1 Kings 17:18
1 Kings 17:1818“O man of God,” said the woman to Elijah, “what have you done to me? Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of my son?”
The widow of Zarephath's cry to Elijah — "what have I to do with you, O man of the true God?" — is not deployed in Watchtower apologetics, but the underlying Hebrew idiom (mah-li va-lak) matters because it governs how Jesus's line to Mary at Cana, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" (), is read. The rs book and broader Watchtower teaching take Jesus's line as a rebuke that repudiates Marian authority, even to the point of suggesting Jesus distanced himself from her. That reading depends on ignoring the Old Testament idiom pattern.
Use as one of the five Old Testament occurrences of the mah-li va-lak idiom: (Jephthah to the Ammonites), (David to Zeruiah's sons), (the widow to Elijah), (Elisha to the king of Israel), and (Neco to Josiah). In every occurrence the idiom signals distance of intent or non- alignment of agenda, not contempt or rejection. The widow of Zarephath has just lost her son and is not rebuking Elijah; she is saying her agenda and his are no longer the same. So too at — Jesus is telling his mother that his messianic timing is not set by her social cue, not repudiating her. The Greek ti emoi kai soi is a word-for-word Septuagint- style rendering of the Hebrew idiom. Watch what Jesus does in the next verses (): Mary gives the instruction ("do whatever he tells you"), and Jesus performs the miracle. No rejection occurred. Combine with — Jesus from the cross uses the same word gynai ("Woman") to Mary in the tenderest scene in the Gospel. The whole Marian-rebuke reading of is built on ignoring idiom.