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NASB | 2 Kings 2:9 ¶ When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Kings 2:9 ¶ And when they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." |
Bible Question:
Greetings in Christ Jesus, charis et al. Somewhere back down the line many years ago I came across the following definition of the "double portion". (If this has already been discussed in this thread I apologize for the redundancy of my post.) The "double portion" indeed was the inheritance of the first-born. But it was not twice the possessions of the father (this would be impossible--nobody can give away more than they actually possess); rather, it was two-thirds of the total inheritance. Now, if we take a "whole" and divide it into three parts, the one that gets two-thirds of the whole is considered to have received the "double portion", because in fact he has received twice the amount of the remainder of the inheritance. When I was a child I remember hearing men say that Elisha performed twice as many major miracles as Elijah because he received a "double portion" of his spirit. I think such reasoning is very superficial. I do not believe Elisha had "twice" the anointing of Elijah, nor do I believe he only had two-thirds of the anointing of Elijah. I believe Elisha asked for and received the inheritance of the first-born; i.e., even though he was not the literal son of Elijah, he became his spiritual successor--just as a literal first-born son would become the natural successor to his father. Oh well, this is just my 2 cents' worth--which is a double portion of one-third of three. :) Kind regards, Tim D. Cormier Tennessee Preacher |
Bible Answer: Hi Tim! So, just to play along, if there were 3 children, did the firstborn get: 50 percent (plus 25 plus 25) ie twice the amount of each? or 66 percent (plus 16.5 plus 16.5) ie twice the amount of both? That's my 6 cents worth (after compound interest!) PS Math is hard to relate when all math symbols are illegal characters! Blessings Curt |