ELI'SHA, a prophet of Israel, the successor of Elijah, who found him at the plow, and consecrated him to the sacred office by throwing his mantle over his shoulders. He exercised his functions for a period of 55 years. When Elijah was carried up into heaven, E. returned to Jericho, where he dwelt for some time. He then proceeded to Bethel, where the perplexing miracle occurred of the destruction of the 42 children by the two she-bears. After this period, he seems,' besides performing an extraordinary number of miracles, to have taken an active part in the religious politics of his country, but he exhibited nothing of the fiery and sanguinary zeal of his master. Mild, tolerant, oonciliatory, we hardly ever, if at all, find him rebuking the Baal-worship that was still prevalent in Israel. Many of the incidents in his history recall the creations of eastern fancy, such, for example, as those of the horses and chariots of fire round about E. on the hillside, of the smiting of the Syrian host with blindness, so that the prophet led them all unconsciously into Samaria, captive, etc. With Elijah, it has been said (see Smith's Dictionary of the Bible: art. " Elisha"), the miracles are "introduced as means towards great ends, and are kept in the most complete subordination thereto. But with
E., as he is pictured in the Hebrew narrative, the case is completely reversed; with him, the miracles are everything, the prophet's work nothing. The man who was for years the intimate companion of Elijah, on whom Elijah's mantle descended, and who was gifted with a double portion of his spirit, appears in the Old Testament chiefly as a worker of prodigies, a predictor of future events, a revealer of secrets, and things hap pening out of sight or at a distance." The difficulties that thus beset the literal accept ance of the narrative of E.'s miracles have been felt by most modern commentators, and to evade these difficulties various methods, more or less satisfactory, have been employed. For several years E. was the chief theocratical counselor of Jehoram. Under the reign of Jelin and his successors, he gradually withdrew from public affairs, and died in Samaria in the reign of Jehoash, grandson of Jelin (about 840 mu.). It has been custo mary to draw a parallel between E. and Christ; and his mildness and gentleness—always .excepting the story of the destruction of the children at Bethel, which has perplexed all humane readers of Scripture—seem to justify this. E. is canonized in the Greek •hurch; his day is the 14th of June.