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In 1 Kings 19 we see Elijah finds Elisha plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. What would this have said about Elisha to the people of the time?

Note: I'm not looking for an allegorical answer about the significance of the 12 yoke of oxen, but for an understanding of how Elisha would have been perceived at the time based on this information.

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Do you mean in terms of socioeconomic status? – Soldarnal Feb 22 at 22:46
That he came from a wealthy family with a whole lot of oxen? – bmargulies Feb 23 at 2:24
@Soldarnal I mean how the people of the time would have understood it. Would they have just thought "he's from a rich family", or are there other connotations. Perhaps plowing with 12 yoke of oxen was today's equivalent of extreme tractor racing or something? – cdjc Feb 23 at 19:00

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I'm reasonably certain that 24 oxen is, well, a lot of cow. What can we learn from this? First and foremost, that Elisha's family or clan was well-off.

The entire Elisha cycle is a set of legendary stories with strong echoes in folklore all-over. (My book on the subject is not with me today, or I'd give the reference. Expect an edit in a week when I get home.) So you should expect to see details that are part of the art of story-telling. Some might even go so far as to say, 'tall tales.'

The immediate implication of all that beef is that it's a big deal for Elisha to throw all this over in favor of following Eliyahu. He is not some poor person with little to lose. (Though he is also not rich enough to get someone else to do his plowing for him.) It also suggests that he is a skillful, powerful, man. Controlling that much ambulatory hamburger is not an easy job.

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Sounds like you want to read an ancient text through a modernist lens, which is not the best approach. Elijah built a twelve stone altar on Carmel, picturing Israel. Oxen are also priestly animals - servants. Solomon's bronze sea was carried by twelve oxen, the twelve priestly tribes. Elisha's twenty-four oxen are no doubt priestly, especially seeing as they are slain and eaten. Yoking has to do with binding in Covenant (as Israel bound herself to false gods in Numbers, replicating the sin of the golden ox). Elijah calls Elijah from the Davidic Covenant to a new prophetic one (which explains why Elijah's narrative replicates many of the events in early Exodus). In a very real sense, like Paul, they are sent to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy, leaving the corrupted tribes and the priesthood behind. It's not allegorical. It's liturgical. Elisha was doing in miniature what God was going to do to all Israel.

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I'm having trouble seeing how this answers the question. Are you saying that, quite aside from the practicalities of plowing a field, Elisha lived his life in a symbol-driven way somehow? Could you connect the dots for me? – Monica Cellio Feb 24 at 4:16
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"through a modernist lens"? Quite the opposite! It's because I'm aware of my modern lens that I'm trying to understand what the people of the time thought, not what I might think reading it now. The non-allegorical note in my question was designed to avoid the sort of pontification present in this answer. – cdjc Feb 24 at 6:10
Monica - Every detail that seems insignificant is typological - like the description of the ingredients for the tower of Babel. The structure of this passage aligns with the rites in the Torah, and the shape of every Covenant document. It's not Elisha's work but the work of the Spirit, who also caused it to be recorded for us. cdjc - I can see your point, but you are still using a modernist lens. You've just put it on your other eye. Structure is the label on the tin when it comes to ancient texts. There's undertones of the Ten words here as well. – Mike Bull Feb 24 at 6:34
@MikeBull, a site-usage hint: if you put an @ in front of the person you're responding to, that person will get a notification. I didn't know about your reply until I happened to browse here again. (You can only do one per comment, though.) You should get a notification of this comment to demonstrate. – Monica Cellio Feb 25 at 15:06
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@MikeBull, are you saying that 12 yoke of oxen is somehow significant and therefore some divine force caused Elisha to use 12? If so, do you believe that anything that happened in the text was the result of human free will rather than divine will, and if so how do you tell the difference? Sometimes a plow is just a plow. 12 yoke seems quite excessive based on what I know of medieval (but not ancient!) plowing, by the way. I think the OP is looking for answers that go in that direction, not the allegorical interpretation in this answer. – Monica Cellio Feb 25 at 15:08
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