ELISHA
387
ELIZABETH
friends, the newly chosen Prophet "followed Elias,
and ministered to him". (Ill Kings, xix, 8-21.) He
went with his master from Galgal to Bethel, to Jericho,
and thence to the eastern side of the Jordan, the
waters of which, touched by the mantle, divided so as
to permit both to pass over on dry ground. Eliseus
then beheld Elias in a fiery chariot taken up by a
whirlwind into heaven. By means of the mantle let
fall from Elias, Eliseus miraculously recrossed the
Jordan, and so won from the prophets at Jericho the
recognition, that "the spirit of Elias hath rested upon
Eliseus". (IV Ivings, ii, 1-15.) He won the gratitude
of the people of Jericho for healing with salt its barren
ground and its waters. Eliseus also knew how to strike
with salutary fear the adorers of the calf in Bethel,
for forty-two little boys, probably encouraged to mock
the Prophet, on being cursed in the name of the Lord,
were torn by "twobearsout of the forest". (IV Kings,
ii, 19-24.) Before he settled in Samaria, the Prophet
passed some time on Mount Carmel (IV Kings, ii, 25).
When the armies of Juda. and Israel, and Edom, then
allied against Mesa, the Moabite king, were being tor-
turetl by drought in the Idumsean desert, Eliseus con-
sented to intervene. His double prediction regarding
relief from drought and victory over the Moabites
was fulfilled on the following morning. (IV Kings, iii,
4-24.)
That Eliseus inherited the wonder-working power of Elias is shown throughout the whole course of his life. To relieve the widow importuned by a hard creditor, Eliseus so multiplied a little oil as to enable her, not only to pay her indebtedness, but to provide for her family needs (IV Kings, iv, 1-7). To reward the rich lady of Sunam for her hospitality, he ob- tained for her from God, at first the birth of a son, and subsequently the resurrection of her child (IV Kings, iv, 8-37). To nourish the sons of the prophets pressed by famine, Eliseus changed into wholesome food the pottage made from poisonous gourds (IV Kings, iv, 38-41). By the cure of Naaman, who was afflicted with leprosy, Eliseus, little impressed by the posses- sions of the Syrian general, whilst willing to free King Joram from his perplexity, principally intended to show "that there is a prophet in Israel". Naaman, at first reluctant, obeyed the Prophet, and washed seven times in the Jordan. Finding his flesh "restored like the fle.sh of a little child", the general was so im- pressed by this evidence of God's power, and by the disinterestedness of His Prophet, as to express his deep conviction that "there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel". (IVKings, v, 1-19.) It is to this Christ referred when He said: "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian" (Luke, iv, 27). In punishing the avarice of his servant Giezi (IV Kings, v, 20-27), in saving "not once nor twice" King .Joram from the ambuscades planned by Benadad (IV Kings, vi, 8-12), in ordering the ancients to shut the door against the messenger of Israel's ungrateful king (IV Kings, vi, 2.5-32), in be- wildering with a strange blindness the soldiers of the Syrian king (IV Kings, vi, 13-23), in making the iron swim to relieve from embarrassment a son of a prophet (IV Kings, vi, 1-7), in confidently predicting the sud- den flight of tlie enemy and the consequent cessation of the famine (IV Kings, vii, 1-20), in unmasking the treachery of Hazael (IV Kings, viii, 7-1.5), Eliseus proved him.self the Divinely appointed Prophet of the one true God, Whose knowledge and power he was priviletied to share.
Mindful of the order given to Elias (III Kings, xi.x, 10), Eliseus delegated a .son of one of the prophets to quietly anoint Jehu King of Israel, and to commission him to cut off the hou.se of Achab (IV Kings, ix, 1-10). The death of Joram, pierced by an arrow from Jehu's bow, the ignominious end of Jezabel, the slaughter of Acliab's seventy sons, proved how faithfully executed
was the Divine command (IV Kings, ix, 11 — x, 30).
After predicting to Joas his victory over the Syrians
at Aphec, as well as three other subsequent victories,
ever bold before kings, ever kindly towards the lowly,
"Eliseus died, and they buried him" (IV Kings, xiii,
14-20). The very touch of his corpse served to resus-
citate a dead man (IV Kings, xiii, 20-21). "In his
life he did great wonders, and in death he wrought
miracles" (Ecclus., xlviii, 15).
Mangenot in ViG., Diet, de la Bible (Paris, 1S98). s. v. Elisee; Str.\cham in Hast., Diet, of the Bible (New York, 189S); Far- RAB, Books of Kings (London, 1894); Meiqnan, Les Prophetes d' Israel (Paris, 1892).
Daniel P. Duffy.
Elisha. See Eliseus.
Elishe, a famous Armenian historian of the fifth century, place and date of birth unknown, d. 480. •Some identify him with Elisha, Bishop of Amaduni, who took part in the Synod of Artashat (449). Ac- cording to a different and more common tradition, he had been in his younger days a companion, as soldier or secretary, of the Armenian general Vartan, during the war of religious independence (449—451) against the Persian King, Yezdigerd II. Later he became a hermit and retired to the mountains, south of Lake Van, where he died. All ancient authorities speak of him as "vartabed" or "doctor". His most famous work is the "History of Vartan and of the wars of the Armenians [written] at the request of David the Mami- gonian", in which he recounts the heroic struggle of the Armenians in union with the Iberians and the Albanians, for their common faith, against the Per- sians (449—451). It is considered one of the master- pieces of ancient Armenian literature and is almost entirely free from Greek words and expressions. A good edition of it was published at Venice (1826) by the Mechitarists of San Lazaro. One of the manu- scripts on which it is based purports to be a faithful copy of another manuscript dated 616. The text of that edition was further improved in subsequent edi- tions at the same place (1828, 1838, 1859, and 1864). Among other editions of value may be mentioned tho.se of Theodosia (Crimea), 1861, and of Jerusalem, 18G5. There is an English, but unfinished, translation by C. F. Neumann (London, 1830); one in Italian by G. Cappelletti (Venice, 1840); and one in French by V. Langlois in his "Collection des Htstoriens anciens et modernes de I'Armenie" (Paris, 1869), II, 177 sqq. In addition to the seven chapters mentioned by Elish(5 himself in his introductory remarks, all the editions contain an eighth chapter referring to the so- called Leontian martyrs (454) and others. The genu- ineness of that chapter has been called in question. It has been also remarked that in all manuscripts the fifth chapter is missing, while in the editions the origi- nal sixth chapter is cut in two so as to make up for the missing chapter. On the first point see Langlois, op. cit., II, p. 180; on the second see C. F. Neumann, "Versuch einer Geschichte der armenischen Litera- tur, nach den Werken der Mechitaristen frei gear- beitet" (Leipzig, 1836), pp. 64 .sqq. See also Ter- Minassiantz, "Die armenische Kirche in ihren Bezieh- ungen zu der syrischen Kirche" (Leipzig, 1904), p. 37. Elish6 is also the author of a commentary on Joshua and Judges, an explanation of the Our Father, a letter to the Armenian monks, etc., all found in the Venice editions of the "History of Vartan".
FiNCK, Ge.schiehle der armenischen Litieratnr in Geschichte der christlichen Litteraturen des Orients (Leipzig, 1907), 97 sqq.: Bardeniiewer. Patrology, tr. Sharan (Freiburg im Br., St. Louis, lUOS), .Wl.
H. Hyvern.\t.
Elizabeth (God is an oath — Ex., vi, 23), Zachary's wife and John the Baptist's mother, was "of the daughters of Aaron" (Luke, i, 5), and, at the same time, Mary's kinswoman (Luke, i, 36), although what their actual relationship was, is unknown. St.
