Commentaria in IV Regum
He then adds that in these three chastity and holiness gradually increased to the highest degree: “For Enoch was translated,” he says, “begotten by intercourse, and begetting by intercourse. Elias was taken up, begotten by intercourse, but not begetting by intercourse. But the Lord was taken up, neither begetting by intercourse nor begotten by intercourse.”
Finally, Elias and Enoch are now candidates for eternity, and dwellers in paradise (either that first one, of which Genesis ii, or another like or better), confirmed in grace, says Francisco Suarez: and although they do not see God, and are not of the Blessed, yet they draw many lights and consolations from God; for they dwell as it were “in the courts of the house of the Lord.” Whence they are visited more frequently by Angels than other mortals, and converse with them. Hence also they live by the word of God, without bodily food and drink. For God preserves them incorrupt (as He preserved also their garments, as He preserved the garments of the Hebrews for forty years in the desert), sound, vigorous, lively, and rejoicing and exulting in their rank, state and office. For they give thanks to God continually that they alone, out of so many thousands of men, have been chosen to labour at the end of the world for Christ against Antichrist, and to convert the Gentiles and Jews, and finally to be crowned with glorious martyrdom, and who by their translation, incorruption and long life persuade men of the faith and hope of the resurrection, and in fact represent it.
Abulensis, Question XXIV, Viegas on Apocalypse xi, comment 5, Malvenda, book IX On Antichrist, chapter v, Henriquez, last book On the end of man, chapter xxiii, and others, affirm it. The reason is that they are still wayfarers, and since their beatitude is deferred, which has long since been given to others of their contemporaries, in place of this delay there seems to have been granted them the power of increasing their merits. Francisco Suarez, tome II on the third part, disputation LV, section 1, Pereira, book VII on Genesis, disputation On Enoch, Question V, Gabriel Vasquez, I II, disputation CCXVI, chapter i, and others, deny it. The reason is that their rapture is reckoned as a kind of death, in which all merit ceases: and because otherwise, by continually increasing their merits through so many thousands of years, they would surpass all saints in grace and glory, except the Blessed Virgin.
12. AND ELISEUS SAW HIM, AND CRIED: MY FATHER, MY FATHER, THE CHARIOT OF ISRAEL, AND THE DRIVER THEREOF.—
In Hebrew, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof; the Septuagint, and the horseman thereof; as if to say: Farewell, O Elias, my father, who wast the whole strength of Israel, and didst help Israel more by thy zeal and prayer than a great multitude of chariots and horsemen. So Procopius, Vatablus, Cajetan and others.
Whence the Chaldee translates: My master, my master, who wast better to Israel by thy prayer than chariots and horsemen. So also King Joas, visiting the dying Eliseus, cried out to him, chapter xiii, 14: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof.” For such after Elias was Eliseus.
Tropologically, Elias, that is, the teacher and preacher correcting the morals of the people, is a chariot: because by bearing with it he carries it: and a driver, because by exhorting he drives it. Hear St. Gregory, book II on Ezechiel, homily public and of the people, and directs, as a driver, the yoke-horses; he is driven, and presides, and at once bears and carries. Let the prince and prelate therefore be as a mother, who rules and carries the infant. Hence a prince in Hebrew is called nasa, as if to say, a bearer, a carrier, who lightens the burdens of the people. So Isaias ix, it is said of Christ: “Whose government is upon his shoulder.”
Morally, this signifies that if thou subject thyself wholly to the divine command, thou wilt easily obtain from thy subjects the obedience due. When Elias departs by a whirlwind into heaven, Eliseus cries from the earth: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof.” He calls him at once chariot and driver; chariot, which is ruled; and driver, who rules: to show that he had fulfilled the duties of an excellent prince, in that he not only ruled others prudently, but also readily suffered himself to be ruled by God Himself. Whence Lyra in his moral commentary on the first book of Kings, chapter ix: “The chariot,” he says, “which is led, is put first; and the driver, who leads, second: to show that he leads well by ruling who was first docile in obeying.”
Thou wilt ask in what year, month and day Elias was taken up into heaven. I answer, he was taken up before the end of the reign of Josaphat: for his deeds we have heard so far and shall hear in the following chapter, where, after the rapture of Elias, Eliseus prophesied in his presence. He seems therefore to have been taken up a little after the death of Ochozias king of Israel, which he himself had foretold to him in chapter i: for after that, his rapture is immediately subjoined in this chapter ii. Now Ochozias died in the second year of his reign, which was the 18th year of the reign of Josaphat, and the second of his son Joram reigning with his father, as is plain in this book, chapter i, verse 17, and in book III, last chapter, verse 52. Salianus, Genebrard and others assert that Elias was taken up about the 19th year of the reign of Josaphat, which was, says Salianus, the year 3439 from the creation of the world, 2162 after the rapture of Enoch, and 914 before the birth of Christ. With these the Hebrews in the Seder Olam, Josephus, Abulensis, Tornielli, Serarius and others nearly agree. In the year of Christ 1638, therefore, Elias has spent 2552 years since his rapture. Hence the Syrians, when they pray for someone a long and happy life, wish him the years and life of Elias. Gregory: “What is the meaning of Elias being called the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof, unless that the driver drives, the chariot carries? The teacher, therefore, who both sustains the morals of the people by patience, and teaches by the words of holy speech, is called both chariot and driver. Chariot, because by bearing with them he carries; driver, because by exhorting he drives. Chariot, because he bears with evils; driver, because he exercises the people with good admonitions.” Hence also St. Cyril in his Collectanea: “The chariot,” he says, “signifies the lofty and enlightened manner of life of Elias.” Again St. Ambrose, Politically, “the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof” is the prince, who, like a chariot, sustains the burdens of the Republic. Finally, Elias was in many things a type of Christ, as the Fathers show, especially St. Cyprian, book On the Holy Spirit, and St. Augustine, sermon 201 On the Seasons, and from them exactly our Salianus, in the year of the world Eliseus succeeded Elias, a disciple worthy of so great a master, being forty years old; who prophesied for 66 years under six kings of Juda, namely under Josaphat, Joram, Ochozias, Athalia, Joas and Amasias (contemporary with whom were Jehu, Joachaz and Joas, reigning in Israel), and died in the 106th year of his age, which was the eighth year of King Amasias, of the world 3204, 849 before Christ, as Salianus teaches from St. Cyril, book Against Julian, and Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Stromata, in the year of the world just mentioned, scholium 4. Moreover St. Epiphanius, in the Life of Eliseus, says that on the day on which Eliseus was born, the golden calf cast by Jeroboam uttered a voice so loud that it was heard at Jerusalem, whereby it was signified that on that day there was born the child who would overthrow the golden calves and the other idols.
AND (Eliseus) TOOK HOLD OF HIS OWN GARMENTS, AND RENT THEM IN TWO PIECES,—as a sign of mourning, because he was bereaved of so great a master, namely Elias, by his rapture. For this rapture was to Eliseus like a death: for it deprived him of the accustomed instruction, conversation and consolation of Elias. By the rending of his garment, therefore, Eliseus mourned the departure of Elias, and thence his own bereavement and solitude.