2 Kings 2.9-10.
First time I heard of a “double portion” had to do with food. You’re slicing up the pizza; you want two slices instead of just one; how come Dad gets two slices and you don’t? But no, that’s not what it refers to in the bible.
First time I heard of double portions in the bible, was in Sunday school. It was a lesson our overeager youth pastor taught us about the eighth-century
Elijah didn’t die;
2 Kings 2.9-10 KWL 9 This happened when they crossed the river:- Elijah told Elisha, “Ask what I can do for you
- before I’m taken away from you.”
- Elisha said, “Now give two portions of your spirit to me.”
10 Elijah said, “A tough thing to ask!- If you see me taken from you, this’ll happen to you.
- If not, it won’t.”
As
And after Elisha watched his master ascend to heaven, he got it! As proven by the fact Elijah performed seven miracles in the bible, but Elijah performed twice that number, a whopping 14. (True, one of ’em took place after Elisha died, when a corpse came back to life after touching the prophet’s bones.
Some years later I became Pentecostal. Unlike my previous church, Pentecostals correctly understand the spirit who empowered Elijah is
No, this doesn’t mean there were two Holy Spirits
Okay. For fun, let’s imagine one of Elisha’s students made this very same request of him when he was gonna pass on. Let’s say Elisha agreed. So theoretically, this student could’ve received twice Elisha’s anointing. Elisha did 14 miracles; Elisha’s successor could’ve performed 28 of them. Right?
So if this successor passed a double-portion anointing to his successor, a third guy, that guy could’ve done 56 miracles. His successor, 112 miracles. The next successor, 224 miracles. And so on, and so on.
A thousand generations later, devout descendants of Elijah’s anointing and Elisha’s double anointing, could potentially perform so many miracles, they’d do ’em by accident. Sneeze in an elevator, and everybody steps out totally cured of their allergies. Fart and everyone’s gastroenteric problems are gone. And so forth.
How sad, this Pentecostal lamented, that people didn’t have the faith to keep pursuing this “double portion anointing.” They could’ve doubled the miracles in the world with every successive generation.
How sad, I’ve learned since, that people keep repeating this old, and very stupid, Christian cliché. ’Cause it proves they’ve clearly not read the other parts of the bible, which clear up precisely what a “double portion” is. Heck, they’ve probably heard it explained before, but some mental disconnect keeps ’em from applying it to the Elijah/Elisha story.
Inheritance and double portions.
As I explained
One of these sons would hold the
It’s a lot of responsibility, but to give ’em an aid, they were granted two portions of the inheritance, not just one like their brothers. Or as it was also called, the “double portion.”
Nope, it wasn’t twice what the father left behind. Because that’s not physically possible. “I have 20 acres, but my eldest shall receive 40!” I mean, the father could predict his son might gain 20 more acres, through purchase or marriage or conquest. But unless God’s behind this prediction, it’ll come to nothing. And even so, he can’t deed 20 hypothetical acres. Nope; if the father had 20 acres and four sons, the land got divided into five portions of four acres each; three sons got four acres, and the birthright-holder got eight.
The Holy Spirit is indivisible, of course: Either we get all of him, or none of him. He doesn’t come in portions. God didn’t divide himself into pieces and scatter himself among all the prophets of Israel… and therefore Elisha would receive two pieces of Spirit. That’s bonkers.
So what’d Elisha mean by “Give two portions of your spirit to me”? He wanted Elijah to make him his birthright-holder. He wanted to be Elijah’s designated successor in his prophetic ministry.
Elisha, the new Elijah.
Elijah was the L
Well, Elisha wanted that.
Now, he could’ve asked for the birthright solely because he wanted the honor of the position. And if that were the case, the Spirit would’ve ignored his request. Only idiots or fakes wanna be prophets for the honor. Prophets serve. And real prophets learn from experience it ain’t that much of an honor. I mean yeah, it’s nice to be able to hear God… but considering how pagan our world is (and considering how pagan the kings of ancient Israel were, including the constant threat of death if you prophesied stuff they didn’t wanna hear), it’s a rough duty.
This is why Elijah’s reaction was, “A tough thing to ask!” Not because it’s tough at all for God to do; nothing is.
Much of the reason for this teaching about “twice the spirit” isn’t just because people are ignorant of the historical context. It’s because people love the idea of getting more of something—more of anything. It’s basic human greed. So we love this story, and never fact-check it.
And maybe we should fact-check it. You know the claim Elisha performed twice the miracles of Elijah? Okay: I simply plowed through the scriptures and listed every God-action in their stories. (And obviously I count God speaking to them, and their subsequent prophecies, among their miracles. ’Cause it’s not like hearing God isn’t miraculous.)
| ELIJAH | ELISHA |
|---|---|
| 1. Declared the rain turned off. |
1. Saw Elijah get raptured. |
| 2. Heard God’s directions to hide out in Cherith. |
2. Parted the Jordan. |
| 3. Fed by ravens. |
3. Cursed boys—who then got mauled. |
| 4. Heard God’s directions to hide out in Zarephath. |
4. Heard God’s instructions for a battle. |
| 5. Heard God promise to resupply the widow’s food. |
5. Instructed a widow how God would multiply her oil. |
| 6. God resupplying the widow’s food. |
6. Prophesied a woman would have a son. |
| 7. Cured the widow’s son. |
7. Raised her son from the dead. |
| 8. Heard God send him back to Ahab. |
8. Cured a stew of poison. |
| 9. Called down fire on an altar. |
9. Fed 100 with 20 loaves. |
| 10. Outran Ahab’s chariot. |
10. Instructed Naaman of Syria to wash himself of leprosy. |
| 11. Fed by an angel. |
11. Knew his servant had taken money from Naaman, and cursed him. |
| 12. Fed again by an angel. |
12. Made an axehead float. |
| 13. Heard God at Mt. Horeb (a.k.a. Sinai). |
13. Warned Joram of Syrians. |
| 14. Heard God send him to Horeb. |
14. Warned Joram of Syrians more than twice. |
| 15. Heard God again after Ahab mourned. |
15. Revealed God’s army to his servant. |
| 16. Heard God’s angel send him to Ahaziah’s messengers. |
16. Had God strike the Syrians with blindness. |
| 17. Called down fire on 50 men. |
17. Had God open their eyes back up. |
| 18. Called down fire on another 50 men. |
18. Prophesied the siege would be lifted. |
| 19. Heard God’s angel send him to Ahaziah. |
19. Prophesied the captain wouldn’t live to enjoy it. |
| 20. Heard God send him to Bethel. |
20. Prophesied a famine. |
| 21. Heard God send him to Jericho. |
21. Prophesied Hazael would succeed Syria’s king. |
| 22. Heard God send him to the Jordan. |
22. Sent a prophet to anoint Jehu as king. |
| 23. Parted the Jordan. |
23. Prophesied Jehoahaz would defeat Syria three times. |
| 24. Got raptured. |
24. (His bones raised a dead man.) |
It so happens each prophet winds up with 24 miraculous events. To be fair, the bible likely doesn’t comprehensively list every single miraculous thing they did; we have no idea how many times Elisha actually warned Joram about the Syrians,
Funny math abounds in popular Christian misinterpretations of scripture. Christians want so much to find meaningful coincidences, we’ll monkey with the numbers till we create one. I’ve heard people claim Jesus’s apostles performed exactly twice as many miracles as their Lord did in the gospels. I haven’t sat down and listed them, as I did with Elijah and Elisha—and it’ll get a bit tricky with the way the gospels overlap. But let’s put the bible aside for a moment and think about it: Of course the apostles should’ve performed more than twice Jesus’s miracles. Jesus ministered on earth what, three or four years? And the apostles ministered for decades. And there were more of ’em! Each with the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus. Each training others, just like Jesus trained them, to do as he did. See, all our lists only include the bible stories, and there are likely dozens, if not thousands, more miracles not listed in the scriptures. Certainly true when it comes to Jesus.
Yeah, we should of course see later generations do more mighty acts. We’re preceded by so many good examples; we should have way more faith than we demonstrate. It’s not a matter of doubling the power. Nor doubling the spirit, nor doubling anything; it’s not about math! Math is actually limiting. We might aim for achieving twice what our forebears did, yet the Spirit may want us to do ten times as much—’cause our forebears started late, slacked off, lacked faith, whatever. In certain cases the Spirit actually expects less of us—’cause our forebears burnt themselves out instead of multiplying themselves, and the Spirit wants more miracle-workers, not fewer people with bigger jobs.
If you wanna follow Elisha’s actual in-context example, do this: Get involved in a ministry like Elijah’s. Doesn’t have to be a prophetic ministry. Any ministry will do. Go assist the leader. Be helpful. Be useful. Be humble. Be Spirit-led. Develop those gifts and abilities that help the ministry, and grow
Christianity always suffers a shortage of humble leaders. If you wanna take on such a role, go for it.
