Widow of Sarepta

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Elijah raises the widow's child. Wall painting from Dura Europos , 245–256 AD, National Museum Damascus

The widow of Sarepta is an Old Testament figure who is miraculously helped twice by the prophet Elijah . The biblical place with the Greek name Sarepta (Σαρεπτα), Hebrew Ṣārpat (צָרְפַת), English also Zarephath or Zarpat , was on the Phoenician Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tire in today's Lebanon , today Sarafand .

Biblical narration

Old Testament, Book of Kings: During a great drought, the prophet Elijah was sent by the voice of God to Sarepta to satisfy his hunger with a widow. He found her harvesting wood on site and asked her for bread and water. But the poor woman only had a handful of flour and a little oil. But through Elijah God made sure that the flour in the pot and the oil in the jar did not run dry "until the day when the Lord will rain on earth". Immediately afterwards the death of the widow's son is reported. Then, with God's help, the prophet managed to bring the boy back to life.

In the New Testament , according to the evangelist Luke, Jesus referred to this event to emphasize that God was gracious not to an Israelite but to the strange, Phoenician woman.

Bernardo Strozzi : Elias and the widow of Sarepta, around 1630–40. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.

iconography

Both miracle scenes are already represented in the oldest Elijah picture series in the synagogue of Dura Europos (Syria, 245–256 AD). The scene of the encounter between Elijah and the widow has been one of the more common typological motifs since the 11th century . The "one or two logs of wood" picked up are seen as a foretaste of the wood of the cross, the food prepared by it as a prefiguration of the Eucharist or, as in the Bible for the poor , as a parallel to the feeding of the five thousand . The healing of the widow's already lifeless son is next to the resurrection of Lazarus .

Widow-von-Sarepta-Brunnen , 1770, Vienna

After the Middle Ages, individual scenes with Elia and the widow can be found mainly in Dutch art from the 16th to 17th centuries. A popular later work is the Widow-von-Sarepta-Brunnen in Vienna, a figural fountain in Vienna created by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt in 1770 , which depicts the biblical figure in rococo-like unconcern with its oil jugs.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zarpat , with further English-language literature on the place and the relevant Bible passages.
  2. ↑ [1] 1st Kings 17.8-24.
  3. ↑ Lk 4.26  EU
  4. ↑ RDK Labor , Section II, B digital
  5. ↑ ( Lk 16 : 20–31  EU ), ( Joh 11  EU )
  6. ↑ RDK Labor , Section IV, D, digital ; List of examples in Pigler, Barockthemen, pp. 175–176.

literature

  • Leonie von Wilckens, Karl-August Wirth: Elia (Elias) , in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, Vol. IV (1957), Sp. 1372–1406; also digital in: RDK Labor , [28. January 2017]
  • Ulrike Bechmann: The widow of Sarepta: God's messenger for Elijah , Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2010. ISBN 978-3940743664
  • A. Pigler: Baroque themes , Vol 1, Budapest 1974, pp 175-176..
  • Paulo Coelho: The fifth mountain , Zurich 2007. (novel)

Web links

Commons : Widow of Sarepta  - collection of images, videos and audio files