Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 359. Elisha's Bones

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 359. Elisha's Bones


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V



Elisha's Bones



There is one other tradition regarding Elisha, and that the most marvellous of all. His wonder-working power did not terminate with his life. In the spring of the year after his death a burial was taking place in the cemetery which contained his sepulchre, when it chanced that a band of marauding Moabites came in sight. The Moabites had now had time to recover from their great defeat by Jehoram and Jehoshaphat; they had spread themselves over the districts north of the river Arnon; and every year, when the spring crops were just ripe, their hordes poured over the fields of Samaria on their errand of plunder and violence. It was one of these bands of spoilers that was observed in the distance by the mourners. They wished to put the corpse for safety into the nearest hiding-place before the Moabites were upon them. It may have been accident, it may have been design, which led them to choose the tomb of Elisha; it may have been the depth and spaciousness of the cave; it may have been the prophet's reputation for sanctity. So, as the original says, “they thrust the man into the sepulchre.” “And,” we are told, “as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.”



There is no other miracle in Holy Scripture which is exactly like this: and it certainly is much more striking than any of those which were performed by Elisha during his lifetime. It produced a great effect upon the Jews; they held this posthumous miracle to be Elisha's chief title to distinction among the prophets. “After his death his body prophesied,” or taught-that was his crowning glory in the Jewish school.



Alone of all the graves of the saints of the Old Testament, there were wonders wrought at Elisha's resting-place which seemed to continue after death the grace of his long and gentle life. It was believed that by the mere touch of his bones a dead corpse was re-animated. In this, as in so much beside, his life and miracles are not Jewish but Christian. His works stand alone in the Bible in their likeness to the acts of mediæval saints. There alone in the Sacred History the gulf between Biblical and Ecclesiastical miracles almost disappears. The exception proves the general rule; still it is but just to notice the exception.1 [Note: A. P. Stanley, History of the Jewish Church, ii. 279.]



In Dinet's Saint Symphorien d' Autun, there is attributed to the body of St. Virgilius, who died a.d. 610, a miraculous power similar to that recorded in Scripture in the case of Elisha's bones. “When the funeral procession of the saint arrived at the grave, and the remains were about to be lifted therein,” we are told, “all of a sudden came persons carrying the body of one dead. It was that of a young girl, the only child of her mother, and she was a widow. The bearers, out of breath, implored the clergy to let the dead body touch that of the deceased prelate. The permission was granted, and at a given signal all the immense crowd fell on their knees, waiting to see what would happen. Forthwith the ‘Kyrie Eleison' was intoned; a thousand voices or more took up the chant, and at the seventh repetition, the young girl rose on her feet in the presence of the whole multitude. A shudder ran through the crowd, a silence ensued unbroken by a single sound, then a sudden reaction took place, a shout of joy burst forth, the funeral hymn was changed to a song of praise, the funeral procession to a march of triumph. The resuscitated damsel, pressed on all sides by the crowd, went homewards, crying as she went along, ‘O blessed bishop! O good and holy pastor! How am I thy debtor! How powerful thy merits! Well hast thou shown thy inheritance to eternal life in giving me back to life.' ”



The relation between Elijah and Elisha was of a particularly close kind, and may be compared with that between Moses and Joshua or David and Solomon. The one is the complement of the other; the resemblances, and still more the marked contrast between the character and activity of each, qualified both together for the common discharge of one great work by “diversity of operation.” The difference between them is much more striking than the resemblance. Elijah is the prophet of the wilderness, rugged and austere; Elisha is the prophet of civilized life, of the city and the court, with the dress, manners, and appearance of “other grave citizens.” Elijah is the messenger of vengeance,-sudden, fierce, and overwhelming; Elisha is the messenger of mercy and restoration. Elijah's miracles, with few exceptions, are works of wrath and destruction; Elisha's miracles, with but one notable exception, are works of beneficence and healing. Elijah is the “prophet as fire” (Sir_48:1), an abnormal agent working for exceptional ends; Elisha is the “holy man of God which passeth by us continually,” mixing in the common life of the people, and promoting the advancement of the Kingdom of God in its ordinary channels of mercy, righteousness, and peace.1 [Note: W. Robertson Smith, in The Encyclopœdia Britannica (ninth ed.), viii. 140.]