48 Dimensions of Baptism
- Elijah. In one place in the Kings narrative the apparel of Elijah is
described:
(^5) The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, 'Why have you
returned?'^6 And they said to him, 'There came a man to meet us, and said
to us, "Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says the
LORD, IS it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire
ofBaal-zebub,thegodofEkron?..."'^7 He said to them, 'What kind of man
was he who came to meet you and told you these things?'^8 They answered
him, 'He was a hairy man, and was wrapped with a girdle of leather about
his loins'.[TODDD Tim "III? "limi "117(01M ETK] And he said, 'It is Elijah
theTishbite'.(2Kgsl.5-8)
In the LXX Elijah is described as an dvrip Socous KCU £covr)V SspMari vriv
Trepie^coaiJsvos TT|V 6GC|>UV OCUTOU ('hairy man, and was wrapped with a
leather belt around his waist'). In Zech. 13.4 false prophets are said to
'wear a mantle of hair' (")I?ftJ riTTK lED?^1 ), evidently to enhance their pro-
phetic appearance, perhaps even with the famous Elijah in mind. In the
LXX the passage reads 'they wear leather of hair' (evSuaovxcci Seppiv
The New Testament Gospels describe John the Baptist in similar terms:
'Now John was clothed with camel's hair, and had a leather belt around
his waist (evSeSupsvos Tpixocs KOCMTIAOU KOU £covr|v SeppaTivriv nspi
TT|V ba<|>uv auxou)...' (Mk 1.6; cf. Mt. 3.4). It is probable that this
description was meant to recall the appearance of Elijah. Of course, it can
be argued that this description reflects early Christianity's desire to cast
John the Baptist into the role of Elijah, the Lord's forerunner. But the
Lukan evangelist's omission of these details (cf. Lk. 3.2-20) and the fourth
evangelist's explicit rejection of the Baptist's identification with Elijah (cf.
Jn 1.21) suggests that such an identification was problematic in early
Christianity and in all probability was not the creation of the Church. Only
later, when competition with Baptist groups created difficulties, was the
identification with Elijah omitted or denied, in order to devalue John.
Moreover, the Markan evangelist does not say that John was a 'hairy
man', as in the LXX (avr|p Saaus) or Hebrew (IBV bV2 ETK), but that John
was clothed 'with camel's hair' (Tpixas KOC|JTIAOU). Only the 'leather belt
around his waist' (£COVTIV SepnomvTiv irepi TT|V bac|>uv CCUTOU) agrees
with the description in 2 Kgs 1.8. The reference to camel's hair points to
independence of the Old Testament description, which argues further for
the historicity of the Synoptic portrait of John. If early Christians had
intended to invent an Elijah-like description of John, then one would