1. The two apostles were thinking of Elijah's annihilation by fire of two companies of soldiers.
2 Kings 1:9-14
9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
11 Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
12 And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
13 And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
14 Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.
2. A further fine point: The Roman province of Judaea included the region of Samaria, though the Jewish heartland of Judah, which was part of Judaea, did not.
3. The Gospel According to John, I-XII by Raymond E. Brown (Anchor/Doubleday, v. 29, 1966). See page 309.
4. G. A. Smith suggests in his Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1915) that Bethany (house of the ship) and Bethabara (house of the ford) are names for the same place. The second place may also refer to the more northerly territory of Batanaea.
No comments:
Post a Comment