In the book of Kings, the contest at Mt. Carmel was one of the greatest turning points in the Kingdom of Israel. The contest was brought up by Yahweh’s only prophet left, Elijah, and it called for the Prophets of Baal and the people to call upon their God to set fire to a bull, and the successful God would be the true God. Also, that God would make it rain again after a three year drought on the land. But in order to understand the text better, one must first know its literary, historical, geographical, and religious contexts in order to get a better grasp of the meaning behind the contest and how it greatly affected the Northern Kingdom of Israel. For instance, the literary context of the story of the contest at Mt. Carmel illustrates the prophetic cycle, Elijah cycle, during the reign of King Ahab. The story is in the genre of a narrative since it has dialogue and characters; therefore, the narrator is all-knowing which gives a broader perspective to the story. In the historical context of the story, one must understand that the contest at Mt. Carmel happened
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Elijah set up the contest at Mt. Carmel so that the gods could hear them better. The prophets of Baal had to ignite a bull with the fire of the heavens, and after many attempts of crying out to Baal and slitting their wrists for blood, there was no sign of their god. Elijah, on the other hand, poured water three times on wood that mutilated bull sat on and called out to Yahweh, and almost immediately, God set fire to the bull. The people got on their knees and recognized Yahweh as the true God, and afterwards Yahweh sent in the rain to wash over Israel, and for the killing of the Baal prophets. “As in the conquest tradition, violence is approved by Deuteronomistic Historians when used against those who compromise the devotion of Israel to Yahweh” (Burnette-Bletsch, 1970, p.
Elijah set up the contest at Mt. Carmel so that the gods could hear them better. The prophets of Baal had to ignite a bull with the fire of the heavens, and after many attempts of crying out to Baal and slitting their wrists for blood, there was no sign of their god. Elijah, on the other hand, poured water three times on wood that mutilated bull sat on and called out to Yahweh, and almost immediately, God set fire to the bull. The people got on their knees and recognized Yahweh as the true God, and afterwards Yahweh sent in the rain to wash over Israel, and for the killing of the Baal prophets. “As in the conquest tradition, violence is approved by Deuteronomistic Historians when used against those who compromise the devotion of Israel to Yahweh” (Burnette-Bletsch, 1970, p.