Elisha

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elisha or Elisa (also Elisäus ; Hebrew אֱלִישָׁע ʾĔlîšāʿ “God helps”; Greek Ἐλισαῖος Elisaîos ) was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel . The stories about him are contained in the Bible in the 2nd Book of Kings , scattered between 2 Kings 2  EU and 2 Kings 14  EU . Thus Elisha worked during the reigns of three kings: Joram , Jehu and his son Jehoahaz . He is also mentioned in the Koran in sura 6, and is considered in Islam as the Prophet al-Yasa or Aljasa ( Arabic الْيَسَع Alyasa , written by DMG Elyasaʿ ).

The name Elischa is otherwise only mentioned in the context of the table of nations (Bible) in Gen 10.4  EU (par 1 Chr 1.7) as the first of three sons of Jawan and in Ez 27.7  EU ("coasts of Elisha").

Elija's legacy

Elisha is considered in the biblical historiography of the Deuteronomistic History to be the legitimate successor of the prophet Elijah , who critically accompanied the royal dynasty of the Omrids .

In the biblical story , Elisha was taken from the field by Elijah after the judgment of God on Mount Carmel and appointed as his servant and successor ( 1 Kings 19 : 19-21  EU ). His own work, however, only begins with the wonderful rapture of Elijah into heaven, which he witnessed ( 2 Kings 2.1-18  EU ). The narrative emphasizes that God's spirit passed from Elijah to Elisha, enabling him to perform miracles similar to those of Moses (dividing the river). But while Elijah was a lone fighter against the Baal cult and syncretism , which was widespread in Israel at the time, Elisha already appears as the head of prophetic schools that apparently existed at some YHWH shrines such as Bethel , Gilgal and Jericho .

In these circles, biblical research suspects, the Elijah and Elisha stories were collected, put together and theologically interpreted. Although they did not write their own books of the prophets, they gave the later scriptural prophets Amos , Hosea , Micha and Isaiah essential elements of their prophecy.

The miracle worker

A main strand of the popular Elisha tradition tells of miracles that the Hebrew Bible does not know from any other prophet. These were probably not tied to a specific historical situation and show a legendary character, as "the king", "the city", "a man" or "a woman" usually appear without naming them. In addition, Elisha is often only called “Man of God”, so that some of these stories may have been attributed to him later. These include:

Gehazi wants to wake up the dead son of a Shunamite woman with the stick of Elisha
  • the splitting of the Jordan by Elija's mantle ( 2 Kings 2.14  EU )
  • the healing of a source of unhealthy water ( 2 Kings 2: 19–22  EU )
  • the curse of a disrespectful horde of boys ( 2 Kings 2.23–24  EU )
  • the rescue of a destitute widow through a wonderful increase in oil ( 2 Kings 4.1–7  EU )
  • the inedible meal becomes digestible (" Death in the Pot ") ( 2 Kings 4,38–41  EU )
  • the wonderful multiplication of bread ( 2 Kings 4.42–44  EU ) during a famine
  • the healing of the leper Syrian general Naaman ( 2 Kings 5  EU )
  • the swimming of an iron ax lost in the Jordan ( 2 Kings 6,1–7  EU )

The raising of the dead son of a Sunamite woman ( 2 Kings 4 : 8-37  EU ) only belongs to this series to a limited extent, as it is taken up again later to induce the king of Israel to return land that had been stolen from the poor ( 2 Kings 8 : 1) –6  EU ): Here folk and socially critical prophetic traditions are combined against a recognizable historical background.

The instigator of the Jehu Revolution

The reputation of the prophet opposition in the Northern Reich favored a domestic political development that ended the decades-long dynasty of the Omrids with a bloody coup. Elisha took advantage of the weakness of Joram , the rightful king of Israel. He was injured in a battle against the Aramean Hazael and left the assembled army to recover. Then Elisha had Jehu in Gilead , Joram's general, secretly anointed the new king with precious oil, following the tradition of Samuel . So the latter was able to pull the army to his side and advanced to overthrow Joram. He killed him in retaliation for the land grab that Joram's father Ahab had committed on free peasants of Israel with inheritance rights (2 Kings 9: 1–27; cf. 1 Kings 21: Naboth's vineyard) and also left the queen mother Jezebel , all relatives of the Omri -Dynasty and kill the Baal priests (2 Kings 9:30 - 10:28).

This ended the toleration of the Baal cult in the northern kingdom to include the Canaanites in favor of a radical YHWH cult.

Remembrance day

literature

Wilhelm Busch , Elisa, Wilhelm Busch Library Volume 6, Aussaat Verlag 2006; PDF

See also

Web links

Commons : Elischa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quran translation. Sura 6, 86. In: "islam.de". Retrieved on May 16, 2011 : "and Ismāʿīl, Alyasaʿ, Yūnus and Lūṭ: We have preferred each (of them) over the (other) world dwellers;"
  2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from December 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.beepworld.de
personal data
SURNAME Elisha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION jewish prophet
DATE OF BIRTH 9th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 9th century BC Chr.