Abstract
This article seeks to discuss the connection between Luke's portrayal of Jesus and the Elijah-Elisha stories from Israel's Scriptures through the category of internarrativity. I define internarrativity as a special category of allusion; unlike intertextuality, which echoes specific source texts, internarrativity resonates within a whole tradition of storytelling witnessed by several texts but exhausted by none of them. Examining Luke's use of the Elijah-Elisha narratives in these terms yields fresh fruit: Luke invites readers to connect Jesus' story with everything they know about Elijah and Elisha, an invitation issued through Luke's strategic allusions. Once accepted, this invitation prompts readers to read Jesus' story with the expectation that he will resemble Elijah and Elisha, an expectation that Jesus' story sometimes confirms and sometimes confounds. Intertextuality allows me to examine three prominent characteristics of Elijah and Elisha (the way in which they perform miraculous signs, confront rulers, and anoint successors) as a template for reading Luke's story of Jesus, and find in it a model for ongoing Christian discipleship.
