Elisha ben Abuyah (Hebrew: אלישע בן אבויה) (spelled variously, including Elisha ben Avuya) was a rabbi and Jewish religious authority born in Jerusalem sometime before 70 CE. After he adopted a worldview considered heretical by his fellow Tannaim and betrayed his people, the rabbis of the Talmud refrained from relating teachings in his name and referred to him as the "Other One" (אחר, Acher). Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, writing in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906), says that "it is almost impossible to derive from rabbinical sources a clear picture of his personality, and modern historians have differed greatly in their estimate of him. According to Grätz, he was a Karpotian Gnostic; according to Siegfried, a follower of Philo; according to Dubsch, a Christian; according to Smolenskin and Weiss, a victim of the inquisitor Akiba."
Read more about Elisha Ben Abuyah: Youth and Activity, The Four Who Entered The Pardes, Analysis of The Talmud's Account, Elisha An "Epicurean", Elisha's Place in The Mishna Tree
Famous quotes containing the words elisha and/or ben:
“...some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!””
—Bible: Hebrew, 2 Kings 2:23.
Elisha--proving that baldness has been a source of sensitivity for centuries, Elisha cursed them and they died.
“For of fortunes sharp adversitee
The worst kynde of infortune is this,
A man to han ben in prosperitee,
And it remembren, whan it passed is.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)