How common and accepted was it to pray to Elijah during Jesus' times?

Question

Matthew 27:

⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ⁴⁷ Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.

During our Lord's crucifixion, people thought he was praying to Elijah. Nobody asks "what is this man doing? Prayer is only to God!".

As some have commented, we do not know the faces of the people when they said that. They might have been horrified. Or they might not.

That made me think: was it common and accepted to pray to Elijah during Jesus' times? If so, did they pray to other people and angels as well?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

Here is what Abarim Publications has to say on the matter of this hotly contested and misunderstood phrase, eli, eli, lama sabachthani:

The familiar phrases ηλι ηλι λαμα σαβαχθανι (eli, eli, lama sabachthani) from the gospel of Matthew (27:46), and ελωι ελωι λαμμα σαβαχθανι (eloi, eloi, lamma sabachthani) from the gospel of Mark (15:34), are not simply Hebrew (Matthew) and Aramaic (Mark) equivalents. In fact, these lines pose such a mystery, and feature in such an important and Christianity-defining scene, that many an editor has set out to "redact" them to the point where it's no longer clear what the original(s) may have been.

What is still clear, however, is that this phrase obviously refers to the title (i.e. the opening line) of Psalm 22, which tells of the ultimate victory that will certainly follow any period of distress. In other words: to anyone who knew their Scriptures, Jesus cried out: "We're winning, boys, we're winning!"

With the reaction of the audience, who suggested that Jesus might be calling for Elijah and proceeded to taunt him for it, the authors indicated that even in his dying moment, Jesus was surrounded by buffoons who didn't know their Scriptures and also didn't know why the coming of Elijah was not a thing to cheerfully provoke (Malachi 4:5).

Indeed, if calling on Elijah could bring Elijah down then this is the description of that day (in part):

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. - Malachi 4:1

There have always been and always will be those who know the Scriptures and disbelieve them to the point where their knowledge becomes foolishness.

Answer 2

Deuteronomy 18:11 forbids consulting the dead. Saul did it anyway in 1 Samuel 28:15-16. I know that's different from simply calling out, in that any call to Elijah might have been "Elijah, ask God to have mercy" not "Elijah, give me information." But I can't find any instances of either consulting the dead or even just talking to them, among first century Jews.

Then, like today, Jews were not unified in whether they even believed in an afterlife. (Pharisees, yes; Sadducees, no.) We don't find much evidence of it in O.T.; the Samuel passage is the only part I can find. So if they didn't believe in or talk about the afterlife, they wouldn't talk to the departed.

I can't find any place where the Bible says no, 1st Century Jews didn't talk to the dead. I think it's because it wasn't something they thought of doing, so they didn't have to reject it.

The other confusion here is about English usage, not Hebrew belief. "Pray" in English used to mean "make a request," as in this quote from Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet speaks to her nurse: "I pray thee, chide not." Juliet is requesting that the nurse not raise a fuss; she is not telling her nurse "I worship you" or "I consider you divine."

English usage has drifted so that "pray" usually means "talk to God or some god."

If you translate the Hebrew into the old English usage, nobody would have said "Prayer is only for God!" because that's not what "prayer" would mean. In the new usage, nobody would have used the word "prayer" to mean talking to a mere mortal.

So how did they react? The next verse or so:

One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.

But the others said, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to save Him.”

Since this doesn't express horror at what was said but does express some possible sympathy and definitely sneering disdain, I'd say horror at a supposed doctrinal error wasn't on their minds.