Tishbe

AI summary: Tishbe matters because prophetic authority is still tied to human origin and place. The record belongs to the local world from which Elijah emerged into national confrontation.¹

Elijah the prophet was thus named (1 Kings 17:1; 21:17, 28, etc.). In 1 Kings 17:1 the word rendered “inhabitants” is in the original the same as that rendered “Tishbite,” hence that verse may be read as in the LXX., “Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbi in Gilead.” Some interpret this word as meaning “stranger,” and read the verse, “Elijah the stranger from among the strangers in Gilead.” This designation is probably given to the prophet as denoting that his birthplace was Tishbi, a place in Upper Galilee (mentioned in the apocryphal book of Tobit), from which for some reason he migrated into Gilead. Josephus, the Jewish historian (Ant. 8:13, 2), however, supposes that Tishbi was some place in the land of Gilead. It has been identified by some with el-Ishtib, a some place 22 miles due south of the Sea of Galilee, among the mountains of Gilead. ³