4 Kings 2:9
And when they were gone over, Elias said to Eliseus: Ask what thou wilt have me to do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Eliseus said: I beseech thee that in me may be thy double spirit.
In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque transissent, Elias dixit ad Eliseum : Postula quod vis ut faciam tibi, antequam tollar a te. Dixitque Eliseus : Obsecro ut fiat in me duplex spiritus tuus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ διαβῆναι αὐτοὺς καὶ Ἠλειοὺ εἶπεν πρὸς Ἐλεισαῖε Τί ποιήσω σοι πρὶν ἢ ἀναλημφθῆναί με ἀπὸ σοῦ; καὶ εἶπεν Ἐλεισαῖε Γενηθήτω δὴ διπλᾶ ἐν πνεύματί σου ἐπ᾽ ἐμέ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְהִ֣י כְעָבְרָ֗ם וְאֵ֨לִיָּ֜הוּ אָמַ֤ר אֶל אֱלִישָׁע֙ שְׁאַל֙ מָ֣ה אֶֽעֱשֶׂה לָּ֔ךְ בְּטֶ֖רֶם אֶלָּקַ֣ח מֵעִמָּ֑ךְ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלִישָׁ֔ע וִֽיהִי נָ֛א פִּֽי שְׁנַ֥יִם בְּרוּחֲךָ֖ אֵלָֽי
Haydock's commentary
Double spirit. A double portion of thy spirit, as thy eldest son and heir: or thy spirit, which is double, in comparison of that which God usually imparteth to his prophets; (Challoner) or the power of working miracles, as well as of prophesying. (Worthington)
He wishes to excel his fellow disciples, rather than his master. (Tirinus) (Cajetan) (Amama)
Double often means, great and perfect, Jeremias xvii. 18. If Eliseus even begged that he might perform more and greater wonders than his master, (as Christ enabled his disciples to surpass himself, in this particular, John xiv. 12.; Haydock) he might do it without pride, purely for the glory of God. He certainly shone forth with peculiar splendour; and some have enumerated sixteen or twenty-four of his miracles, while they can only find eight (Lyranus) or twelve recorded of Elias. See Cornelius a Lapide, in Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 13. (Calmet)
We read a similar expression in Pindar, (Olym. vi.) where Neptune gave his son Jamus (Thesauron didumon mantosunas) "the double treasure of divination," p. 50. Ed. Step. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter XIV. 15-17
2. We are therefore to understand that he who loves has already the Holy Spirit, and by what he has becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by having the more he may love the more. Already, therefore, had the disciples that Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised, for without Him they could not call Him Lord; but they had Him not as yet in the way promised by the Lord. Accordingly they both had, and had Him not, inasmuch as they had Him not as yet to the same extent as He was afterwards to be possessed. They had Him, therefore, in a more limited sense: He was yet to be given them in an ampler measure. They had Him in a hidden way, they were yet to receive Him in a way that was manifest; for this present possession had also a bearing on that fuller gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might come to a conscious knowledge of what they had. …
St John Damascene An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Concerning Virginity
Noah when he was commanded to enter the ark and was entrusted with the preservation of the seed of the world received this command, Go in , saith the Lord, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives . He separated them from their wives in order that with purity they might escape the flood and that shipwreck of the whole world. After the cessation of the flood, however, He said, Go forth of the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives . Lo, again, marriage is granted for the sake of the multiplication of the race. …
Aphrahat Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations, Of Faith
16. Thus also Joshua the son of Nun divided Jordan by his faith, and the children of Israel crossed over as in the days of Moses. But know, my beloved, that this passage of the Jordan was three times laid open by its being divided. First through Joshua the Son of Nun, and secondly through Elijah, and then through Elisha. For the word of the Book makes known that over against this passage of Jericho, there Elijah was taken up to heaven; for when Elisha turned back from following him and divided the Jordan and passed over, the children of the Prophets of Jericho came out to meet Elisha and said: The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha . Furthermore when the people crossed over in the days of Joshua the son of Nun (it was there), for thus it is written: The people passed over, over against Jericho . …