Dieric Bouts - Prophet Elijah in the Desert - WGA03015

Tishbite is a

demonym A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...

predicated of the Prophet Elijah in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. Scholars dispute the precise denotation of the word. The words of

1 Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the books ...

17:1 are usually rendered as "Elijah the Tishbite of

Tishbe Tishbe, sometimes transliterated as Thisbe, is a town mentioned in the Hebrew Bible's First Book of Kings, , as the residence and possibly even birthplace of the Prophet Elijah, known as the Tishbite (see that page for discussion of the term). It ...

Gilead Gilead or Gilad (; he, גִּלְעָד ''Gīləʿāḏ'', ar, جلعاد, Ǧalʻād, Jalaad) is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> Th ...

". As translated into English, ''Tishbite'' is the demonym for

: the demonym is predicated of the prophet to denote that his residence or possibly his

birthplace The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...

was Tishbe. Alternatively, the words of 1 Kings 17:1 could be rendered as "Elijah the dweller from among the inhabitants in Gilead", because in that verse "Tishbite" and the word denoting inhabitants are very similar. ''

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible ''The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible'', generally known as ''Strong's Concordance'', is a Bible concordance, an index of every word in the King James Version (KJV), constructed under the direction of James Strong. Strong first published h ...

'' states that the word denotes a dweller, especially as distinguished from a native resident, but not an outlandish dweller, or a temporary inmate or lodger;''Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible'', Old Testament, Number 8453. essentially it denotes a resident alien. The Concordance indicates that the word is used to denote a sojourner nine times, a stranger three times, a foreigner once, and an inhabitant once. The most frequent use of the word is in

Leviticus 25 Twenty-Five or 25 may refer to: *25 (number), the natural number following 24 and preceding 26 * one of the years 25 BC, AD 25, 1925, 2025 Music * ''Twenty Five'' (album), a 2006 greatest hits album by George Michael ** ''Twenty Five'' (DVD), re ...

, which states

sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work. The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...

and jubilee year requirements. The denotation of sojourner is found in Leviticus 25:23, 35, 40 and 47, and the denotation of stranger in Leviticus 25:6, 45 and 47—a total of seven instances.

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...

is mentioned as a sojourner in

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

23:4 and

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and "our fathers" are described as "sojourners" in Psalm 39:12. These other instances of the word in question support this alternative reading for "Tishbite", such that 1 Kings 17:1 would not assert that Tishbe was the residence or birthplace of Elijah.

References

Hebrew Bible places Elijah Gilead {{Tanakh-stub