Gehazi’s Active Post-Biblical Afterlife: Three Views

Gehazi the servant/disciple of Elisha appears briefly in the Bible (2 Kings chapters 4, 5, and 8). There he is depicted as both a faithful and caring servant, and as a villain who is punished. Gehazi has an intriguing post-biblical afterlife in the writings of Jewish and Christian exegetes from ancient times to the present, as well as being of interest for contemporary scholarship. This article considers three views of Gehazi, those based on biblical texts; those based on rabbinic comments; and then the views of contemporary and feminist scholarship.