Elijah and Elisha in the Signs of the Gospel of John: Assessing Prophetic Christologies

Abstract

Abstract: Many interpreters have observed allusions to Elijah and Elisha in the signs of the Gospel of John. Older studies typically evaluated the parallels to determine either John’s use of a signs source, the provenance of the Gospel, or the christology of early Christian communities. But several recent studies taking a more narrative-oriented approach have asked what kind of christology is generated when one reads the signs in light of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha. They have generally concluded that the resulting prophetic christology functions as a stepping-stone toward higher christologies. On the intertextual reading of this article, however, the prophetic chris-tology relates to other christologies not as a stepping-stone but in terms of the theology of prophecy from Kings: the signs of Jesus validate his prophetic authority, and Jesus takes up not only the role of Elijah and Elisha but also the role of the prophets’ God.