ABSTRACT
This chapter offers excursions into the effects and functions of the fantastic in other Hebrew Bible narratives in which fantastic elements arguably play an important role. The Elisha narratives speak more directly of ways of narrowing the gap between heaven and earth by means of magical assistance. The stories of Elijah and Elisha give us at least five instances of the prophet performing a fantastic-counterintuitive act without the previous consent or command of the deity, and many other instances of independent activity and sacred power. The interplay between the chosen people and other human groups in the fantastic event narratives is interesting, because the fate of Israel is not very different from that of other groups. Elijah's fantastic events stress human cooperation or reciprocity moreso than those of the Exodus narrative, and he often instigates them himself. In the fantastic events of the Exodus, the focus was on the deity's instigation and control of the fantastic.
