ELIAS
382
ELIAS
spirited, he poured out his complaint before the Lord,
who strengthened Iiim by a revelation and restored
his faith. Three commands are laid upon him: to
anoint Hazael to be King of Syria, Jehu to be King
of Israel, and Eliseus to be his own successor. At once
Elias sets out to accomplish this new burden. On his
way to Damascus, he meets Eliseus at the plough, and
throwing his mantle over him, makes him his faithful
disciple and inseparable companion, to whom the com-
pletion of his task will be entrusted. The treacherous
murder of Naboth was the occasion for a new reappear-
ance of Elias at Jezrael, as a champion of the people's
rights and of social order, and to announce to Achab
his impending doom. Achab's house shall fall. In
the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth
will the dogs lick the king's blood; they shall eat Jeza-
bel in Jezrael; their whole posterity shall perish and
their bodies be given to the fowls of the air (xxi, 20-26).
Conscience-stricken, Achab quailed before the man
of God, and in view of his penance the threatened ruin
of his house was delayed. The next time we hear of
Elias, it is in connexion with Ochozias, Achab's son
and successor. Having received severe injuries in a
fall, this prince sent messengers to the shrine of Beel-
zebub, god of Accaron, to inquire whether he should
recover. They were interceptetl by the prophet, who
sent them back to their master with the intimation
that his injuries would prove fatal. Several bands of
men sent by the king to capture Elias were stricken
by fire from heaven ; finally the man of God appeared
in person before Ochozias to confirm his threatening
message. Another episode recorded by the chronicler
(II Par., xxi, 12) relates how Joram, King of Juda,
who had indulged in Baal-worship, received from
Elias a letter warning him that all his house would be
smitten by a plague, and that he himself was doomed
to an early death.
According to IV K., iii, Elias's career ended before the death of Josaphat. 'This statement is difficult — but not impossible — to harmonize with the preceding narrative. However this may be, Elias vanished still more mysteriously than he had appeared. Like Enoch, he was "translated", so that he should not taste death. As he was conversing with his spiritual son Eliseus on the hills of Moab, " a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder, and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (IV K., ii, 11), and all the efforts to find him made by the sceptic sons of the prophetsdisbelievingEliseus's recital, availed nothing. The memory of Elias has ever remained living in the minds both of Jews and Christians. According to Malachias, CJod preserved the prophet alive to entrust him, at the end of time, with a glorious mission (iv, 5- 6): at the New Testament period, this mission was believed to precede immediately the Messianic Advent (Matt., xvii, 10, 12; Mark, ix, 11); according to some Christian commentators, it would consist in convert- ing the Jews (St. Jer., in Mai., iv, 5-6); the rabbis, finally, affirm that its object will be to give the ex- planations and answers hitherto kept back by them. I Mach., ii, 58, extols Elias's zeal for the Law, and Ben Sira entwines in a beautiful page the narration of his actions and the description of his future mission (Ecclus., xlviii, 1-12). Elias is still in the N. T. the personification of the seri'ant of God (Matt., xvi, 14; Luke, i, 17; ix, 8; John, i, 21). No wonder, therefore, that with Aloses he appeared at Jesus' side on the day of the Transfiguration.
Nor do we find only in the sacred literature and the commentaries thereof evidences of the conspicuous place Elias won for himself in the minds of after-ages. To this day the name of Jebel Mar Elyas, usually given by modern Arabs to Mount Carmel, perpetuates the memory of the man of God. Various places on the mountain: Elias's grotto; El-ICliadr, the supposed school of the prophets; El-Muhraka, the traditional spot of Elias's sacrifice; Tell el-Kassis, or Mound of
the priests — where he is said to have slain the priests
of Baal — are still in great veneration both among the
Christians of all denominations and among the Mos-
lems. Every year the Druses assemble at El-Muliraka
to hold a festival and offer a sacrifice in honour of
Elias. All Mussulmans have the prophet in great
reverence; no Druse, in particular, woiJd dare break
an oath made in the name of Elias. Not only among
them, but to some extent also among the Jews and
Christians, many legendary tales are associated with
the prophet's memory, "rhe Carmelite monks long
cherished the belief that their order could be traced
back in unbroken succession to Elias whom they
hailed as their founder. Vigorously opposed by the
Bollandists, especially by Papenbroeck, their claim
was no less vigorously upheld by the Carmelites of
Flanders, until Pope Innocent XII, in 1608, deemed it
advisable to silence both contending parties. Elias is
honoured by both the Greek and Latin Churches on
20 July.
The old stichometrical lists and ancient ecclesias- tical writers (Const. Apost., VI, 16; Origen, Comm. in Matth., xx\ai, 9; Euthalius; Epiphan., Hsr., xliii) mention an apocryphal "Apocalypse of Elias", cita- tions from which are said to be found in I Cor., ii, 9, and Eph., v, 14. Lost to view since the early Christian centuries, this work was partly recovered in a Coptic translation found (1893) by Maspero in a monastery of Upper Egypt. Other scraps, likewise in Coptic, have since been also discovered. What we possess now of this Apocalypse — and it seems that we have by far the greater part of it — was published in 1899 by G. Steindorff ; the passages cited in I Cor., ii, 9, and Eph., V, 14, do not appear there; the Apocalypse, on the other hand, has a striking analogy with the Jewish "Sepher Elia".
Stkindorff, Die Apokalypse des Elias, eitie tinbel-annte Apo- kab/pse mid Bruchstuckc der Sophonias Apokalypse (Leipzig, 18991; Smith, The Prophets of Israel (London, 18951; Meignan, Lrs Prophcles d' Israel (Paris, 1S92); Clemen, Die Wiinderbe- richle iibcr Elia und Elisa in den Biichcm der Kunige (Grimma,
1877). Charles L. Souvay.
Elias, Apocalypse of. See Eli.\s; Egypt, VI, Coptic Literature.
Elias o£ Cortona, Minister General of the Friars Minor, b., it is said, at Bevilia near Assisi, c. 1180; d. at Cortona, 22 April, 1253. In the writings of Elias that have come down to us he styles himself " Brother Elias, Sinner", and his contemporaries without excep- tion call him simply " Brother Elias". The name of a town was first added to his name in the fourteenth century; in Franciscan compilations like the "Chro- nica XXIV generalium " and the " Liber Conformita- tum" Elias is described as Helias de Assisio, whereas the name of Cortona does not appear in connexion with his before the seventeenth century. It is clear in any event that Elias did not belong to the noble family of Coppi as some have asserted. From Salim- bene, who knew Elias well, we learn that his family name was Bonusbaro or Bonibarone, that his father was from the neighbourhood of Bologna, and his mother an Assisian; that before becoming a friar Elias worked at his father's trade of mattress-making and also taught the children of Assisi to read the Psalter. Later on, according to Eccleston, Elias was a scriptor, or notary, at Bologna, where no doubt he ap- plied himself to study. But he was not a cleric and never became a priest. Elias appears to have been one of the earliest companions of St. Francis of Assisi. The time and place of his joining the saint are uncer- tain; it may have been at Cortona in 1211, as W.adding says. Certain it is, however, that he held a place of prominence among the friars from the first. After a short sojourn, as it seems, in Tuscany, Elias was sent in 1217 as head of a band of missionaries to Palestine, and two years later he became the first provincial of the then extensive province of Syria. It was in this
