2nd Kings Chapter 2

22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Eli'sha which he spake.

23 And he went up from thence unto Beth–el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

25 And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.


Alright so God killed Forty-two Children because they made fun of Elisha’s bald head???? I don’t remember it being taught this way in Sunday School.

Seems a harsh punishment, don't you think?


[edit on 31-8-2004 by BlackJackal]

just a bit , maybe god was having a bad hair day or something

The vicious story of the killing (allegedly by YHWH the bloodthirsty clan god of post Exilic Israel) of playful young children( by wild bears, yet) as a direct punishment for their yelling "Baldy, Baldy" to a "man of God" (ish Elohim) is an example of a type of cause-effect morality myth we find in Jewish rabinnic literature which somehow found their way into the text of the Hebrew "bible" via the Elijah-Elishaq pericopes, which read like the same kind of pericope miracle worker literature that made up most of the "narrative" substance of the New Testament Gospels (little "pericope" stories with their own little beginning, middle and end, usually with a moralistic "punch" at the end).

A similar Canaanite cause-effect morality myth can be seen in the Wife of Lot story (where she turns towards Sodom and is transformed into a pillar of salt "to this day") or the socalled "Sin of Onan", and we all know what he did...and what the writers want you to think that YHWH did to him the next day !

One could say that the literary format for the Elisha narratives form a kind of like proto-Gospel Rabinnic literary genre of their own which the 1st-2nd century Gospel tradition used as literary models....

Interestingly perhaps, the Elisha narratives are all "northern kingdom" morality tales, and the gospel narratives also center around the northern part of Palestine, e.g. the Galilee for most of their "setting", and in many cases "Jeeezuz" is consciously made to out-perform Elisha (e.g. in John's gospel where each of the 7 "signs" of Iesous is meant to parallel Elisha, e.g. the raising of the Shunamite woman's son = John's story of the raising of Lazarus: the feeding of the 100 sons of the prophets = the feeding of the 5,000; the raising of the flying axe head in the Jordan = Iesous walks on water; the curing of the bowl of porridge = the changing of the water into wine story at the Wedding of Cana etc. ) almost as if the Johanine message was: Something Greater Than Elisha is Here" methodology or typology.

But reading the heinous Elisha story of the Bears at Sunday School might scar children, and you'll notice not too many teachers use that one to frighten young minds into worshipping YHWH or demanding respect to his priests and prophets, bald or not (not that there are any left any more, but I digress...)

Thank god he wasn't ginger.

The whole of Beth-el woulda gone up in smoke.

You people simply astound me
You all read things .... weird.. I dunno.. with an odd perception
For you to understand that text you first have to understand the religeon
God is inside you, The kingdom of heaven is inside you, Jesus is inside you.
Therefore, the story is showing you, what God (or yourself) is capable of doing in the face of tormentors or people who judge you before knowing you.

You look at things so morbid.. like OMG look what God did! hes soo mean
Not to mention that was the old testament, where things were VERY different than today
People lived longer, (a lot longer) people had "powers" things were just different.
Once you start relating all the religeons together you'll have a better understanding.. they all hold a piece of the puzzle
I wish I had the patience to actually explain things better, but no one will care anyhow.

(93) , 'Do not give holy things to dogs, lest they throw them upon the dunghill.

Amadeus is on the right road.

[edit on 1/9/04 by dnero6911]

let me type an excerpt from my study bible. its a NIV limited edition study bible from zondervan "the student bible" . notes by Phillip yancey and Tim stafford. ill type it word for word. copyright 1986.

2:23 BACKGROUND ON THE BEARS
at first reading, the brief account in these three verses is very troubling. A prophet calling on bears to maul children? But, in this instance, historical background and a precise translation help cast the event in a different light. Bethel was a hotbed of Baal worship, and its residents were engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the true prophets of God. When the youths called out, "Go on up, you baldhead!" [2:23] they were likely referring to what had just happend to the prophet Elijah- they were calling for Elisha to vanish into the sky, or in other words, to die. Furthermore, the word translated youths usually refers to young people in their late teens. In actuality, a large gang of teenagers was threating a prophet's life. Elisha cursed them, but there is no indication that he actually called for a bear attack. "

the little children . strongs little 06996 and children 05288 both taken back to their roots . little means insignificant and the root loathing. children means young, or retainer. so it can mean anything from young children to isignificant hateful retainers

Hi Dnero 6911

Don't give up the ship...you need to be VERY patient with the threadees here, most of them don't have the training to discuss most of what they talk about....but many of them can learn...!

While we're on the subject...Here's a slightly better translation of the proverbial (originally Aramaic) Logion placed into "Iesous" mouth in the Greek of Matt 7:6:

Don't throw your RINGS (Aram: Qedoshot) to dogs
neither toss your PEARLS at pigs,
lest rending them in pieces, they turn and attack you with them ..

notice the poetic parallelism (RINGS/PEARLS + DOGS/PIGS)

(The King James Version translated their fragmentary Greek texts literally, without due consideration of the Aramaic underlay with: "Cast not that which is holy (Aram: Qadoshot) unto the dogs..."...

You can imagine the level of patience I have to have on these threads!!!