The Ascent of Elijah and the Ministry of Elisha
Elijah did not die: a chariot of fire took him up in a whirlwind, and his mantle fell to Elisha, who had asked for "a double portion of your spirit." His miracles are almost domestic: the widow's oil, the Shunammite's son, the healing of Naaman.
Elijah found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing with twelve yoke of oxen and threw his mantle over him. Elisha slaughtered the oxen, burned the plow for firewood, fed the people and followed his master.
On the last day they walked together to the Jordan; Elijah rolled up his mantle, struck the water, and it parted. "Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken." "Let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." Then a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them and Elijah went up in a whirlwind. Elisha cried, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!" and picked up the fallen mantle.
What follows is a chain of miracles unlike the thunder of Carmel. He healed the bitter waters of Jericho with salt. He told a widow whose creditor was taking her children to gather empty vessels—her one small jug of oil filled them all. He promised a son to the woman of Shunem who had built him a room on her roof, and revived the boy when he died. He sent Naaman, the leprous Aramean general, to dip seven times in the Jordan, and Naaman acknowledged the God of Israel. Tradition holds that Elijah never died—and comes to every circumcision and every Passover table.
How we know
On the chronology
Academic history dates this event differently. In the age of the kings the divergence is not the one familiar from the Persian period, where Seder Olam runs about a hundred and sixty-five years short. Here academic chronology reckons some reigns as overlapping — father and son on the throne together — so its span from the division of the kingdom to the destruction of the Temple comes out nearly three decades shorter. The gap therefore grows: a hundred and thirty-five years at the division, a hundred and fifty-four at Sennacherib, a hundred and sixty-four at the destruction. The anchors of the academic count are external documents: the battle of Qarqar (853), Jehu's tribute on the Black Obelisk (841), the fall of Samaria (722), Sennacherib's campaign (701), Megiddo and Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns in the Babylonian Chronicles (609, 605, 597). Both dates appear on the timeline when the divergence layer is on.
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim I 19:16–21 — the calling of Elisha from the plough
- Melachim II 2 — the fiery chariot, the whirlwind and the mantle taken up
- Melachim II 4–8 — Elisha’s miracles: the widow’s oil, the Shunammite’s son, Naaman
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sotah 47a — Elisha fell ill three times; the reproach for pushing Gechazi away “with both hands”
- Mishnah Eduyot 8:7 — Eliyahu will come “to make peace in the world”
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.
People and places
Elijah the Prophet · Elisha the Prophet · Jericho · Samaria · Kings · Jehoram of Israel · The Shunammite Woman · Jezebel