Bald Heads & Piety

Today, June 14, the Orthodox and other eastern rite churches commemorate the Prophet Elisha. Like the Apostle Paul (according to consistent tradition and iconography), Elisha had a “hair loss” problem, which we know from the story of the boys who jeered at him, “Go up, you baldhead!” Elisha’s response, a curse, and the fate of the boys, does not sit well with Christian piety, understandably, and surely has to be one of those episodes in the Old Testament that kept the Marcion up at night until he came up with his heresy rejecting the God of the Old Testament that would allow such things.

In the Orthodox service books, surprisingly, even this episode of Elisha--the boys, and the she-bears--is mentioned. It would have been easy enough to just ignore it, but perhaps the compilers and writers of the various services over the centuries wanted to make sure no Marcionite would feel comfortable in church. Much else is said about Elisha as successor of Elijah, receiver of a double-portion of his spirit, his various miracles, so what follows is hardly the main theme of the texts, yet it is there, one verse within the Eighth Ode of Matins:

Checking the unruly wickedness of the young children, O Prophet Elisha, thou gavest them as food to blood-thirsty beasts as thou didst cry: Praise ye the Lord, and supremely exalt Him unto the ages.

This note of praise is the traditional part of the Eighth Ode, the refrain from the Apocryphal “Song of the Three Young Men” (in the fiery furnace). In this text, Elisha is seen as singing the note of praise, as also the other two verses of this ode end the same way, with Elisha joining the three young men in their song.

First, it may be significant that the compiler chose to put the incident with the young boys in the one ode that has a refrain from the Song of the Three Young Men, perhaps as a contrast between the taunts of the young boys and the praise of the young men—or “the three children” in furnace, as I have seen if numerous times in translation.

Second, and more to the point, the commentator speaks of the unruly wickedness of the young boys in describing an incident that we would reflexively want to describe as merely boys just getting carried away with name-calling.

Lacking skills in the original language, exegesis, and knowledge of patristic commentary on this Scripture, I can only note how it appears in matins, and not much more.

But the disrespect that is shown to one of the boys’ elders, who was also one of God’s prophets here, does remind me of other incidents of disrespect in the Bible, such as that shown by Ham to his father Noah, and even that shown inadvertently by Paul to the high priest Ananias. What it brings to mind, for me, is the notion of piety, in the sense of respect for the elders, the forbearers, those in an authoritative relationship to the defining traditions of one’s faith.

Elisha does seem to represent a supreme piety--in his following of Elijah and his fidelity to the great prophet’s legacy and to the precepts of the God of Israel in a time widespread infidelity and devotion to pagan gods and godesses, including Baal. He received it from Elijah as a precious inheritance.

If we just consider the respect shown to one’s elders, along with respect and honor given to one’s parents, we touch upon something fundamental to the well being of any society, I believe. Fundamental enough to appear in the Decalogue with respect to a generation respecting its forebearers, that is, honor to one’s father and mother. You can look at this issue of generational respect and piety from many different angles, and much could be said about it. For one thing, sometimes such piety actually can be a hindrance to the advance of the Gospel, and in many eastern cultures for a long time, and even with the Empire the Christian claims about Christ were seen as threats to traditional Roman piety towards the gods. Hence Christians were “atheists.” After all, Jesus seems to set piety upside down in saying one must follow him and “hate” one’s father and mother.

Obviously, this is hyperbole, but all the same one of the fundamental objections to Jesus is his lack of piety toward the established customs, or the traditions of the fathers of the Jews. But Jesus overturns piety because his is the true piety. In the Gospel that is most expressive of the tension between Christianity and Judaism as they emerge and diverge in the first century, that is, the Gospel of St. John, Jesus is seen as emphasizing a superior piety that he offers as a testimony to his authenticity: He shows filial piety toward the Father. He does as the Father bids. He does the work of the Father, and nothing else. He offers all his blood, sweat and tears to the Father, for his glory. In no other Gospel is the Father-Son quite so prominent. Jesus’s supreme dispute with the religious rulers of the day is that he is faithful to God, the Father, as his dutiful son, while the religious rulers are not. The filial piety of Jesus as a child is so strong a motif, that perhaps it is also part of the reason why in the Book of Acts Jesus is described in several cases as God’s obedient “child’ (Acts 4:30. Pais in Greek) or servant.

While piety can be an obstacle to the gospel, the loss of respect may also be an obstacle to genuine Christian renewal today, for we do not know better than our forbearers, for there is neither virtue nor goodness we now possess that wasn’t already know and lived in countless generations before us. Wrongheaded piety can be an obstacle to the Gospel, but a loss of piety and reverence in the end will lead to a foundation of sand.

In my younger days I surely had a false piety and also a lack of true piety for what warranted respect. The post-war generation knew better than its parents, it thought, and reinvented the world as it saw fit. But while we can disfigure the world, we cannot make it fit and flourish in any shape we choose. This impious reshaping, even if in response to hypocrisy and corruption, which we will always have with us in some measure, was doomed to failure, and its effects close in on our unruly wickedness. The she-bears of hell are hungry.

There is an ancient path, where the good way is, that the best of the Christian past shows us, if we have ears to hear and the humility to embrace it. It’s why we publish, regardless of whether we are deemed “successful” or not.

While quoting it will seem contrived, I admit, I state as simple fact that just minutes ago, after writing the previous paragraph of this post, I received a handwritten note from Touchstone readers with a donation stating: “My husband and I read Touchstone aloud and find it so encouraging. Whenever we feel discouraged by the world’s standard we go first to the Scriptures and then to Touchstone to find fellowship with others who are actively pursuing truth and piety in all things.” Yes, piety. As long as piety is not a cloak for idolatry (!), it can well describe love for the Body of Christ, throughout all generations, including the baldheads Elisha and Paul and countless others, a vast festal gathering, all singing, "Praise ye the Lord, and supremely exalt Him unto the ages."

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Comments

[James the lesser]

The text lacks the detail to be sure one way or another, but when I ran across the "Elisha and the bears" passage the first thing that came to mind was "street gang."