According to 2 Kings, Elisha was the prophet who succeeded Elijah. His name is generally pronounce e-LEYE-shuh.
23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
25 And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.
In case that’s not clear enough, here is the same text as rendered in the New International Version:
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
This was one of the stories that was brought to my attention by Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, and as it happened, I read that book shortly before I attended my Lutheran confirmation class.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I really liked Reverend Rodgers, despite whatever I might have believed or not believed about the religion.
But during one of the class sessions, I decided to ask him about this story as I thought calling down a curse in God’s name and having a couple of bears maul 42 young boys was a bit of a severe punishment for making fun of someone’s bald head.
His reply went something like this:
“I’m glad you asked me about that. And in the future if any of you have any questions about anything that you read or hear about in the Bible, I hope you’ll bring them to me.”
And then he changed the subject.
Not really the answer I was hoping for. So I didn’t ask him any more questions along those lines. Not even the one about Judas when we got to the Jesus stories. That’s the one I really wanted to ask.
What does Isaac Asimov have to say about the bears story in his Guide to the Bible? Not a thing. He just skips over that one, presumably because he’s more interested in the historical aspects of the Bible and there’s no way to tell if that story is historical or simply an invention.
What about John J. Collins in his Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Third Edition? He merely states:
“He curses small boys who jeer at him, so that they are mauled by she-bears (2 Kgs 2:23-25).”
And he goes on to point out that Elisha never fights for social justice and his miracles are amoral “at best”.
Not much of a role model then, is old Elisha?