Suggest an Edit — Elijah

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Elijah, whose Hebrew name Eliyahu means "My God is Yahweh," is the prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel whose career is narrated in the First and Second Books of Kings. The biblical text places him in the ninth century BCE, in the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah of the Omride dynasty, when the cult of the Phoenician god Baal was promoted at the royal court, especially under Queen Jezebel of Sidon. He is introduced as "Elijah the Tishbite, of the settlers of Gilead," a designation that associates him with the Transjordanian highlands, though the exact site of any town called Tishbe is not archaeologically established and no contemporary extra-biblical source names him. His recorded activity consists of a sustained protest against royal apostasy and social injustice in the name of exclusive loyalty to Yahweh.

The cycle of stories attributes to him a drought announced as divine judgment, a sojourn at the Wadi Cherith where ravens fed him, and a stay at Zarephath in Sidon, where he is said to have provided unfailing meal and oil for a widow and to have revived her son. The climactic public ordeal took place on Mount Carmel: Elijah challenged four hundred fifty prophets of Baal to obtain fire from their god for a sacrifice; when they failed, fire from heaven consumed his own water-drenched offering, after which the Baal prophets were slaughtered and rain ended the drought. Fleeing Jezebel's vengeance, he journeyed to Beersheba and on to Mount Horeb, where a theophany of wind, earthquake, and fire was followed by a "still small voice." There he received a charge to anoint Hazael king of Aram, Jehu king of Israel, and Elisha as prophet in his place. He later denounced Ahab for the judicial murder of Naboth of Jezreel and rebuked Ahaziah for inquiring of Baal-zebub of Ekron.

Second Kings 2 recounts that Elijah, walking with Elisha from Gilgal by way of Bethel and Jericho to the Jordan, was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind by a chariot and horses of fire, his mantle falling to Elisha. Because the narrative records neither death nor burial, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions came to regard him as one who did not taste death. The Book of Malachi foretells Elijah's return before the day of the Lord, a hope reflected in later Judaism and in the New Testament, where some take John the Baptist to fulfill that role and where Elijah appears with Moses at the Transfiguration. Rabbinic literature portrays him as a wandering helper who will resolve unsettled questions and who visits every Passover table; the Letter of James cites his prayer for drought and rain as a model of faith. In Islam he is the prophet Ilyas, likewise associated with zeal for God.

Christian churches have venerated Elijah as a saint since late antiquity. The Carmelites, settled on Mount Carmel from the twelfth century, adopted him as spiritual founder and pattern of the contemplative and prophetic life. His principal feast is observed on 20 July in the Roman Martyrology, the Byzantine calendar, and several other rites. He is invoked as patron of the Carmelite Order and of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in popular piety against drought and for rain. No medieval or modern process of canonization created his cult; it belongs to the ancient veneration of Old Testament figures. Modern historical study typically treats the Elijah narratives as a layered legendary cycle that likely preserves memory of a ninth-century prophetic opponent of Omride religious policy, without independent confirmation of the miraculous elements.

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