Commentaria in III Regum
4. HE TOOK A HUNDRED PROPHETS, AND HID THEM.—Abulensis thinks these prophets were prophets properly so called. More plainly Lyranus and Cajetan judge that they were religious men, who, having renounced earthly cares, dwelling together apart, devoted themselves to divine praises, as Cenobites now do. In like manner we read in 1 Kings 19:20 that a choir of prophets with Samuel and Saul praised God not only with the voice in song, but also with musical instruments. So Heman and Idithun are said to have “prophesied,” that is, sung psalms on harps and psalteries, 1 Paralipomenon 25.
18. I HAVE NOT TROUBLED ISRAEL, BUT THOU AND THY FATHER’S HOUSE, WHO HAVE FORSAKEN THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD, AND HAVE FOLLOWED BAALIM,—namely the idols and gods of the nations. See here the freedom of Elias, who throws in the face of King Achab the guilt and the cause of the drought and famine brought on by himself. Lucifer of Cagliari did the same in his letters and written books to the Arian Emperor Constantius.
19. GATHER UNTO ME ALL ISRAEL TO MOUNT CARMEL, AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY, AND THE PROPHETS OF THE GROVES FOUR HUNDRED.—Elias asked this in order to slay them all; and, they being slain, to cut off likewise the idols of Baal, and of the “groves,” that is of the other gods who were worshipped in woods and groves. There were therefore in all 850 false prophets, or false teachers of heresy and idolatry; all of whom Elias slew, partly by himself, partly by the people. For although the Baalites alone are sometimes named as the chief, yet it is plain that the rest were also slain, from chapter 19, verse 1.
23. AND I WILL DRESS THE OTHER BULLOCK,—“dress,” that is, sacrifice. For the highest and noblest work that man does is sacrifice. So Virgil:
When I shall do (that is, sacrifice) a calf for the harvest, let him come himself.
24. THE GOD THAT SHALL ANSWER BY FIRE, LET HIM BE GOD—who, namely, shall send down fire from heaven upon the victim offered to him. For by this very thing he will show that he is Lord of fire as of heaven, and that that sacrifice is his, that is, true and divine. For God was wont to appear in fire, and by fire sent from heaven to consume the sacrifices offered to Him, as He did in the sacrifice of Abel, Genesis 4:4; of Aaron, Leviticus 9:24; of David, 1 Paralipomenon 21:26; of Gedeon, Judges 6:21; of Manue, Judges 13:20, and of others. For fire represents the majesty of God. Whence in Deuteronomy 4:24 Moses says to the Hebrews: “The Lord thy God is a consuming fire.” For fire is a symbol of chastity and purity, as of divine efficacy, as I showed by 17 analogies on Leviticus 9:23. Hence also the Holy Spirit descended in the form of fire upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2. See what was said there.
And this the people knew, and had heard it both from the Scriptures and from the Levites; whence they at once cried out, and said: “A very good proposal.” For this controversy about the true God was to be decided by a miracle, as God here suggested to Elias, because Achab, Jezabel and the Baalites were obstinate in the worship of Baal, and admitted to their ears no arguments to the contrary.
26. AND THEY TOOK THE BULLOCK WHICH HE GAVE THEM, AND DRESSED IT,—that is, sacrificed it to Baal. The Rabbis relate, or rather after their manner fable (as Lyranus and Abulensis testify), that this bullock fled from the Baalites to Elias, as one that disdained to be sacrificed to Baal, and wished to be sacrificed by Elias to the true God, that by this prodigy the people might perceive that Baal is not God, and return to the true God whom Elias worshipped.
AND THEY LEAPED OVER THE ALTAR THAT THEY HAD MADE.—So also the Septuagint; but the Hebrew and the Chaldee have, which he had made, namely Elias, say Serarius and Sanchez, who think that the Baalites here insulted the altar of Elias, and by leaping demolished it, and that therefore a little after, verse 30, Elias repaired it. The Chaldee favours this, translating: They raged over the altar which he had made, namely Elias. But verse 30 rather signifies the contrary, namely that Elias had not yet erected his altar.
Wherefore Vatablus explains the Hebrew “which he had made” by understanding one of them, namely of the Baalites, or their leader, King Achab. The Baalites therefore leaped about disorderly like madmen, as the Chaldee translates, when they saw that Baal, called upon by them, did not answer; both from shame and anxiety lest they should be badly punished by Elias, as in fact soon befell them; and to appease, move and as it were compel Baal to answer by this anxious leaping of theirs: for by this gesture they signified their zeal and devotion toward Baal and his altar, as though they wished themselves to become victims, and to immolate themselves to Baal on the altar, and therefore, cutting themselves with lancets, they bloodied the altar with their blood, as follows. Similar leaps and disorderly gestures, after the manner of bacchantes, were performed by the Corybantes, Luperci and Salii among the Romans. So Salian, Vatablus and others.
27. AND PERHAPS HE IS TALKING,—conversing with someone, so that he cannot attend to your prayers.
OR IS IN AN INN,—to eat, drink and feast. For the Gentiles thought that the gods, like men, eat and drink, and feed on nectar and ambrosia. Whence Homer, Iliad 2, brings in Jupiter among the Egyptians and Ethiopians feasting with the other gods.
28. AND THEY CUT THEMSELVES AFTER THEIR MANNER WITH KNIVES AND LANCETS,—to offer and sacrifice themselves and their blood to Baal, and so move him to answer. The same was done by the Syrians, Greeks and Romans, as Apuleius, book 8, Lucian in On the Syrian Goddess, and Plutarch, in the book On Superstition, testify. Hear Lactantius, book 1 On False Religion, chapter 21: “Other sacrifices of valour (virtus), which they also call Bellona, in which the priests themselves sacrifice not with another’s but with their own blood. For with their shoulders cut, and drawing naked swords in both hands, they run, are carried away, rave.” Of this Tibullus, where he brought in a woman sacrificing:
With a two-edged axe she herself fiercely cuts her own arms, and, with blood poured out, foolishly sprinkles the Goddess.
And she stands, her side pierced with a spit, she stands, her breast wounded, and sings the events which the great Goddess stirs.
Clearly the demon, the ape of God and envious of man, rejoices in divine honours, and therefore wishes to be propitiated with human blood as if he were God; and so at the same time he torments, wounds and often kills men whom he hates.
to those praising and invoking Baal. In Chaldee, raging.
30. HE REPAIRED (Elias) THE ALTAR (of the Lord) THAT WAS BROKEN DOWN. Abulensis, Question 27, thinks this altar was first erected by Saul, 1 Kings 15:12, but Saul there erected a triumphal arch, not an altar. I say therefore that Elias, to call the people away from the altar and worship of Baal, had already before, by God’s instinct, erected an altar on Mount Carmel, and had called the people together to it to sacrifice on it to the true God: wherefore Jezabel and the Baalites, indignant at Elias, had destroyed this altar of his; and Elias here again erected and restored it.
31. AND HE TOOK TWELVE STONES ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE TRIBES OF THE SONS OF JACOB.—For the twelve sons of Jacob, through their sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, made up the 49 tribes of Israel. Elias did this to show that he worshipped the true God and sacrificed to Him, whom Jacob and the other Patriarchs and the ancient Israelites had worshipped, and that therefore the present Israelites also, as their posterity, ought to follow the same steps and worship the same God. Whence it is added:
TO WHOM THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME, SAYING: ISRAEL SHALL BE THY NAME.—Aptly, as if to say: As Jacob, wrestling with God (that is, with the Angel, God’s vicegerent) and prevailing over him who allowed it, was called Israel, that is, ruling with God, Genesis 32, so likewise you, if you imitate the faith and worship of the true God of your Patriarch Jacob, you shall become true Israelites, that is, ruling with God, and you shall obtain all that you ask of Him: and that you may do this, behold: Israel, that is, God will rule in this my sacrifice, by fire sent from heaven upon it, and will lay the Baalites low: for although they too, by the help of their Baal, that is of the demon, could have sent down fire from heaven upon their bullock (for Antichrist will do this by the help of the demon, Apocalypse 13:13), yet Elias knew by God’s revelation that God would not permit it, so as to confound Baal and show Himself the only true God.