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There are a number of verbal links between 2 Kings 4:42-44 and the festivals of first fruits in Leviticus 23. First, Leviticus 23:14 prohibits Israel from eating bread or roasted grain or "new growth" (Heb. CARMEL) until the gift of the first sheaf. 2 Kings 4:42 refers to the man's gift of "barley" and "new growth" (Heb. CARMEL). Second, the man brings "the bread of the firstfruits" to Elisha (2 Kings 4:42), a phrase that is elsewhere found only in Leviticus 23's prescriptions for the day of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:20). Third, at least in narrative time (if not in actual time), these stories follow on the story of the woman of Shunem, whose son is born to her "at the time of living" (v. 16). That temporal marker, along with the "resurrection" motif of that story, links the story with Passover. Thus, there appears to be a festival sequence here. The chapter begins with Passover, and moves to first sheaf and Pentecost, in preparation for the "ingathering" of the Gentile Naaman in the following chapter.
Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated as "new growth" here is the same as the name of the mountain of Elijah (1 Kings 18) and Elisha (2 Kings 2:25; 4:25). Elisha thus is associated with the "new growth" and the "first sheaf" that begin to peek out of the dry ground of Israel. He is the bringer of a new "Pentecost" to Israel. See also Isaiah 32:15, where the gift of the Spirit poured out from heaven transforms the wilderness into a "fertile field" (Heb. CARMEL) and the "fertile field" (CARMEL) into a forest.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, June 18, 2005 at 12:43 PM
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