Elijah the Prophet אליהו הנביא
the zealous prophet, taken to heaven in a chariot of fire
Eliyahu the Tishbite appears in Scripture abruptly, without genealogy, already pronouncing a verdict: "As the Lord lives, there shall be no dew nor rain these years except by my word." So begins his struggle with Achav and Izevel, who were importing the cult of Baal into the Northern Kingdom.
Through three years of drought he hides by the brook Krit, fed by ravens, then lodges with a widow in Tzarfat whose flour and oil do not run out, and revives her son. Then Mount Carmel, around 3021: two altars, four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and one man facing them, and the question, "How long will you hop between two branches?" Fire falls, and the people cry, "The Lord, He is God!"
Fleeing Izevel he goes forty days to Chorev, where the essential thing is revealed: God is not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire, but in "a still small voice".
He did not die: around 3047 a chariot of fire took him and Elisha caught his mantle. Malachi promises his return before the great day.
Chain of transmission
Ahijah the Shilonite → Elijah the Prophet → Elisha the Prophet
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim I 17–19; 21 — the drought, Carmel, Chorev, and Navot’s vineyard
- Melachim II 1–2 — the fiery chariot
- Malachi 3:23–24 — the promise of his return before the great day
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer 29 — Eliyahu as the angel of the covenant at every circumcision
- Bava Metzia 59b — Eliyahu and the oven of Achnai: “My children have defeated Me”
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.