Luke 9:19

9:19 They ¹  answered, ²  “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; ³  and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has risen.” ⁴ 

Matthew 17:10

17:10 The disciples asked him, ⁵  “Why then do the experts in the law ⁶  say that Elijah must come first?”

Mark 6:15

6:15 Others said, “He is Elijah.” Others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets from the past.”

Mark 8:28

8:28 They said, ⁷  “John the Baptist, others say Elijah, ⁸  and still others, one of the prophets.”

John 1:21

1:21 So they asked him, “Then who are you? ⁹  Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” ¹⁰  “Are you the Prophet?” ¹¹  He answered, “No!”

[9:19]  ¹ tn Grk “And they.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:19]  ² tn Grk “And answering, they said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “They answered.”

[9:19]  ³ sn The appearance of Elijah would mean that the end time had come. According to 2 Kgs 2:11, Elijah was still alive. In Mal 4:5 it is said that Elijah would be the precursor of Messiah.

[9:19]  ⁴ sn The phrase has risen could be understood to mean “has been resurrected,” but this is only a possible option, not a necessary one, since the phrase could merely mean that a figure had appeared on the scene who mirrored an earlier historical figure. Note that the three categories in the reply match the ones in Luke 9:7-8.

[17:10]  ⁵ tn Grk “asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.

[17:10]  ⁶ tn Or “do the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[8:28]  ⁷ tn Grk “And they said to him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[8:28]  ⁸ sn The appearance of Elijah would mean that the end time had come. According to 2 Kgs 2:11, Elijah was still alive. In Mal 4:5 it is said that Elijah would be the precursor of Messiah.

[1:21]  ⁹ tn Grk “What then?” (an idiom).

[1:21]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.