Is the giving of Elijahs mantle and a double portion of spirit to Elishua prophetic of Jesus / Yehshua's baptism?

Question

Something I noticed recently is that the Hebrew names of the old testament prophet Elishua and New Testament Messiah - Yehshua (Jesus) are essentially variations of the exact same Hebrew statement. Yeh'Shua has an identical meaning the only difference is instead of the generic word for God "EL" at the beginning his name starts with YEH (or Jo) prefix for the Tetragrammaton name of God (YHWH / Jehovah / Yahweh). Both meaning "Gods salvation"

This on its own would not be enough to draw any conclusions as the name is also used elsewhere (eg Joshua) but as the the prophet Elijah (whos name means 'MY God YHWH') has always been prophetically associated with John the Baptist and was prophecised to come before the Messiah I decided to take a closer look. The link between Elijah and John the baptist is stated in new testament scriptures (Mark 9:11 Matt 17:10) and usually stated to be prophecised in the Old testament in the book of Isaiah (40:3) and Malachi (4:5).

In isaiah 40:3-5 the interesting thing was when I read the verses before this. From the start of Isaiah 40 which prophecises John there is additional information which seems to be directly reference the "double portion" blessing. Elsewhere in scripture the "double portion" is related to being the "first born son".

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

It then immidiately goes into the prophecy linked to John the Baptist.

A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord[a]; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.[b] Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.

The double portion blessing is also mentioned again in Isaiah 61 which Jesus reads from directly in Luke 4:21 saying he is the fulfillment of the prophecy. See Isaiah 61:7

Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.

With this in mind my final question: Is the prophet Elijah ('My God YWHW') giving his mantle and a double portion blessing at the River Jordan to the prophet Elishua ('Gods Salvation') in 2 Kings 2 a prophetic foretelling of Jesus Baptism in the Jordan river in Matt 3:13 where God sends the Holy Spirt upon Jesus ?

I would be interested to hear others opinions - especially any insight into the actions and symbology that take place between Elijah and Elishua in 2 Kings 2 and if there are any other scriptures that would support or disagree with this line of thinking.

Answer 1

I would be very cautious about such conclusions for the following reasons:

• "Elisha" = God is my salvation; Yehoshua (= "Jesus") = Jehovah is my salvation. They are different names.
• Jesus Christ is not the only person in the Bible with that name, for example:

Other people with the name "Jesus"

• Joshua, leader of the Israelites, Moses' successor: Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8.
• Jesus, son of Eliezer, one of Christ's ancestors: Luke 3:29.
• Jesus Barabbas; see Βαραββᾶς Matthew 27:16f (where manuscripts mentioned by Origen, and some other authorities, place Ἰησοῦν before Βαραββᾶν, approved by Fritzsche, DeWette, Meyer, Bleek, others; (cf. WH Appendix and Tdf.s note at the passage; also Treg. Printed Text, etc., p. 194f)), Matthew 27:20f, 26; Mark 15:7, 11, 15; Luke 23:18; John 18:40.
• Jesus, surnamed Justus, a Jewish Christian, an associate with Paul in preaching the gospel: Colossians 4:11.

According to the OP's suggestion, should we take all these people as having a hermeneutical link to Jesus Christ?

I believe not.

Answer 2

Your question is magnificent, because John The Baptist is truly the one that is said the following:

23 Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. (KJV)

However Jesus, as a Rabbi (kaballist) he uses the meaning in the exact way they are, so, if we analyse the name John in hebrew, we will have the following:

יוֹחָנָן or even יְהוֹחָנָן‎

But when we look to the word חָנָן we observe that it means "gracious" which means someone that John is the one who possess grace, so G'd is gracious as it says: יוֹ or even יְהוֹ since both set of letters appear in the name of G'd with four letters יהוה‎, but not only this, according to kaballah, one of the ten sefirot that are part of G'd is the חסד which is the property of grace or even love.

Another mention of John is (John 21:20):

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” (KJV)

But not only that, the church wasn't given by Peter directly but it was John (Eliahu) who was the commanded by G'd to sent the message, because the same happened in Judaism through Eliahu the mysticism of Torah was fully transmitted to Shimon. The same way it happened in Christianity.

The fact that a double portion will be given to John, actually it will be given to all that:

(...) will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. (Isaiah 61:6) (NIV)

So it doesn't say explicitly John, even though this can be deduced. In Kings 2:10 we read:

10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.” (NIV)

Then, by this, we understand that treating John of spirit as a prototype in heavens that is projected on earth with a body and soul, we comprehend that it's possible to admit that Elija (Eliahu or even John) will have indeed a "double portion of your spirit".

Here, we are not saying all John's will be saved, but we say the Elija, the model of John in the World to come for those that fulfill the role to be him will earn a double portion of the Holy Spirit.