The article suggests that the story of the contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs 18:19–40) is a complete literary unit that was written by a single author in the early Persian period and inserted into the deuteronomistic story-cycle of Elijah. The story is entirely legendary and reflects the polemic of a devotee of YHWH against the contemporaneous spread of the Phoenician cult and culture. The attachment of the story to Mount Carmel may reflect the occasion of the establishment of a Tyrian/Sidonian temple on one of the mountain’s peaks, but this hypothesis cannot be verified. The story conveys a clear religious message of the absolute power of YHWH and the worthlessness of all other gods – in particular the Phoenician God Ba‘al – and of the fallacy of the belief in his divine power.

文章认为，在卡梅尔山（1 Kgs 18：19–40）上进行的比赛的故事是一个完整的文学单元，由一位作家在波斯早期撰写，并插入到以利亚的氘论故事循环中。这个故事完全具有传奇色彩，反映了基督教青年会的信奉者对腓尼基文化和文化的同时传播所产生的争论。故事对卡梅尔山的依恋可能反映了在山峰之一的山峰上建立泰里安/西多尼亚神庙的机会，但这一假设无法得到证实。这个故事传达了一个明确的宗教信息，即基督教青年会的绝对权力和所有其他神灵（特别是腓尼基神巴哈尔）的毫无价值，以及对他神力的信仰的谬误。