Because the text is silent on her heritage, it leaves us to assume it from her location.
The beauty of Elijah first being fed by unclean ravens and then by a Gentile in her home is how it prefigures Peter's experience with the vision of telling him to eat the unclean animals and then visiting the Centurian's home. Forgiven_Sinner pointed this out on yesterday's thread.
But perhaps now we learn, thanks to you, the upshot of Elijah's adventure: just as the welcoming of the Gentiles resulted ultimately from Peter's epiphany, so Elijah raised Jonah from the dead to welcome the Ninevites!
“Because the text is silent on her heritage, it leaves us to assume it from her location.”
Heh. The text may be silent, but Jesus is not!
Luke 4:25-27 But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land. 26 Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
Jesus clearly implies the widow was a Sidonian and not an Israelite. That’s good enough for me!
The Phoenicians weren’t really bad people, although the Romans might take issue with that statement................Carthago delenda est..............