Elijah

Who is Elijah?

Elijah or Elias was a prophet and a wonder-worker in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab, according to the Biblical Books of Kings. According to the Books of Kings, Elijah defended the worship of Yahweh over that of the Canaanite god Baal; he raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and was taken up in a whirlwind. In the Book of Malachi, Elijah's return is prophesied "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord," making him a harbinger of the Messiah and the eschaton in various faiths that revere the Hebrew Bible. Derivative references to Elijah appear in the Talmud, Mishnah, the New Testament and the Qur'an.

In Judaism Elijah's name is invoked at the weekly Havdalah ritual that marks the end of Shabbat, and Elijah is invoked in other Jewish customs, among them the Passover seder and the Brit milah. He appears in numerous stories and references in the Haggadah and rabbinic literature, including the Babylonian Talmud.