[Continued from https://amaic1.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/the-golden-sword-of-marian-apocalypse_19.html]
by
Damien F. Mackey
“When Elijah was hidden by the whirlwind,
Elisha was filled with his spirit. As long as he lived, he was not afraid of
rulers, and they could not make him do as they wished. Nothing was
too hard for him. Even when he was dead, his body worked a miracle.
In life and in
death he performed amazing miracles”.
Sirach
48:12-14
Era of Reform
Syro-Palestine has now emerged from the rampant Baalistic era of the House of Ahab, and Jezebel - when Ben-Hadad I was worshipping the Syrian god, Rimmon, a form of Baal-Hadad - and, more lately, from the Atonism of Egypt, to embrace a phase of reform and a return to traditional values. This turnaround was largely due to the heroic efforts of the fiery prophet Elijah, leading to the ‘Sinai Commission’ with its zealous triumvirate of Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha.
In
historical records, Hazael is El Amarna’s (EA’s) Aziru - and also, I think, the Aziru
of the Great Papyrus Harris. He would form a powerful alliance with the Hittite
emperor, Suppiluliumas. Egypt’s dying Eighteenth Dynasty would also seek out the
assistance of Suppiluliumas, asking him for one of his sons in marriage. According
to Encyclopaedia Britannica’s account
of it: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Suppiluliumas-I
“Suppiluliumas’ preeminent
international reputation is shown by an event that occurred during his siege of
Carchemish. Ankhesenamen, daughter of the Egyptian king Akhenaton and childless widow of his successor
Tutankhamen, wrote to the Hittite king and
asked for one of his sons in marriage. Under Egypt’s matrilinear succession
laws, the new husband was to be the pharaoh. Suppiluliumas agreed and sent one of
his sons, who on his way to Egypt was murdered by adversaries of the Queen’s
plans. This outrage was probably never completely avenged, for Suppiluliumas
soon died in a plague brought into central Anatolia by Egyptian prisoners of
war”.
In
Assyria, Assuruballit I was the “Great King”. He, though frowned upon by the contemporaray
Kassite ruler of Babylon, Burnaburiash II, would turn out to be more than a
handful for the Babylonians: http://enc.tfode.com/Assuruballit_I
“With Assyrian power firmly established,
Ashur-uballit started to make contacts with other great nations. His messages
to the Egyptians angered his Babylonian neighbour Burnaburiash
II, who himself wrote to the Pharaoh: “with regard to my Assyrian vassals,
it was not I who sent them to you. Why did they go to your country without
proper authority? If you are
loyal to me they will not negotiate any business. Send them to me empty-handed!”[1]
Yet the new Assyrian power could not be
denied, and Burnaburiash even married the daughter of the Assyrian king. He was
succeeded by his son from the Assyrian wife, prince Kara-hardash,
but a revolt soon broke out that showed the unpopularity of the Assyrians. Asshur-uballit would not
allow his grandson to be cast
aside, and duly invaded Babylon. Because Kara-Hardash was killed in the
rebellion, the Assyrians placed on the Babylonian throne a certain Kurigalzu, who may have been Burnaburiash's
son or grandson. But this new puppet king did not remain loyal to his master,
and soon invaded Assyria. Ashur-uballit stopped the Babylonian army at Sugagu, not far south from
the capital Assur.[2]
However, Ashur-uballit I then
counterattacked, and invaded Babylonia, appropriating hitherto Babylonian
territory in central Mesopotamia, and forcing a treaty in Assyria's favour upon
Karigalzu.[3]”
Obviously,
Assuruballit I of Assyria must have enjoyed quite a lengthy floruit, c. 1365-1330 BC in conventional terms.
Equally obvious, now, is that
there is no room whatsoever in Assyria, in this revised era of history, for the
similarly long-reigning Shalmaneser III (c. 859-824 BC, conventional dating).
The rise of king Jehu of Israel,
who had killed king Jehoram of Judah’s son and successor, Ahaziah, had corresponded
with the throne of Jerusalem’s falling into the hands of an evil woman, Athaliah. But thanks to another woman,
Athaliah’s sister, Jehosheba, the royal line of Judah would be saved (2 Kings
11:1-3):
“When Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah
of Judah, learned that her son was dead, she began to destroy the rest of the
royal family.
But Ahaziah’s sister Jehosheba, the
daughter of King Jehoram, took Ahaziah’s infant son, Joash, and stole him
away from among the rest of the king’s children, who were about to be killed.
She put Joash and his nurse in a bedroom, and they hid him from Athaliah, so
the child was not murdered. Joash remained hidden in the Temple of the Lord for six years while Athaliah ruled over the land”.
Since Queen Athaliah had Omride-Ahabic blood connections,
then the ‘Sinai Commission’ still had its work cut out in the kingdom of Judah.
For Queen Athaliah was as if ‘a second Jezebel’. She was “Jezebel revisited”, according
to Robin Gallaher
Branch, who considers Athaliah to have been Jezebel’s daughter: http://indieskriflig.org.za/index.php/skriflig/article/viewFile/448/341
“Does
the adage “like mother, like daughter” hold for the queen of Israel and the
queen of Judah? Is Athaliah Jezebel revisited? The texts invite a study of
their similarities and differences. First, like her mentor or mother, Athaliah
is a foreigner in Judah from Israel; Jezebel is a foreigner in Israel from
Tyre. Both led their countries in the worship of Baal. Both fought openly with
the followers of Yahweh”.
Similarly,
we read at: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/athaliah-bible
“Queen Athaliah
is the only woman in the Hebrew Bible reported as having reigned as a monarch
within Israel/Judah. She is the daughter of either Omri, king of Israel (2 Kgs
8:26; 2 Chr 22:2), or, more probably, of his son King Ahab (2 Kgs 8:18; 2 Chr
21:6; the Jewish historian Josephus cites this in Antiquities), who
ruled from 873 to 852 b.c.e. There is
no evidence that she was the daughter of Ahab’s chief wife, Jezebel. Athaliah
married Jehoram (reigned 851–843 b.c.e.)
of Judah (2 Kgs 8:18; 2 Chr 21:6). After Jehoram’s death, their son Ahaziah
reigned for one year, and “his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly” (2
Chr 22:3)”.
Although
the work of reform in Judah would lag behind that being done in Syro-Israel by those
bloody kings Hazael and Jehu, it would - when it occurred with the overthrow of
Queen Athaliah - still precede by some decades the sweeping reforms of Horemheb
in Egypt with the fall of Atonism. For Jehu and Athaliah would have come to their
respective thrones (Israel and Judah) still during the reign of pharaoh
Amenhotep III ‘the Magnificent’ (at least as I have calculated it). That pharaoh’s
long reign would see out the short “six-year” reign of Queen Athaliah in
Jerusalem.
Part Twenty Nine: “Elisha will kill”
(ii)
Was Elisha a Rechabite?
“And [Elisha] said unto [Gehazi]:
'Went not my heart [with thee], when the man turned back from his chariot to
meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and
oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and
maid-servants?’.”
2
Kings 5:26
Tracing Elisha
Before my
attempting to identify further the prophet Elisha in my university thesis:
A Revised History
of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
I had finished off
with this account of King Jehu’s slaughterings (Volume One, pp. 115-116):
Jehoram
[king of Judah], who had initially slain his own brothers, was fortunate enough
to have died before the fiery wrath that was Jehu was unleashed upon the House
of Ahab and the worshippers of Baal. The dark era of Ahab and Jezebel, wrote
Mauro with reference to 2
Kings: ….
... was
brought to a bloody end by a ministry of judgment executed by the hand of Jehu.
He made a thorough work of it, slaying Joram (Jehoram) and his mother Jezebel
(2 Kings 9:21-37), and the seventy sons of Ahab (10:1-7) and “all that remained
of the house of Ahab … until he left him none remaining” (10:11).
Moreover,
when Jehu came to Samaria: “… he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria,
till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord which He spake
to Elijah” (10:17). And finally, he executed the vengeance of God upon the
priests and worshippers of Baal (10:19-27)”.
Jezebel
mentioned above by Mauro … I identified in her EA guise in the previous chapter
as Baalat-neše (Sumerian: NIN.UR.MAH.MESH) …
….
This
was how Jehu fulfilled his part of the Sinai commission. ….
….
But what were Hazael and Elisha doing while Jehu was so busy bloodying his
chariot?
Well
Hazael was doing exactly what Jehu was doing. Though the Bible, by way of narration,
attributes the extermination of the House of Ahab entirely to Jehu, Hazael himself
claimed the credit for it in the Tell Dan inscription, at least according to Finkelstein
and Silberman: ….
… the “House
of David” inscription, part of a black basalt monument, found broken and reused
in a later stratum as a building stone. Written in Aramaic, the language of the
Aramean kingdoms of Syria, it related the details of an invasion of Israel by
an Aramean king whose name is not mentioned on the fragments that have so far
been discovered. But there is hardly a question that it tells the story of the
assault of Hazael, king of Damascus, on the northern kingdom of Israel around 835
BCE. … The most important part of the inscription is Hazael’s boasting description
of his enemies: “[I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab] king of Israel, and [I] killed
[Ahaz]jahu son of [Jehoram kin]g of the House of David. And I set [their towns
into ruins and turned] their land into [desolation]”.
Elisha
the patriot had lived to see the fulfilment of his prophecy that Hazael would
set on fire Israel’s strongholds (2 Kings 8:12).
Yet,
in the biblical narration, the annihilation of the royal house is attributed
entirely to Jehu. This is yet another example of ‘biblical perspective’ and
selectivity. But it is all one and the same thing, as Jehu was the subordinate
of Hazael; the former doing the dirty work whilst the latter gave the orders
and gained the credit for it. ….
….
Finally,
what about Elisha, who was commissioned to “kill” (יָמִ֥ית)
those who would manage to escape the carnage wrought by Hazael and Jehu? Actually
Elisha, as I believe, will also have a huge part to play, though generally
later chronologically. In Chapter 10 (and
beginning on p. 237) I shall be identifying the famous prophet in quite a new
guise, as a law-enforcing … reformer-priest. Here as briefly as possible, to
conclude this chapter, I should like to lay a foundation for this novel idea. ….
Having written
this, I then went on to explore the possibility that Elisha may have been a Rechabite
- which suggestion would seem to make more sense, now, in light of my recent consideration
of Elisha’s mentor, Elijah (same as the prophet Micaiah), as having Rechabite
or Nazirite characteristics, and being the leader, or “father”, of a prophetic
brotherhood.
That these
prophets were unusual types may be gleaned from Jehu’s and his military colleague’s
comments about “the young prophet” who belonged to “the company of prophets” whom
Elisha had sent to anoint Jehu as king of Israel (2 Kings 9:11):
“When Jehu went out to his fellow
officers, one of them asked him, ‘Is everything all right? Why did this
maniac come to you?’
‘You know the man and the sort of things he says’, Jehu replied”.
“Maniac”, eccentric type!
According to Jewish traditions, this “young prophet” was Jonah himself {and:
“It is believed by some of the Jewish Rabbins that Jonah is to be
identified with the dead son of a widow from Zarephath who was raised to
life by Elijah”: www.zianet.com/maxey/Proph8.htm} – all of this being a chronological impossibility,
though, in my system.
This was what I previously wrote about what I considered to be Rechabite
tendencies in Elisha, and about who else in the Bible I thought that he might
be. And I am still inclined to stick with this one (op. cit., pp. 116-118):
Elisha
the Rechabite
If
one cares to read through the sequences of incidents in 2 Kings and 2
Chronicles in which Elisha (when going under the name of ‘Elisha’) is involved,
one will find that the multi-miracle-working prophet is never reported as
having raised a sword in anger (as e.g. Samuel did against Agag, king of the
Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15:33).
Was
Elisha perhaps a pacifist, who despised violence?
One
might think that that would not have been in keeping with the mentality of the
age in which he lived. …. I am going to argue that the prophet Elisha had
actually joined up with Jehu ….
….
Jehu,
we later read, was on his way to Samaria, after his having just overseen (at
Betheked of the Shepherds) the slaughter of forty-two relatives of king Ahaziah
of Judah, whom he had previously slain (cf. 2 Kings 9:27 & 10:12-14). It
was then that this meeting occurred (10:15-17):
When [Jehu]
left there, he met Jehonadab son of Rechab coming to meet him; he greeted him,
and said to him, ‘Is your heart as true to mine as mine is to yours?’ Jehonadab answered, ‘It is’. Jehu said, ‘If it
is, give me your hand’. So he gave him his hand. Jehu took him up with him into
the chariot. He said, ‘Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord’. So he had
him ride in his chariot. When he came to Samaria, he killed all who were left
to Ahab in Samaria, until he had wiped them out, according to the word of the
Lord that he spoke to Elijah.
Since
this ‘Jehonadab son of Rechab’ is the only person actually named as a willing supporter
of Jehu’s purge, then he stands as the most likely person to be Elisha, son of Shaphat,
in Elisha’s rôle as terminator of Baalism. ….
Though
this Jehonadab comes across in 2 Kings as being a very obscure figure, the Book
of Jeremiah fortunately provides some important further detail about him. His
loyalty and example were apparently still, about 250 years later in the days of
Nebuchednezzar’s siege of Jerusalem, ruling the lives of those known as ‘Rechabites’.
Thus the ‘Rechabites’ tell Jeremiah and those accompanying the prophet
(Jeremiah 35:6-7):
‘We will drink
no wine, for our ancestor Jonadab [Jehonadab] son of Rechab commanded us, ‘You
shall never drink wine, neither you nor your children; nor shall you ever build
a house, or sow seed; nor shall you plant a vineyard, or even own one; but you
shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land
where you reside’.’
The
Rechabites then added (vv. 8-11):
‘We have
obeyed the charge of our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab in all that he commanded
us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our
daughters, and not to build houses to live in. We have no vineyard, or field or
seed but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed and done all that out ancestor
Jonadab commanded us. But when king Nebuchedrezzar [Nebuchednezzar] of Babylon
came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of
the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Arameans’. That is why we are
living in Jerusalem’.
This
explanation by the Rechabites accounts fully I suggest for a statement made by Elisha
to his servant Gehazi, when severely reprimanding Gehazi for his having
accepted presents from the willing Naaman, recently cured of his leprosy.
Whilst Gehazi had received from Naaman only silver and clothing (2 talents of
the former and two changes of the latter) (2 Kings 5:23), Elisha had taken the
matter further, to include cultivated land, livestock and servants; none of
which Gehazi - as far as we know - had actually received from Naaman (v. 26): ‘Is
this a time to accept money and to accept clothing, olive orchards and
vineyards, sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves?’
….
Elisha
was apparently thus seriously reminding Gehazi of his ‘Rechabite’ calling.
Gehazi’s
punishment for his infidelity was to be struck leprous, he and his descendants for
ever (v. 27). No wonder the ‘Rechabites’ continued to hold firm down through
the centuries!
So
Jehonadab accompanied Jehu to Samaria where Jehu, by a ruse, killed all the
Baal worshippers in their temple. Jehu and his men also burned the pillar of
Baal and his temple, turning it into a latrine (2 Kings 10:18-27). But in all
this there is no mention whatsoever of any actual physical involvement by
Jehonadab himself. He was taken along by Jehu to witness the destruction of
which he obviously approved, given that ‘his heart was true’ to Jehu’s. ….
Later
Elisha, perhaps due to his having had the opportunity of observing at close
hand the tactics of the brilliant Jehu, will himself assume a very positive
rôle, to complete the Sinai commission. But even then he will act entirely as a
leader giving orders, rather than as one personally involved in the slaughter. ….
Elisha, residing at Abel-meholah, would have lived in close proximity to
Elijah at Jabesh-gilead (as discussed previously), and Elisha, too, like
Elijah, may have been from (as also discussed) the large clan of Rechabiah (Rechab),
a part-Kenite descendant of Moses himself.
As
Joshua was to Moses, so was Elisha to Elijah, according to some commentators.
David
J. Zucker has written along such lines:
Elijah and Elisha: Part I Moses and Joshua
Four hundred years after the time of Moses, Elijah the Tishbite
(mid-ninth-century BCE) serves as the greatest religious leader and prophet of
his generation, often patterning his acts on the deeds of Moses. Moses had
mentored Joshua, who then succeeded him. Joshua replicated some of Moses'
miracles. Elijah mentors Elisha ben Shaphat, who then succeeds him. Elisha in
turn replicates some of the acts of Elijah, and by extension, some of the acts
of Moses and Joshua.
ELIJAH AND MOSES
Although Elijah in the overall scheme of things is less significant than
Moses, the relevant narratives in the Book of Kings reflect events in the life
of the earlier leader. (1)
"The cumulative impact of these extensive Mosaic allusions is to
present Elijah as a Moses redivivus. Both appear at crucial moments in the
religious and political history of the people. Through Moses, [God] rescued the
Israelites from Egyptian oppression and formed [them] as his people; through
Elijah, [God] preserves the faithful members of his people amid paganism and
persecution. Both are significant figures in the history of prophetism as well.
[The] long line of [God's] intermediaries in Israel [began with Moses]; in
Elijah that line produces its quintessential hero." (2)
Elijah, as Moses, is an important leader in his day. Each is a powerful
figure, commanding respect from his peers. Each hears directly from God. Each
spends significant time in the wilderness. Each has a distinctive appearance
(Ex. 34:2935; II Kgs. 1:8).
There are many other parallels between Elijah and Moses.
Part Twenty Nine: “Elisha will kill”
(iii)
Reform in Jerusalem
“Jehoiada is left strangely without an introduction.
He would appear to be the chief of police,
but turns out to be a high priest in v. 8
(= 2 Kgs 11:9)”.
R.
North
With the
prophet Elisha’s identity extended to include the Rechabite patriarch,
Jehonadab, I then continued on to take the matter even further in my university
thesis:
A Revised History
of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
now focussing
upon an extra biblical alter ego for
the holy man-thaumaturgist.
Firstly, I wrote
this introductory lead-up to it (Volume One, pp. 236-237):
Elisha’s
Rôle in the Sinai Commission
I
had previously, in Chapter 4 (section:
“Elisha the Rechabite”, beginning on p. 116), proposed an identification of
Elisha with Jehonadab the Rechabite, who had supported Jehu in his initial
campaign against the worshippers of Baal; though seemingly as an onlooker.
….
All
this had led me to ponder the biblical statement according to which ‘… Elisha
shall kill’.
Who[m]
in fact did he ‘kill’?
My
suggestion is that, whilst it befell Jehu and Hazael to wipe out Baalism from
Israel … it befell Elisha to eradicate Baalism from
Judah. And his target would be queen Athaliah and
her murderous régime (2 Chronicles 22:10); that other unsavoury woman at the
time, according to the Bible, and possibly also a daughter of the notorious
Jezebel …. Queen Athaliah had succeeded to the throne of Jerusalem at the same
time as Jehu had become king of Israel (cf. 2 Kings 11 & 2 Chronicles
22:10-11; 23:1-21). It is with Athaliah that we can finish our account of the
prophet Elisha.
The
bloody Jehu had looked to make a start towards reforming the kingdom of Judah
by his assassination of king Ahaziah and his relatives (2 Kings 10). But this
violence would actually cause a backlash; for it now brought the vengeful
Athaliah to the throne for six years. Thus Elisha, like Jehu, would have to
contend with a fiery Baal-worshipping queen. For Jehu, she would be queen
Jezebel …. For Elisha, she would be Jezebel’s daughter (or a near kinswoman of
Jezebel’s), Athaliah; a veritable ‘clone’ of queen Jezebel.
Athaliah
was also the mother of the slain king Ahaziah (2 Kings 11:1).
According
to Liel, this Athaliah was actually the sole female EA correspondent, NIN.UR.MAH.MESH,
whom I had identified instead with Jezebel: ….
What is
UR.MAH? One attested meaning is “lion.” This is the source of the “Lady of
Lions” reading. But MAH is the sumerogram for “holy”. The compound Sumerogram
LU.MAH means “high priest,” where LU means “man”. UR means “city”. Thus, UR.MAH
would be the city parallel of “high priest”. Since we don’t know whether the
MESH applies to UR.MAH or only to MAH, this name could mean “Lady of the Holy
Cities,” or “Lady of the City of Holies”. Do we know of a woman who ruled from
a city that was considered holy around the same time as the two Jehorams and
Jehu? Of course we do: the usurper Athaliah.
….
I am retaining my original view, though, that the only female EA correspondent
was queen Jezebel ….
It
would take Elisha some half a dozen years before he could even make a start.
But he would finally triumph in Judah, I think, as the priest, Jehoiada - the
very Jehonadab who had seen first-hand how the tactical genius Jehu had
negotiated the Baal problem.
(Though
I am not claiming a perfect name correspondence here, Jehoiada = Jehonadab).
The
narrative of 2 Kings 11:1-3 tells that when queen Athaliah saw that her son
Ahaziah was dead, “she set about to destroy all the royal family”. But
Jehoshabeath (var. Jehosheba 2 Kings 11:2), Ahaziah’s sister and king Jehoram’s
daughter – who we learn was also the wife of the priest,
Jehoaida (2 Chronicles 22:11) - took the king’s son,
the infant Joash (Jehoash), and hid him with his nurse in a bedroom (2 Kings
11:2), where “he remained with her for six years, hidden in the House of the
Lord” (v. 3). “For a sixyear reign of terror, Athaliah held all the power in
Judah”, according to North. ….
Jehoiada is, as
already noted, something of a mystery.
He, though a
priest - apparently even a high priest - does not appear to have been a
Zadokite as would be expected: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehoiada
“Jehoiada's name
does not appear in the list of the Zadokite dynasty in 1
Chronicles 5:30-40
(6:4-15 in other translations).
Josephus
mentions Jehoiada as "high priest in his Jewish Antiquites Book 9,
Chapter 7,"[2]
"How Athaliah reigned over Jerusalem for five [six] years, when Jehoiada
the high priest slew her." However, Josephus does not mention a Jehoiada
in his list of High Priests (Antiquities of the Jews 10:151-153).
According to the
medieval chronicle Seder Olam Zutta (804 CE), Jehoiada was a High
priest”.
This would suit my view (albeit tentative) that Jehoiada was, in fact, a priest-descendant of Moses, in the Kenite line of Rechabiah.
The Targum to 1 Chronicles 2:55 tells of, according to Beatrice Lawrence, a “Kenaz” connection with “the Levite families who came from the descendants of Moses” (Jethro and the Jews: Jewish Biblical Interpretation and the Question of Identity, pp. 147-148):
“[These are] the families of Rechabiah son of Eliezer son of Moses, the students of Jabez who is
Othniel son of Kenaz. He was called Jabez because by his
counsel an academy was set up for the students. They were called Tir'atim because their voices when they sang praises were like the trumpet blast. They were called Shim'atim for they were favorable to traditional
law. …. They were called Sukkatim for
they spoke with the spirit of prophecy. These are the Shalmaites, the
descendants of Zipporah, who were connected with the Levite families who came
from the descendants of Moses, the leader of Israel, whose merit was worth more
to them than horseman and chariots”.
The prophet Elisha
himself is first introduced as “Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with
twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went
up to him and threw his cloak around him” (I Kings 19:19). Not unreasonably -
considering an occupation with cattle
- commentators identify this “Shaphat” with a commissioner, or overseer of “cattle”,
who was a contemporary of King David’s, hence well before the time of the prophet
Elisha (I Chronicles 27:29): “Shaphat son of Adlai [or Adli] was responsible
for the cattle in the valleys”.
Some factors that
I think might stand in favour of my extension of Elisha-Jehonadab into the high
priest Jehoiada are that:
- it would account for whom Elisha (who
so far had not killed anyone) might have killed as according to the “Sinai
Commission”;
- it might explain also the emergence
of a High priest, who was not actually a Zadokite (but a descendant of the
great Moses himself);
- it might also explain why R. North,
for instance, regards the priest Jehoiada as like “the chief of police” - an
effect, I would suggest, of the “Sinai Commission”;
- it might connect in importance
Elisha, descended from a king’s commissioner, “Shaphat” - and not in the least fazed
by captain Na’aman’s status (2 Kings 5:1, 11): “Now Naaman was
commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of
his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. … ‘I thought, He will surely come
out to me …’.” For (Sirach 48:12): “As long as [Elisha] lived,
he was not afraid of rulers, and they could not make him do as they wished” -
with a High Priest (Jehoiada) who was married to the daughter of a king of
Judah;
- it would explain
why Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah, was ranked among “the prophets” (Luke 11:50-51).
Added to all that,
Elisha and Jehoiada were (i) contemporaneous and (ii) very long-living.
Elisha’s prophetic
career ran from, say, “… four years before the death of Israel's King Ahab” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha)
all the way down to the reign of king Jehoash of Israel: “Elisha's story is related in the Book
of Kings in the Hebrew Bible (in Judaism, part of the Nevi'im).
According to this story, he was a prophet and a wonder-worker of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who was
active during the reign of Joram,
Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Jehoash
(Joash).[4”
This span of time (following P. Mauro’s spacings in The Wonders of Bible Chronology) covers approximately six decades.
Correspondingly, “… Jehoiada was old and full
of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty” (2 Chronicles 24:15).
With all of the
above in mind, I continue on with what I wrote in my thesis of this new
identification (pp. 237-238):
The
Priest Jehoiada
Elisha
as the priest Jehoiada (therefore a Levite) - as I see it - who must have been
just as much in fear for his life as had been his predecessor Elijah, when
faced with the wrath of queen Jezebel, eventually became emboldened to act. And
act he did, with Jehu-like decisiveness (2 Chronicles 23:1). “But in the
seventh year Jehoiada took courage, and entered into a compact with the
commanders of the hundreds …”; men who had probably also served general Jehu.
According to 2 Kings 11:4, Jehoiada also employed Carite … mercenaries for the
task. ….
Jehoiada’s
plan apparently was to surround the palace and Temple, and to guard the young
Joash in his comings and goings, and to proclaim the boy as king of Jerusalem
(vv. 5-11). And so we read (v. 12): “Then [Jehoiada] brought out the king’s
son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; they proclaimed him king and
anointed him; they clapped their hands and shouted, ‘Long live the king!’.”
The
narrative goes on to recount the death of Athaliah, who met her end with the
same courage and defiance as had her mother (or kinswoman), Jezebel. Jehoiada
ordered the queen to be slain by the sword outside the Temple ‘Let her not be
killed in the House of the Lord’ (v. 15). …. Notice that once again … Jehoiada
gave the order rather than wielded the sword by which the queen was dispatched.
So,
what was Jehoiada’s actual status here? Well, that has caused commentators to scratch
their heads a bit. Thus North has written, with reference to 2 Chronicles 23:
…. “Jehoiada is left strangely without an introduction [sic]. He would appear
to be the chief of police, but turns out to be a high priest in v. 8 (= 2 Kgs
11:9)”.
So
this, the story of Jehoiada, is how, I suggest, the prophet Elisha himself
became involved in the Sinai-commanded reform action: as a priest, and, in
Judah.
The
people of Jerusalem, and the king, all of whom Jehoiada had now bound to a covenant
with the Lord, then did as Jehu had previously done in Samaria. They went to the
temple of Baal and tore it down, “his altar and his images they broke in
pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars” (vv.
17-18). The rest of Jehoiada’s glorious career as priest in Jerusalem can be
read in some detail in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.
One
of his most notable achievements was the massive repair work done under his supervision
on the Temple of the Lord – no doubt a necessary reconstruction after the ravages
of Baalism. As long as Jehoiada lived, king Joash (who reigned for 40 years in Jerusalem)
whom Jehoiada instructed in Yahwism, was kept in check as a servant of the Lord
(though with some ambivalence). But immediately after Jehoiada’s death, at age 130
(2 Chronicles 24:15), king Joash took counsel with his Judaean officials and
the kingdom reverted to its former idolatry. Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah, having
boldly denounced his compatriots for their apostasy, was stoned to death upon
the orders of the king. As he was dying, Zechariah cried out: ‘May the Lord see
and avenge!’ (vv. 20-22).
Commentators
have stumbled over Matthew’s reference to the same Zechariah as a ‘son of
Barachiah’. Thus North again: …. “This Zechariah is doubtless that of Luke
11:51, called son of Barachiah in Mt 23:35 by assimilation to Is 8:2”. Whether
or not there is in fact any connection with the person intended by Isaiah,
could Matthew’s name, Barachiah - the priest
Jehoiada, according to my reconstruction - have a connection (albeit
linguistically imprecise) with ‘son of Rechab’ (thus Bar-rachiah)?
I have ventured an identification between Jehoiada and Jehonadab, son of Rechab
….
….
The
Prophet’s Death and Burial
….
Elisha … left everything to follow Elijah, who was undoubtedly the prototypal
‘Rechabite’ in his poverty and nomadic style of existence.
….
A blessing of the ascetical, nomadic lifestyle that Elisha came to embrace in
following Elijah was, according to the Rechabites to ‘live many days in the
land’. That blessing was certainly bestowed upon Elisha in abundance; for he,
as the priest Jehoiada, lived to be 130 years of age. And apparently the
blessing was bestowed upon his descendants too, inasmuch as they were still
faithful to that lifestyle even in Jeremiah’s time.
Had
Elisha been buried in Samaria, then this alone would have been sufficient to
shatter my proposed identification of him with Jehoiada, because the aged
Jehoiada was buried in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 24:16): “And they buried him in
the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and for
God and his House”. When we turn to read about the end of Elisha - who
incidentally died (strikingly like Jehoiada), in the very last
few years of Joash of Judah’s long reign (with Jehu’s
grandson Jehoash now reigning in Israel) - we simply read: “So Elisha died, and
they buried him” (2 Kings 13:20).
Cf.
2 Kings 13:20, 21: “Elisha died and was buried. …. Once while some Israelites were burying a
man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into
Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and
stood up on his feet”.
Continued at next post:
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