Research Project:
Donovan and I were on a study last week, and the man said he was reading the bible and stumbled upon 2 Kings 2:23-25, wherein Elisha calls down evil upon 42 children for calling him "Baldhead" and send bears to maul them.
The study was pretty cool about it, he said there must be some part of the account that he's missing. My short answer was that the people that Elisha prophesied to were wicked, by and large, and the fact that the children called him a name probably was not the singular reason they were killed. It probably had more to do with their parents' deeds.
We're going on the study again tonight, and I was going to research this after work (it sounds like something a "Questions from Readers" article would be about), but I wondered if anyone has come across this before. It's an interesting verse to explain to someone with an open mind.
Insight book: Baldness
Jehovah’s prophet Elisha was bald. After he had succeeded to the prophetic office of Elijah, he was proceeding uphill from Jericho toward Bethel when he was mocked by a mob of children who cried: “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” The primary reason for their jeers seems to have been not that Elisha was bald but that they saw a bald man wearing Elijah’s familiar official garment. They did not want any successor of Elijah around. He should either keep going his way up to Bethel or ascend in a windstorm to the heavens as the former wearer of that official garment had done. (2Ki 2:11) To answer this challenge of his being Elijah’s successor and to teach these young people and their parents proper respect for Jehovah’s prophet, Elisha called down evil upon the jeering mob in the name of the God of Elijah. It was a test of his prophetship. Jehovah manifested his approval of Elisha by causing two she-bears to come out of the nearby woods and to tear to pieces 42 of them.—2Ki 2:23, 24.
Insight book: Elisha
From Jericho, Elisha climbs to Bethel, about 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level, where he had previously visited a group of the sons of the prophets in company with Elijah. (2Ki 2:3) On the way, a band of juvenile delinquents comes out and shows great disrespect both to him and his office as prophet. “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” they jeer. They mean for him either to keep on going up to Bethel or to get off the earth just as his predecessor was supposed to have done. (2Ki 2:11) To teach these boys and their parents respect for the prophet of Jehovah, he turns and calls down evil upon them in Jehovah’s name. Suddenly two she-bears come out from the woods and tear to pieces 42 of their number.—2Ki 2:23, 24.
Great! "Juvenile delinquents" - man, I don't think I've ever seen that term in the insight book before! I mentioned something last week about how the isrealites killed literally every prophet, and how they must have had no respect for Elisha. Thanks!
i love this account. 42 kids?! that's quite a rampage.
This study went really well last night. Thanks to gameboy and funky for the articles. We read through another couple scriptures and the guy came to the right conclusion on his own. He asked so many good questions! They were kind of obscure questions, but still, it showed he was really thinking about what he was reading. He's also reading this "biblical" book by a recent author, that sort of shows "holes" in the bible and ways that it's unreasonable. But every time he brings up one of those points, we're able to show him other scriptures and he realizes how the bible harmonizes. And he said he might come to the meeting on sunday! I'm kinda bummed that I won't be able to go anymore - Donovan was assisting the conductor who's been on vacation the last two weeks, so I just went along with Donovan as he conducted. I'm praying for him!