Elijah a master of the taunt

“‘The Elijah Stories’ remember Elijah as a performer - an artist whose words and gestures riveted themselves into Israel’s memory. His words are not the familiar oracle or verdict so often associated with the prophet, but rather taunt”. Don. C. Benjamin Taken from: (5) Stories of Elijah | Don C Benjamin - Academia.edu The Eijah Stories Don C. Benjamin WHEN CHRISTIAN HERMITS BEGAN TO SETTLE AT THE SPRING OF ELIJAH IN Wadi ’ein es-Siah, they inherited not just the real estate of Carmel but the legacy of the twin prophets, Elijah and Elisha, as well. ‘The Elijah Stories’ reveal a fascinating tradition in which Camel is not just a beautiful place, but like Eden, and Jericho, for that matter, a place where human life began. Furthermore, Elijah and Elisha are not just fanatic Israelite fundamentalists, who yank the sun from the sky and call bears out of the forest. They are people primeval, who, like Adam and Eve, set the tone for a new world. The New Testament communities told the story of Jesus by retelling the stories of these prophets of ancient Israel, and these Carmelites would tell their own story by retelling ‘The Elijah Stories’ as well. …. …. ‘The Elijah Stories’ remember Elijah as a performer - an artist whose words and gestures riveted themselves into Israel’s memory. His words are not the familiar oracle or verdict so often associated with the prophet, but rather taunt. His gestures are neither those of the magician, nor the miracle worker but rather those of the mime! Taunt and mime are part of the prophet’s repertoire in the promotion of social reform. …. 1 Kings 18: A creation story …. However, it is more likely that, right from the start, I Kings 18 was a creation story pitting Ba’al Hadad, the Great Canaanite Rain-Giver, against Yahweh, the God of Israel. Rain imagery can certainly be implied in 18.20-4O, even though it is not expressed, and a famous observer of climate and culture in Syria-Palestine claims to have observed lightning in a cIoudless sky as much as a full day before rains came! …. But whether Ahab represents Ba’al-Carmel, the God of Carmel, Ba’al-Melqart, the God of Tyre … or Ba’al-Hadad, the Rain-Giver of All Canaan, 1 Kings 18 was eventuaIly told as a classic Creation story describing the ancient struggle between the Creator and the Conspirator for controI of the cosmos. …. The writer of the stories of EIijah and Elisha was well acquainted with the myths circulating about Baal, which attributed to him numerous and varied powers. The Canaanites believed that Baal was the storm and fertility god, who bestowed upon man and land the blessing of fecundity. He sent forth lightning, fire, and rain. He gave corn, oil and wine. He could revive the dead, heal the sick and bestow the bIessing of progeny. The author of these stories wished to liberate the people from these beliefs by showing through the agency of concrete examples and incidents that all the power attributed by Ugaritic mythology to Baal, are really the attributes only of the one God, the Lord of Israel. …. In l Kings 18.1-46, Elijah plays the role of the Messiah, similar to the roles of Marduk in Mesopotamia’s `Enuma Elish Story’ and of Ba’al in Ugarit’s ` Ba’al vs Mot Story’. Typically in ancient near eastern creation stories, the creators are represented by their messiahs. Therefore, just as Elijah represents Yahweh, Jezebel, Ahab and the prophets represent Ba’al. In l Kings 18.1-46, Jezebel’s role is comparable to that of Tiamat in the `Enuma Elish Story’, Ahab, to the role of Kingu, Tiamat’s commander-in-chief; and the prophets of Ba’al to the monsters which Tiamat as Mother Huber creates to be her allies in the great battle with Marduk. In the ` Ba’al vs Mot Story,’ the Ba’al character is the protagonist and Mot is the antagonist. However, in l Kings 16.29-19. 18 Elijah is the protagonist and Ba’al is the antagonist! In 18.16-18, Ahab and Elijah argue about who will play the role of the Conspirator or `disturber’ (NAB). It is also important to keep in mind that in Ugaritic literature the Ba’al character is heroic, whereas in Israelite literature he is demonic. Tellers have consciously exaggerated the protagonist and the antagonist in ‘The Elijah Stories’. As a result, the Elijah character is a paragon of virtue, whereas the Ahab character is despicable. The only attempt which tellers make to soften the character of Ahab is at the expense of JezebeI, who is indicted as a pagan queen who dominated her husband. …. The issue: With whom to dance? Carmel – a range of hills jutting north-west into the Mediterranean sea, created a natural barrier across the coastal plain. Military and commercial traffic on its way north from Egypt along the Coast Highway either detoured inland through the Megiddo Pass or negotiated the narrow beach between the promontory of Carmel and the Mediterranean. …. Like Mount Zaphon, the northern mountain on which El, the Canaanite creator, made his home, Camel, too, is the Vineyard of God. …. Carmel carries the same connotations in the literature of ancient Israel as Megiddo, Jericho, Jerusalem and Eden - it is the site of creation and re-creation! Carmel was also an important intersection for the cultures of Israel and Canaan. The territory itself not just the people who inhabited it, seesawed back and forth between Canaanite and Israelite jurisdictions (1 K 18.21). The promontory of Carmel was significant to seafarers from the Canaanite cities of Tyre and Sidon, who dedicated it to Ba’al. …. David (10OO 975 BCE) may or may not have named Carmel for Israel (2 San 5.11; 1 Chr 14.1). If he did, Solomon (1075-926 BCE) seems to have returned it to Hiram of Tyre (970-926 BCE) as payment for help in building the royal compound in Jerusalem (1 K 9.11-13). …. Then Itto Ba’al of Sidon may have included Carmel in Jezebel’s dowry when she married Ahab, once again putting it under Israelite jurisdiction (1 K 18. 19). …. The geographical location and altitude of Carmel - critical in determining the amount of rainfall in Syria-Palestine - blessed it with good annual rains (Am l.2). Carmel receives as much as thirty-five inches of rain a year. Two periods of rainfall are critical to the economy of Syria-Palestine. It must rain at the end of the long hot summer to soften the soil enough for famers to pIow and pIant, and it must rain near the end of the growing season to bring the crops to fruit. To prevent crop failure these rains must come at the right time and in the right quantity. Rain is the primary motif in l Kings 18, not fire. Fire is an ancient symbol. In the Hebrew Bible, fire signals the presence of Yahweh (Ex 3.2), who protects (Zc 2.5), and purifies (Ma1 3.2), and punishes (Lv 2O.14). The fire which consumes Elijahs offering is the flash of lightning which announces the rain (Jg 6.21; 13.2O; Ez l.13; Jb l.16; 2 K l.10 14). …. Lightning was not something to fear, but a reminder that Yahweh was present to protect his peopIe and punish their enemies. By referring to the lightning as fire of God (Hebrew: es Elohim) and Elijah as man of God (Hebrew: ’is elohim) tellers achieve a masterful play on words. For them the prophet is a fire (Hebrew: es) man (Hebrew: ’is) – a person both human and divine, whose special relationship to God entitles him to use God’s own lightning! …. Carmel was a fitting location to tell a story like l Kings 18 which asks `Who ruIes?’; ‘Who is Lord?’; ‘Who makes it rain?’ The innovative language in l Kings 18.21 with which Elijah issues this challenge is lost in translations like the New International Version or the New American Bible. `How Iong will you waver or limp (Hebrew: pasah) between two opinions?’ conveys the image of a traveler lost at an intersection or a bird hopping through a tree from one branch to the other. However, the most appropriate transIation for l Kings 18.21, 26 is: `How long are you going to dance the Canaanite trilogy for Ba’al Marqad, `Lord of the Dance?’ …. In traditional societies dancing is an important religious expression (Ps 26.6). They consider the Creator a dance master or a musician, whose blueprint for creation is a melody to which humans must dance. EIijah wants Israel to decide with whom to dance! Elijah’s taunt (I Kings 18.27) Taunts were a common military strategy in the ancient Near East and in ancient Israel. Verbal combat always precedes physical combat. In Mesopotamia’s ‘Enuma Elish Story’, Tiamat taunts Marduk as he approaches (EE 4:63-74). Gilgamesh taunts ISHTAR In Assyria’s ‘Story of Gilgamesh’ (6:31-78). In Ugarit’s ‘Story of Aqhat’ (AQHT A 6:35-49) and ‘Story of Ba’al’, Aqhat and Anat taunt each other, and Yam or Anat taunt Ba’al repeatedly. Although the word taunt (Hebrew: seninah) appears only four times (Dt 28.37; I K 9.7; 2 Ch 7.20; Jer 24.9), taunting is widely used in the Hebrew Bible. Jacob taunts Laban (Gn 31.36-44), Gaal taunts Abimelech (Jg 8.28-9), Ahab taunts Benhadad (1 K 20.11), Jezebel taunts Jehu (2 K 9.31-2), Rabshakeh taunts Hezekiah (2 K 18.19-37), and the Jebusites taunt David at Jerusalem: ‘Who is David...’ they taunted, ‘that the blind should march through the gates of Jerusalem? Who is David … that the blind and lame cannot see to him?’ (2 Sam 5.6) On at least two other occasions besides the BattIe of Jerusalem, David is taunted by the enemies he will eventually defeat. Goliath taunts David at Soco (1 Sm 17.8-10), and Nabal taunts David at Carmel (1 Sm 25.2-43). Taunts are surgically focussed insults. Elijah is a master of the art. There are two taunts in l Kings 18. The first is in 18.17-18, where Ahab and Elijah meet … the second more powerful 18.27. In the standard taunt, who (Hebrew: mi) introduces the first line and that (Hebrew: ki) introduces the second. For example, ‘Who (Hebrew: mi) is David the son of Jesse that (Hebrew: we) I should feed his renegades with my wine, my bread, my meat...’ (1 Sm 25.10) catches the sense, if not the precise grammar, of the genre. …. Taunts are notoriously difficult to translate because of their subtlety; however, ‘Call louder for he is a god …’ (1 K 18.27 - NAB) Iacks both the style and the content which a taunt requires. It would make better sense if `Call louder!’ (Hebrew: qire’u) like ‘Come here!’ (1 K 18.30) and ‘Seize the prophets of Ba’al’ (1 K 18.40) were addressed to the people, not the prophets. Elijah is teaching the audience a taunt. He wants them to use it to out-shout the singing and dancing and slashing prophets of Ba’al’. To bring l Kings 18.27 into formal correspondence with the first line of the genre, it must Parallel Psalm 24.10: ‘Who is this king of glory?’ (Ps 24.10). And when the Sun was directly overhead, Elijah dared the people: Shout at the top of your voices: ‘Who (Hebrew: ki) is this (Hebrew: hu’) god, that so many prophets should be necessary to load him onto ships, to help him tend to his business, to haul him overland in wagons, to put him to bed, to get him up? Elijah’s taunt does not explain why Ba’al is not answering his prophets, although this is the connotation of most contemporary translations. On the contrary, the taunt argues that any god who needs four hundred and fifty prophets (1 K 18.19) and needs to be loaded onto ships to cross the Mediterranean (Hebrew: siah … sig), hauled overland in wagons (Hebrew: derek lo), and die and be raised from the dead (Hebrew: yasen … weyiqas) by all this dancing, singing and self-laceration is no god at all. In contrast, Yahweh needs only one prophet to do the same (1 K 18.22). Elijah’s taunt is brimming with doubIe entendre. On the surface the language of Elijah’s taunt simply echoes the liturgical language of Ba’al theology being chanted by the prophets. Merchants meticulously transported their sacred statues from one end of the Mediterranean to the other as they worked the trade networks for which their cities became famous. …. If a statue of Ba’al did not board every Canaanite freighter (Hebrew: siαh) and accompany every merchant (Hebrew: siag), the commercial world of Tyre and Sidon would collapse. …. Likewise, at the onset of the dry season, statues of Ba’al would be taken (Hebrew: derek lo) to the border, where farms end and dry wasteland begins, to do battle with the heat of summer. …. The heat of the long, hot summer would drive the life-sustaining moisture of Ba’al to sleep, deep in the earth, only to be reawakened when the planting rains began in the fall. However, with only subtle changes in spelling, accent or meaning, Elijah’s taunt conjures up the image of Ba’al as an impotent old fool (2 K 2.23-5). The deeper and most offensive connotations in Eijah’s taunt describe Ba’al as unable to perform the routines of daily living such as getting in or out of bed and using the toilet without assistance! Simply by shifting the pronunciation of a single letter, the taunt converts the liturgical expression: siah (with a sin) … sig, meaning to travel on business, to the vulgar expression: siah (with a shin) … sig, meaning to go out into a field to relieve oneself (Gn 24.63). …. Read also my (Damien F. Mackey’s) brief piece regarding Leah Bronner’s excellent book, The stories of Elijah and Elisha as polemics against Baal worship (Pretoria Oriental Series VI. Leiden, 1968): Impressive book about Elijah and Elisha ridiculing the Baal legends https://www.academia.edu/106236845/Impressive_book_about_Elijah_and_Elisha_ridiculing_the_Baal_legends