1 Kings 18 Obadiah and Elijah

Question

I am writing a short story based on 1 Kings 18, and I was wondering if the servant mention in verses 43 and onwards is Obadiah or not.

In verse 9, Obadiah refers to himself as Elijah's servant.

9 ‘What have I done wrong,’ asked Obadiah, ‘that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?

The servant that Elijah is with later on, however, wasn't named.

43 ‘Go and look toward the sea,’ he told his servant.

Are they one and the same, or two different people?

Answer 1

I agree with gwofatlanta's conclusion and would put it in even stronger terms - it is highly unlikely that the servant in 1 Kings 18 refers to Obadiah.

• Firstly, "your servant" was a common polite form of address in biblical times, and it is extremely common for it to be used in this non-literal sense.
• Secondly Obadiah is specifically described as a palace administrator (18:3), so technically,if anyone's, he would have been regarded as King Ahab's "servant", and he would have been using the phrase "your servant" non-literally.
• In order for him to have become the literal servant referred to later in chapter 18 and in chapter 19, verse 3, he would have to either: have been dismissed; have resigned; or have abandoned his previous position, and there is no mention of any of those things happening whatsoever.
• Finally as gwofatlanta has already argued after being mentioned by name in chapter 18, it is unlikely he would not continue to be identified by name in the later episodes of the narrative.

Answer 2

Probably not. This unnamed servant was left in Beersheba by Elijah ( I Kings 19:3). After naming Obadiah specifically and detailing his conversation with Elijah in the first half of I Kings 18, it would be unreasonable not to name him in the interactions with Elijah later on, if had been Obadiah again.