volume 12, issue 2, 2020, pages 252-265

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsDFMN7273
Published online: 2020-12-01
Published in print: 2020-12-30

Abstract: The story of Elijah in 1 Kgs 19 is regarded often as a biblical paradigm of crisis and burn out, and this not without reason. Is it possible that Saint Paul too was influenced by a similar way of thinking, when he quoted the lament of Elijah and the answer of God in his Letter to the Romans? I would like to answer this question by showing how the story of Elijah is about the solution of a crisis and how there are parallels in the way Paul uses the story. It seems that we face a double parallelism between the two stories. The crisis is developed in both cases primarily on a communitarian level and first needs a communitarian solution. But on a second level, personal change plays role in both cases. In 1 Kgs 19 Elisha replaces Elijah as a prophet and, seen in the context of Rom 9–11, Paul also expresses his very personal lament, thus offering a model for his Roman readers.