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Elisha became Elijah's follower after the Horeb incident (1 Kings 19) but he is opposite in many ways to his master being bald, wearing ordinary clothes, spending his time in cities, often associated with kings and the respected head of a guild of prophets; he goes about healing and doing good in countless ways. The exception is his intervention to overthrow the house of Ahab and Jezebel (2 Kings 9; 10).
He rescues women from miscarriages, puts right poisoned soup, feeds a community (in a prefigurement of Jesus) with barley loaves where food was left over (cf. Matthew 14:13-21). Like Elijah he feeds a widow and brings her son back to life and cured Naaman the Syrian of leprosy. He is an altogether humane figure except for the shocking story that he caused two bears to kill 42 of a gang of boys teasing his baldness.
Elisha Chronology:
- 1 Kings
- 19:19-21 Becomes follower of Elijah
- 2 Kings
- 2:19-25 Purifies water; kills children
- 4 Miraculous oil; barren woman conceives the child brought back to life; famine
- 5 Naaman the Syrian; the duplicity of Gehazi
- 6 The company of prophets; the floating axe head; war
- 7 War; death of Jehoram
- 8:1-15 Politics of Syria
- 9 Politics; death of Jeoram, Jezebel
- 13:14-21 Shooting the arrows over Syria; death.
Partly taken from:
- Sawyer, John F.A.: Prophecy and The Biblical Prophets, OUP, 1987
KC iv/07
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Added: 16th May 2007