Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Mark

[Guy Guy]

Mark writes of an answer Jesus gives, when asked of Elijah,

“Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13 But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”

Most commentators reference this to John the Baptist, but Verse 13 seems to say there was a writing concerning Elijah (or John) being mistreated. Is this writing found in the Old Testament?

[jimwalton]

Malachi 4.5 speaks of the return of an Elijah figure. John the Baptist was not Elijah in the flesh (Jn. 1.21), but was Elijah in spirit (Lk. 1.16, 17). John preached repentance and reformation, as Elijah had done. Some scholars consider that John the Baptist was a type of Elijah, appearing during the first segment of Jesus's ministry, but that in the End Times a more complete fulfillment of the prophecy will come. In that sense John is Elijah. He led the Jews of his day through renewal to repentance, and was widely recognized as a prophet on the order of Elijah. His sufferings at the hands of Herod as bear some resemblance to Elijah's oppression by Queen Jezebel.