volume 11, issue 2, 2019, pages 120-129

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsDTJA9206
Published online: 2019-12-01
Published in print: 2019-12-30

Abstract: James 5:17-18 offers a very interesting example of “Intrabiblical Interpretation of the Former Prophets”. 1 Kings 17-18 and James 5:17-18 both agree in mentioning the prophet Elijah in connection with drought and subsequent rainfall. In 1 Kings, Elijah simply pronounces an oracle: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word” (17:1). In James, the prophet, by his prayer, is granted three years and six months of drought and the subsequent rain. What is the relationship between these two texts? The answer lies in the long tradition that links them. The episode is in fact quoted or evoked in: Ecclesiasticus 48:2-3; Luke 4:25-26; Revelation 11:6, to which must be added the texts of Hellenistic Judaism (Septuagint of 1 Kings 17-18; Josephus AJ 8.319.324), of the Pseudepigrapha (Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 48.1; 4 Esdras 7:106-111), of the Targumim (Targum to the Prophets on 1 Kings 17-18; Studia Biblica Slovaca Giovanni Claudio Bottini 129 Targum of Ruth 1:1) and of Rabbinic literature (Sifra on Lev 26:4; Genesis Rabba 77.1; Deuteronomy Rabba 1:2-3). The comparison of these texts, which are part of a very long and permanent tradition on the figure of the prophet Elijah, shows that it is in Early Jewish literature that the figure of Elijah is established as a righteous man on whose supplication the heavens are shut and opened again. The sources are not unanimous on the duration of the drought; the period of three-anda-half years is found only in Luke and James. To the readers/listeners of James, Elijah is presented as a simple man and yet a model of intercessory prayer. James’ “methodology” – freely taking biblical examples characterized by interpretative traits from the re-readings attested in ancient Judaic literature – leads to the discussion on the “formation of the canon or on the awareness of a canon”. It is an acknowledged fact that in the first century, there was no canon defining the Scriptures. Therefore the discussion on how James quoted the Scriptures and evoked the biblical characters remains open, and depends on oral or written traditions.