34. John the Baptist was (Matthew 11:14; 17:10-13) or was not Elijah to come (John 1:19-21)?

(Category: misunderstood the historical context)

Matthew records Jesus saying that John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come, while John seems to record John the Baptist denying it. The reason for this apparent inconsistency is a lack of contextualization by readers.

The priests and Levites came to John the Baptist and asked him if he was Elijah. Quite a funny question to ask someone, unless you know the Jewish Scriptures. For God says through the prophet Malachi that He will send Elijah to the people of Israel before a certain time. Therefore as the Jewish people were expecting Elijah, the question is quite logical.

John was about 30 years when he was asked this question. His parents were already dead; he was the only son of Zechariah from the tribe of Levi. So when asked if he was Elijah who ascended up into heaven about 878 years earlier, the answer was obviously "No, I am not Elijah."

Jesus also testifies, albeit indirectly, to John not being Elijah in Matthew 11:11 where he says that John is greater than all people who have ever been born. Moses was greater than Elijah, but John was greater than them both.

So what did Jesus mean when he says of John "he is the Elijah who was to come"? The angel Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic) speaks to Zechariah of his son, John, who was not yet born, saying "he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous - to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:17)

The Angel refers to two prophecies, Isaiah 40:3-5 (see Luke 3:4-6 to see this applied again to John the Baptist) and Malachi 4:5-6 mentioned above, which says "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers".* * Gabriel unmistakably says that John is the "Elijah" whom God foretold through Malachi the prophet.

So, was John Elijah? No. But had the priests and Levites asked him, "Are you the one the prophet Malachi speaks of as 'Elijah'?" John would have responded affirmatively.

Jesus in Matthew 17:11-13 says that the prophecy of Malachi is true, but Elijah had already come. He says that this "Elijah" suffered, like he, Jesus will suffer; "the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist". Therefore, once we understand the context it is clear; John was not the literal Elijah, but he was the Elijah that the prophecy spoke of, the one who was to (and did) prepare the way for the Messiah, Jesus, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world", John 1:29.

In this alleged contradiction, a false dichotomy has been set up. Keener notes that later rabbis interpreted Malachi as saying that Elijah, who had not actually died (but was taken up in a whirlwind), would himself return. John was aware that he was the Elijah-to-come predicted in Malachi and told the Jews in John 1 something to the effect of "I am not Elijah in the sense that you think of it."

Support for this thesis comes from the fact that John presents the Jews in his gospel as being blind to the Scriptures. And with their mistaken notion of who and what the Messiah should be like, it is not unreasonable at all to think that they might be mistaken on the nature of the Elijah-to-come mentioned in Malachi. The Jews might have been thinking that this Elijah-to-come would be the "real live" Elijah of the books of the Kings physically returning from heaven, and John's denial was aimed at refuting the notion that he was the "real and live" Elijah.

It would have been interesting to hear John's response to the question "Are you here in the spirit of Elijah?" (A reader noted such a distinction in Luke 1:17: "And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah...")

In Hosea 3:5 and Ezekiel 34:23-24, the Messianic king is called "David" -- and this is the same sense in which John is properly called "Elijah" by Malachi 4.

Objection: And where in our Scriptures is it written that Elijah would be mistreated, as Jesus claimed (Mark 9:13)?

The allusion here is a midrashic one to 1 Kings 19:1-3, "And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there." Those who doubt such an application is possible should reckon with Jewish exegetical techniques of the period.