John 1:21-23

1:21 So they asked him, “Then who are you? ¹  Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” ²  “Are you the Prophet?” ³  He answered, “No!” 1:22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Tell us ⁴  so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

1:23 John ⁵  said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight ⁶  the way for the Lord,’ ⁷  as Isaiah the prophet said.”

[1:21]  ¹ tn Grk “What then?” (an idiom).

[1:21]  ² sn According to the 1st century rabbinic interpretation of 2 Kgs 2:11, Elijah was still alive. In Mal 4:5 it is said that Elijah would be the precursor of Messiah. How does one reconcile John the Baptist’s denial here (“I am not”) with Jesus’ statements in Matt 11:14 (see also Mark 9:13 and Matt 17:12) that John the Baptist was Elijah? Some have attempted to remove the difficulty by a reconstruction of the text in the Gospel of John which makes the Baptist say that he was Elijah. However, external support for such emendations is lacking. According to Gregory the Great, John was not Elijah, but exercised toward Jesus the function of Elijah by preparing his way. But this avoids the real difficulty, since in John’s Gospel the question of the Jewish authorities to the Baptist concerns precisely his function. It has also been suggested that the author of the Gospel here preserves a historically correct reminiscence – that John the Baptist did not think of himself as Elijah, although Jesus said otherwise. Mark 6:14-16 and Mark 8:28 indicate the people and Herod both distinguished between John and Elijah – probably because he did not see himself as Elijah. But Jesus’ remarks in Matt 11:14, Mark 9:13, and Matt 17:12 indicate that John did perform the function of Elijah – John did for Jesus what Elijah was to have done for the coming of the Lord. C. F. D. Moule pointed out that it is too simple to see a straight contradiction between John’s account and that of the synoptic gospels: “We have to ask by whom the identification is made, and by whom refused. The synoptic gospels represent Jesus as identifying, or comparing, the Baptist with Elijah, while John represents the Baptist as rejecting the identification when it is offered him by his interviewers. Now these two, so far from being incompatible, are psychologically complementary. The Baptist humbly rejects the exalted title, but Jesus, on the contrary, bestows it on him. Why should not the two both be correct?” (The Phenomenon of the New Testament [SBT], 70).

[1:21]  ³ sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief. Acts 3:22 identifies Jesus as this prophet.

[1:22]  ⁴ tn The words “Tell us” are not in the Greek but are implied.

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Grk “He”; the referent (John the Baptist) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:23]  ⁶ sn This call to “make straight” is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.

[1:23]  ⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.