Interpreter / Commentator in the Ancient Christian
Schools and Syriac Biblical tradition
from Isho'dad of Merv "Books of
Sessions I Kings 17.6"
It is taught:
when the priests, his brothers,
saw that Elijah had escaped the
anger of Ahab, they saved for him
a part of the food and bread reserved
to them, and a raven brought it to
Elijah through divine intervention.
The Schools say: A raven stole
the food from houses, inns, markets,
and peasants, since it is an impudent,
wild, and merciless bird by nature.
It has not natural love for its young
and does not feed them, but another
bird adopts them and feeds them.
Through this, the SCRIPTURE shows
that animals of such a nature performed
what God ordered them to do and provided
for the necessities of the prophet Elijah,
whereas the children of Israel, even
though they were endowed with reason,
did not want to observe the law of God.
. . .At the same time the fact that
Elijah was nourished by ravens, and
then that the wadi dried up occurred
through the mercy of God in order to
induce the prophet to pity and compassion
toward the people, so that his spirit
might relent and he might pray God to
send rain. . .Other authors say
the bread and the food were made from
the elements every day through an
angelic operation, just like the manna
had been made from air and the quails
from the sea, and just like the half
cake was brought to Paul the Anchorite
[Jerome Vita Pauli] and the bunch of
dates was brought by a lion to the
anchorite of the desert of Sodom
[Theodoret_of Cyr]. But the food was
not brought to Elijah by an angel as
it was brought to John the Baptist
[no extant commentary / gospel version]
nor by a man, as Daniel received it
by Habakkuk [Daniel 14:33-38 Latin
Bible verses] but by a raven, in order
to show that there is nothing impure
in the creation of God -- just as God
gave to Samson [Book of Judges 15:19]
water to drink from the Jaw of a donkey
-- and in order to signify at the same
time the abrogation / cancellation of
the prescriptions of the Law. According
to other authors, the angels were disguised
as ravens.
[included in Mario Conti Volume 5 in
ANCIENT CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE,
2008, published by IV Press, Downer's Grove,
Illinois, USA]
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