dssdead-sea-scrolls
G — Biblically Based Apocryphal Works
Part 24
A fragmentary Dead Sea Scroll paraphrase expands 2 Kings 2:14ff, opening with the unparalleled line 'And Elisha went up' before picking up the canonical account of the sons of the prophets at Jericho recognizing that the spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha. Their homage and their proposal to send fifty men searching for Elijah frames the transition of prophetic authority — the mantle passes visibly, confirmed by the witness community, yet the taken prophet himself remains beyond their reach, caught up by the spirit of Jehovah.
1
Three minute fragments reproduce the Hebrew text of Kings ii, 14— with paraphrastic supplements. Only fr. can be partly reconstructed and translated. The opening words 'And Elisha went up' are without biblical parallel. For the editio princeps, see J. Trebolle, DJD, XXII, 305—9. Fr.. And Elisha went up. When the sons of the prophets who were over at Jericho saw him over against them, they said, The spirit of Elijah rests over Elisha. And they came to meet Elisha, and bowed to the ground before him. And they said to him, Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men; pray, let them go, and seek your master; it may be that the spirit of the Lord has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.
