Abstract
Having already offered an assessment of Samuel (Power, Politics, and Prophecy: The Character of Samuel and the Deuteronomic Evaluation of Prophecy, 2006), in this second volume of a projected trilogy, intended to determine whether and to what extent prophetic figures of the Deuteronomistic history fulfil the Deuteronomic ideal of a prophet like Moses, Heller turns his attention to Elijah and Elisha.
In chapter one (pp. 1-40) he signals the direction his study will take. In the Elijah and Elisha stories, plotline and characterization ‘highlight the ambiguous nature of prophecy’ leaving readers ambivalent concerning whether prophecy allows ‘a clear and dependable means of discerning the will of YHWH’ – an evaluation that closely matches that found in Deuteronomy. He then addresses the characterization of Elijah and Elisha in recent study, the significance and power of ambiguity, Deuteronomy’s lack of wholehearted validation for prophecy, some observations arising from his earlier study of Samuel, and some indication of the importance of the question of miracles for the present volume.
Chapter two (pp. 41-109) begins with an analysis of the four episodes recounted in 1 Kgs. 17. Elijah appears abruptly to inform Ahab that there will be neither dew nor rain except by his word. Because there is no oracle from YHWH and no connection between the predicted drought and political and religious context, Heller interprets Elijah’s speech as blatant self-promotion. However, when at YHWH’s command he hides at the Wadi Cherith he appears to be truly ‘the prophet like Moses’. When he orders the Zarephath widow to feed him before herself and her son and provides her with YHWH’s assurance that her meagre supplies would not be exhausted before rain returned, Heller judges him ‘a conflicted, ambiguous character’. Next, when he ‘restores’ the widow’s son, he quibbles that the story validates Elijah rather than YHWH.
The defeat of the Baal prophets on Mount Carmel sees Elijah acting unambiguously as ‘the prophet like Moses’, uniting Israel in devotion to YHWH, but he is ‘impudent and rebellious against YHWH’ as he flees from Jezebel and retreats to Horeb, where he experiences a ‘non-theophany’ and ‘relinquishes his position as prophet’. The transition from Elijah to Elisha is ‘messy and confusing’. When Elijah condemns Ahab for taking Naboth’s vineyard and Ahab repents, ‘(h)e is truly the Mosaic prophet’, but not so when dealing with Ahaziah’s sickness. Based on these fluctuating depictions, Heller concludes that Elijah is ambiguous throughout.
In similar vein he addresses the twenty episodes of the Elisha cycle (pp. 110-215), finding that few of his many miracles ‘lead people to a clearer and more devoted relationship with YHWH’. These stories generally cast Elisha in a poorer light than Elijah, for example, during the siege of Samaria (2 Kgs. 6.24-7.20), as some turn to cannibalism, it is only when he is threatened by the king that he delivers a word from YHWH that the siege would end and supplies become available the following day; he also predicts the death of the king’s messenger for doubting that oracle.
Chapter four (pp. 216-231) sets out Heller’s conclusions with respect to the characters Elijah, Elisha and YHWH, assessing them according to the ‘Deuteronomic evaluation of prophecy’. The character of Elijah is uneven: he can occasionally take on ‘the role of the Deuteronomic Prophet like Moses’, at other times he can be ‘self-aggrandizing’, ‘selfish’, ‘petulant and fearful’, and ‘downright dangerous to any who would question his authority’. YHWH appears ‘very, very rarely’ in the Elisha stories and does not address Elisha or anyone else directly. Elisha may have ’prescient knowledge’ and ‘the ability to perform miracles’ yet, Heller insists, he consistently is ‘lacking in terms of competence, morality, and purpose’. Ultimately prophecy is valid only when it accords with the words and overarching themes of Deuteronomy.
Throughout his analyses, Heller seeks to demonstrate whether the words and/or actions of Elijah and Elisha are positive, negative, opaque, or ambiguous. To be positive, a word or action must have been explicitly commanded by YHWH while a sign or miracle must lead to a confession of YHWH as the true God of Israel. Only occasionally does either prophet fulfil these standards.
Although Heller expresses many interesting insights into these prophet-narratives and into the criteria whereby prophetic oracles, miracles, and signs might be deemed trustworthy, one suspects that his determination to judge every prophetic word and action by standards extracted from Deuteronomy may have led to some imbalance, restricting rather than enhancing his interpretation of these stories. By extolling Moses’ uniqueness, Deuteronomy’s ending (Deut. 34.10-12) institutes priority of the Deuteronomic Torah over prophecy. Yet, whether or not one agrees with every aspect of his argument or results, Heller offers some insights with which scholars interested in these narratives must engage.