Elisha Succeeds Elijah
about 850 BC, traditional dateTraditional date
Elijah and his disciple Elisha cross the Jordan near Jericho. Kings says that Elijah is carried up to heaven in a whirlwind and that Elisha, taking up his master’s cloak, returns as the prophet in his place.
Kings introduces Elisha son of Shaphat at the end of the Horeb story. Elijah found him ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen and threw his cloak over him. Elisha slaughtered his oxen, fed the people with the meat, and followed Elijah as his servant (1 Kings 19:19–21).
The account of their parting begins at Gilgal. Elijah three times asked Elisha to stay behind, as he was sent on to Bethel, to Jericho and to the Jordan, and each time Elisha refused to leave him. At Bethel and Jericho the companies of prophets told Elisha that his master would be taken from him that day. Fifty of them watched from a distance as the two reached the Jordan River. Elijah rolled up his cloak and struck the water, which parted, and they crossed on dry ground (2 Kings 2:1–8).
On the far side Elijah asked what he could do for him. Elisha asked for “a double portion” of his spirit, the share that the law gives to an eldest son (2 Kings 2:9; Deuteronomy 21:17). Elijah answered that it would be granted if Elisha saw him taken. As they walked on, Kings says, “a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” Elisha cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” and tore his clothes in two (2 Kings 2:9–12).
He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah, struck the river with it and crossed back. The prophets of Jericho said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” Against his advice they sent fifty men to search for Elijah. After three days they had found nothing (2 Kings 2:13–18).
Elisha’s work fills the following chapters. Kings credits him with healing the spring at Jericho, raising a dead child and curing Naaman the Syrian of leprosy (2 Kings 2:19–22; 4:32–37; 5:9–14), and gives him a hand in the rise of Hazael in Damascus and of Jehu in Israel (2 Kings 8:7–15; 9:1–3). Kings records no death for Elijah. Malachi promises that he will be sent again (Malachi 4:5–6), and the Gospels place him with Moses beside Jesus at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–3).
How this is dated
Traditional date. From later tradition or from internal biblical chronology, with no outside anchor.
Kings gives no year. It places the story after the death of Ahab’s son Ahaziah (2 Kings 1:17) and before the campaign against Moab in the reign of Joram, in which Elisha already acts alone (2 Kings 3:11). Ahab was alive in 853 BC (Kurkh Monolith ii 91–92) and Ahaziah reigned two years (1 Kings 22:51), which points to about 852–850 BC.
Chronicles has a letter from Elijah reach Jehoram of Judah after he had killed his brothers (2 Chronicles 21:12–13), and Jehoram became king only in the fifth year of Joram of Israel (2 Kings 8:16). The two notices are hard to fit into one sequence. The date is therefore a placement, not a year that a source gives.
Primary sources
Scripture
The Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III
- Kurkh Monolith ii 91–92oracc.museum.upenn.edu
In context
Grows out of
- about 860 BC, traditional date
Leads to
- 841 BC, firm date
- about 840 BC, estimated date