On Sunday we looked at a verse that would seem to clearly end all discussion on the matter. In John 1:21 we read, “They asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ And he said, ‘I am not.’” However, as several studious saints (including some children, I might add) observed, this verse seems to contradict the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:14 when He declared, “if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.” We did not have time on Sunday to delve into this question, but we have time now, so let’s explore this together.

First, we need to identify the specific question we are trying to solve. So far so good – we want to know, was John the Baptist Elijah or not?

Second, we need to marshal our facts. What evidence does Scripture give us to work with?

Here are the key passages in Scripture relevant to our question.

We begin with the promise of Elijah in the Old Testament:

Malachi 4:1-6

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts. “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

In this verse, we have a promise that a great day of judgment is coming (“the day…burning like a furnace,” v.1; “the great and terrible day of the LORD,” v.5.). A sign of this coming day of judgment is the sending of Elijah the prophet. His ministry was to be marked by a repentance that restored the hearts of fathers to children, and children to fathers.

We can connect this prophecy directly with the words spoken to Zacharias by God’s angel concerning the birth of John the Baptist. We read in Luke 1:3, 7, “But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.’ …’And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’”

Here we see that John the Baptist was declared to be a forerunner of the Messiah who would fulfill the promise of Malachi 4:6 for many and do so, importantly, in the spirit and power of Elijah. Interesting. So, John the Baptist is promised by the angel of God to be a prophet in the role of Elijah, but significantly he is not identified as Elijah reincarnated. This is the part when we say, “hmm…,” and keep digging.

Chronologically, our next passage is what we saw on Sunday when John is asked (John 1:21) if he is Elijah and he says he is not. So far, this harmonizes with what we already know – John the Baptist’s ministry certainly had the signs of the prophesied ministry of Elijah, and John even had the rugged, independent appearance and mannerisms of Elijah, but he was not actually Elijah brought back in the flesh.

So then is Jesus confused about the identity of John the Baptist? Why does Jesus say, in Matthew 11:14, “John himself is Elijah who was to come”? I think the answer is contained mostly in the context of Matthew 11 and the final piece of the puzzle waits for us a few chapters later when Elijah actually does show up in person.

Matthew 11 is one of the very human moments in the life of John the Baptist. He has been imprisoned for confronting Herod with the sin of marrying Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (Matthew 14:1-5). Sitting in jail, John is discouraged. So much so that he even begins to wonder if he identified the correct Messiah. A group of disciples is dispatched to ask Jesus again if, indeed, He is the promised One. Jesus first responds to the messengers with a list of the divine wonders He has performed that perfectly fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah, but then He turns to address the crowd around Him. In a touching affirmation of the ministry of John, despite his doubting, Jesus gives a tribute to the role that John played in redemptive history. He is identified as a prophet. Even more, he is identified as the great Messenger promised by Isaiah. Indeed, in superlative language, Jesus declares that among those born of women, there is none greater than John the Baptist. After all this, Jesus declares that for those willing to accept it, John is Elijah. This, then, is what Jesus seems to be indicating. John’s ministry was directly in line with the promised ministry of Elijah. In that sense, John fulfilled the prophetic role of Elijah. However, he did not have the complete prophetic results that Elijah will. For those who were willing to accept the ministry of John and turn to the Messiah, they experienced the blessing of having their hearts changed. Tragically, few did, and that brings us to the final set of clues about John and Elijah that takes place at the event known as the Transfiguration.

In Matthew 17 we read of the amazing moment when Jesus ascended a mountain with Peter, James, and John (the disciples, not the Baptist). At this point John the Baptist is dead, having been executed by Herod. While on the mountain we read, “He [Jesus] was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.” It is hard to imagine a more overwhelming sight to behold for a Jew looking forward to the culmination of divine history. It helps explain why Peter keeps putting his foot in his mouth throughout the passage. But notice that there, on the mountain, is the actual appearance of Elijah – the real Elijah. This motivates the disciples to ask Jesus, as they descend the mountain afterwards, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? (v. 10)” They are wondering why Elijah just appeared on the mountain and is not coming with them to fulfill the anticipated role of presaging the great judgment day of the Lord. Jesus answers them like this:

“Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then it says, “the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.”

Okay, we’ve got our facts gathered, let’s try to make sense of all of this.

Scripture is full of moments when the promises of God are seen in partial fulfillment, and then later are fulfilled in totality. Or, fulfillment begins at one point, but there is a delay in the full flowering of the results. These glimpses at future fulfillment are often referred to as already-not-yet theologies. That seems to be the best way to understand the relationship between John the Baptist and Elijah.

Was John the Baptist Elijah or not? John came preaching the message of the promised Elijah, about the true Messiah, at a point in time when the people of God should have received that message and should have responded with a massive national repentance. That’s what, from a human perspective, should have happened. But it didn’t. The people rejected John’s testimony, and persecuted John to death. They also rejected the Messiah, and persecuted Him to death. Thus, as Jesus said, in that sense Elijah has already come and been rejected. John the Baptist came, not as a reincarnation or resurrection of Elijah, but as a prophetic voice in the role of Elijah. It was not his ultimate role to be or fulfill all the promises related to Elijah. What this means is that, in the words of Jesus, “Elijah is coming!” We anticipate Elijah’s future prophetic ministry (possibly as one of the two witnesses in Revelation) that will indeed anticipate the imminent judgment day of God and the national repentance of Israel.

So no, John the Baptist was not the person of Elijah, but he did come in the role of Elijah. The first “coming” of Elijah looks forward to the full and complete ministry of Elijah at his second “coming” at the end of the age. Similarly, Jesus did not fulfill all the Messianic promises at His first coming, but will do so at His second coming.

What starts as a bit of a head-scratching question unfolds into a beautiful look at the spiraling of redemptive history, the drama of the Gospel, and the ongoing anticipation we should all have for the return of Elijah and King Jesus.