Some Remarks on the Figure of Elijah in Lives of the Prophets 21:1–3

SOME REMARKS ON THE FIGURE OF ELIJAH IN LIVES OF THE PROPHETS 21:1–3

Géza G. Xeravits

The prophet Elijah is one of those fi gures of the Hebrew Bible who has continuously attracted the attention of ancient Jewish and Chris- tian thought. This seems to be entirely natural, for we fi nd already in the biblical presentation of Elijah a couple of remarkable char- acteristics, which could inspire the thinking of later theologians and mystics. The end of his earthly career—just like Enoch’s—closes in an uncustomary way: his death is not reported; the Deuteronomist closes the description of his life with the astonishing event of his ascension (2 Kgs 2:9 –13). Furthermore, even the proto- and deuterocanonical Old Testament assumes his activity after his earthly life, relating him as having important tasks during the eschatological events (Mal 3:23–24 and Sir 48:10).1 In this short paper I focus on a relative rarely studied early Jewish work, the Lives of the Prophets, which transmits some remarkable details concerning the birth of Elijah. I dedicate these pages with pleasure to Professor Florentino García Martínez, with whom I had the privilege to work on my doctoral thesis, and who—with his vast knowledge and critical eye—actively contributed to its birth. Narratives of miraculous births are recurring both in the Bible and in the extrabiblical Jewish literature. The Hebrew Bible often relates extraordinary circumstances when speaking about the birth of the patriarchs: we fi nd here and there the presence of angels, or direct divine revelation, or other miraculous events (cp. e.g. Gen 16:7–15; 18:9 –15; 25:22–26), and we can fi nd the same in the case of some later important biblical fi gures ( Judg 13; 1 Sam 1). In later Jewish literature this interest becomes intensifi ed, relating the miraculous birth of such fi gures, where the Bible remains silent concerning this important stage of life. We can mention among these not only Elijah but also,

1 We treated some aspects of the early Jewish reﬂ ection on the eschatological activity of Elijah (redivivus) in: “Some Data Pertaining the Early Jewish Presentation of Elijah Redivivus,” Athanasiana 14 (2002): 133–42 [Hungarian], and King, Priest, Prophet: Positive Eschatological Protagonists of the Qumran Library (STDJ 47; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 184–91.

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for example, Noah, Melchizedek, and Elisha. We will investigate some traditions connected to these ﬁ gures together with the narrative about Elijah in the Lives of the Prophets.

The literary heritage of ancient Christianity transmitted to us in many languages and in multiple forms an early Jewish writing, which is—according to its title—about the prophets: Ὀνόματα προφητῶν καὶ πόθεν εἰσὶ καὶ ποῦ ἀπέθανον καὶ πῶς καὶ ποῦ κεῖνται (“The names of the prophets, and where they are from, and where they died and how, and where they lie”).2 The Lives of the Prophets was originally written in Palestine, somewhere in the 1st c. C.E. Despite the fact that it was preserved among Christian writings, it is a Jewish work—the undeniably Christian passages seem to be later additions.3 As for its contents, the Lives of the Prophets treats a number of ﬁ gures in a series of nearly equally shaped units. These ﬁ gures consist of sixteen Old Testament prophetic writers (including Daniel!), some other prophets (Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, Achijah, Jehoad, Azarijah), and, in several versions, personalities known from Christian writings (Zechariah and Shimeon from Luke 1–2, and John the Baptist). The units of the work deal with the origin, death, and burial of the prophet—as indicated by the title. Furthermore, several passages mention certain events of the

2 We know the main types of the Greek text of the Lives of the Prophets. The most ancient witness is the so-called codex Marchalianus (Vat.gr. 2125) from the sixth c. C.E. (An1); scholars agree that every other text-type of the work originates from this ver- sion. Two versions are preserved among the writings of Epiphanios of Salamis (Ep1 and Ep2), one MS from the 13th c. C.E. and one from the 10th century. Another witness is preserved among the writings of Dorotheos of Antioch (Dor) in a Ms from the 13th century. The recension which is closest to the codex Marchalianus text is called “recensio anonyma” (An2), which comes from the 10th century. Finally, another type of the work can be reconstructed from various passages of the church fathers (Schol, i.e. “recensio scholiis adiecta”). Besides the Greek versions, we know various other translations of the Lives of the Prophets in Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, Church Slavonic, and Old Irish, which shows that the ancient Church read this work with predilection. On the main scholarly discussion of the Lives of the Prophets see A.M. Schwemer, Studien zu den frühjüdischen Prophetenlegenden Vitae Prophetarum (2 vols.; TSAJ 49 –50; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995–96), 1:12–90; D.R.A. Hare, “The Lives of the Prophets,” in OTP 2:379 –84 (in this paper we quote the Lives according to this translation). See furthermore A.M. Denis et al., Introduction à la littérature religieuse judéo- hellénistique (2 vols., Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), 577–607. 3 On an interpretation of the Lives as a Christian document, see: D. Satran, Biblical Proph- ets in Byzantine Palestine: Reassessing the Lives of the Prophets (SVTP 11; Leiden: Brill, 1995).

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