ABSTRACT
Elijah is among the greatest figures of the Old Testament; Jesus, of course, is the greatest of the New. A good body of recent scholarship has emphasized the way in which the Gospels portray Jesus as an Elijanic figure. This article exposits the figural relationship between Elijah and Jesus in relation to narratives of resurrection and ascension in their ministries and at the climax of their earthly lives. To do so, it draws extensively on premodern or precritical interpretations that are little known in present biblical or theological scholarship. By retrieving this classical exegetical tradition, light is cast on the biblical narrative portrayal of Jesus’s superiority over against Elijah. The latter appears as a prophet ever dependent upon the word and work of YHWH; the former is illuminated as the Lord himself in human flesh.
