ELDAD ('Eldadh a Dio amò'). — One of the seventy elders whom Moses associated with him in the governance of Israel.
E. and Medad were absent when those around the tent, far from the camp (Ex. 33:7), received from Jahweh their investiture to office, with manifestations of mystical exultation (the prophetic charism: 1 Sam. 10:13; Acts 10:44-46; 19:6); but they too leapt into the camp at the same prophetic impulse. The strange occurrence was reported to Moses, who, invited to forbid this independent manifestation, almost a subtraction from his authority, replied: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” (Num. 11:26-30). A book of prophecies by E. and Medad is cited by the Shepherd of Hermas (Visio II, 3, 4).