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Matthew 17:11: Difference between revisions
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It is clear that the disciples did not take Jesus' explanation to mean that there would be another Elijah coming 2,000 years later. | It is clear that the disciples did not take Jesus' explanation to mean that there would be another Elijah coming 2,000 years later. | ||
==Why did John deny that he was Elijah?== | |||
There was a sense in which John was Elijah and a sense in which he was not. He fulfilled all the preliminary ministry that Malachi had foretold (Luke 1:17), and thus in a very real sense Jesus could say that he was Elijah. | |||
But the Jews knew that Elijah had left the earth in a chariot of fire without passing through death (2 Kings 2:11), and they expected that in due course the identical figure would reappear. None of the Gospels supposed that John was literally Elijah (see Mark 9:4; Matt 17:3; Luke 9:30). John was not Elijah in this sense, and he had no option but to deny that he was.<ref>Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 119.</ref> | |||
It is true that before John’s birth, an angel prophesied to his father, Zechariah, that John would “go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). John the Baptist denied being “Elijah” to counter the expectation (that was held by the Pharisees in his day) that the same Elijah who escaped death in a fiery chariot would return in like spectacular manner.<ref>Andreas J. Köstenberger, John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 60.</ref> | |||
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[[Category:Doctrines]] | [[Category:Doctrines]] | ||
[[Category:William Branham pointing to himself]] | [[Category:William Branham pointing to himself]] | ||