Luke 9:7-8

Herod’s Confusion about Jesus

9:7 Now Herod ¹  the tetrarch ²  heard about everything that was happening, and he was thoroughly perplexed, ³  because some people were saying that John ⁴  had been raised from the dead, 9:8 while others were saying that Elijah ⁵  had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had risen. ⁶ 

Malachi 4:5

4:5 Look, I will send you Elijah ⁷  the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.

Matthew 14:2

14:2 and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead! And because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him.”

John 1:21

1:21 So they asked him, “Then who are you? ⁸  Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” ⁹  “Are you the Prophet?” ¹⁰  He answered, “No!”

John 1:25

1:25 So they asked John, ¹¹  “Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, ¹²  nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

[9:7]  ¹ sn Herod refers here to Herod Antipas. See the note on Herod Antipas in 3:1.

[9:7]  ² sn See the note on tetrarch in 3:1.

[9:7]  ³ tn Or “was very confused.” See L&N 32.10 where this verse is given as an example of the usage.

[9:7]  ⁴ sn John refers to John the Baptist, whom Herod had beheaded (v. 9).

[9:8]  ⁵ 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.

[9:8]  ⁶ sn The phrase had risen could be understood to mean “had 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. The three options of vv. 7-8 will be repeated in v. 19.

[4:5]  ⁷ sn I will send you Elijah the prophet. In light of the ascension of Elijah to heaven without dying (2 Kgs 2:11), Judaism has always awaited his return as an aspect of the messianic age (see, e.g., John 1:19-28). Jesus identified John the Baptist as Elijah, because he came in the “spirit and power” of his prototype Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36).

[1:21]  ⁸ tn Grk “What then?” (an idiom).

[1:21]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[1:25]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And they asked him, and said to him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity, and the phrase has been simplified in the translation to “So they asked John.”

[1:25]  ¹² tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).