- mann in Die Schriften des NT, ii. 594). Schoettgen quotes the Rabbinical words: 'No choir of angels sings God's praises twice, for each day God creates new hosts which sing His praises and then vanish into the stream of tire from under the throne of His glory whence they came.' A closer parallel is found in Test, of the XII. Patr., 'Levi,' 4, where it is said that on the Judgment Day all creation will be troubled and the invisible spirits melt away (/cai tuv dopdruv 7rv€V/ji.dT(i)v TrjKO/xivuv}.
LiTERATTTRE. — Hermann Diels, Elementum : Eine Vorarbeit zitm griechischen vnd late.iniitchfn Thesaurus, 1S99 ; E. Y. Hinks, 'The Meaning of the Phrase rd crroix^la. tov Koaiiov' in JBfj, vol. XV. [ibiJti], p. 183ff. ; artt. bj' G. A. Deissmann in EBi ; by M. S. Terry in SBB ; by J. Massie in UI)B.
James Strahan, ELIJAH ('HX/as). — One incident in the life of Elijah is recalled by St. Paul (Ro IP"*) and another by St. James (5™-)-
(1) Much is to be learned from a great man's mistakes ; the memory of his lapses may save others from falling. In a mood of despair Elijah imagined that the worst had happened to Israel, and that the worst was likely to overtake himself. The prophets were slain, the altars were digged down, he was left alone, and his enemies were seeking his life. Ahab and Jezebel and the false prophets had triumphed ; it was all over with the cauise of righteousness and truth for which he had laboured. Seeing that all Israel had proved unfaithful to God, there was nothing for the lonely, outlawed prophet to live for, and he requested that he might die. But the answer — 6 xP'?MttT"i£r/a6s, the Divine oracle — proved him to be the victim of a morbid fancy, and brought him back to facts. Among the faithless many others were as faithful as he. God had reserved for Himself seven thou- sand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal. All Israel had not forsaken Him, and — what was still more important — He had in no wise forsaken Israel. There is but one thing that could ever conceivably justify pessimism — the failure of Divine power or love ; and the fear of that calamity is but a human weakness. Now St. Paul could not help seeing the close analogy between the conditions of Elijah's critical time and those of his own. Lsrael as a whole seemed once more to have forsaken God, in rejecting the Messiah. In certain moods St. Paul might be tempted to compare himself — lonely, hated, hunted— to the sad prophet. But did the ' great refusal ' of the majority prove either that all Israel Avas unfaithful or that God had cast oft' His people? No, for (a) now as in Elijah's time there were splendid exceptions, form- ing a remnant (Ae7/x/xa = iNp^^) which was the true Israel ; and (b) God's immutable faithfulness made the idea of a rejection incredible and almost un- thinkable.
(2) St. James (5^"') takes an illustration from the story of Elijah, and in doing so reminds his readers that, though so great in life and so remote from ordinary humanity in the manner of his exodus from the world, the prophet was yet a man of like passions (or 'nature,' RVm) with us — &v6po}iros 6/jLoioira6^s ijfjup — so that his experiences
330
ELYMAS
ElMPEEOK-WORSHIP
may serve as a help to weak, ordinary mortals. The success of his prayer for a time of drought, and again for rain in a time of famine, is cited as an evidence of the fact that ' the prayer of a righteous man availeth much in its working.' It has to be noted, however, that the OT narrative (1 K 17) contains no reference whatever to the former petition, while the latter is scarcely deducible from 1 K IS'*^, where it is only stated that the prophet bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. Sirach (48^- ^), however, affirms that he 'brought a famine,' and ' by the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven.' In 4 Ezra (vii. 109) Elijah is cited as an example of intercession joro his qtiipluviam arceperunt.