Matthew 16:14

16:14 They answered, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, ¹  and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Matthew 17:10-11

17:10 The disciples asked him, ²  “Why then do the experts in the law ³  say that Elijah must come first?” 17:11 He ⁴  answered, “Elijah does indeed come first and will restore all things.

Luke 1:17

1:17 And he will go as forerunner before the Lord ⁵  in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, ⁶  to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”

Luke 9:8

9:8 while others were saying that Elijah ⁷  had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had risen. ⁸ 

Luke 9:19

9:19 They ⁹  answered, ¹⁰  “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; ¹¹  and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has risen.” ¹² 

John 1:21

1:21 So they asked him, “Then who are you? ¹³  Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” ¹⁴  “Are you the Prophet?” ¹⁵  He answered, “No!”

John 1:25

1:25 So they asked John, ¹⁶  “Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, ¹⁷  nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

[16:14]  ¹ 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.

[17:10]  ² tn Grk “asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.

[17:10]  ³ tn Or “do the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[17:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “And answering, he said.” This has been simplified in the translation.

[1:17]  ⁵ tn Grk “before him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ⁶ sn These two lines cover all relationships: Turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children points to horizontal relationships, while (turn) the disobedient to the wisdom of the just shows what God gives from above in a vertical manner.

[9:8]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.

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

[9:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And answering, they said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “They answered.”

[9:19]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[1:21]  ¹³ tn Grk “What then?” (an idiom).

[1:21]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).