Was John the Baptist Elijah reincarnated (Malachi 3:1; 4:5)?

They press him further as to whether he is Elijah (v. 21), no doubt with Malachi 4:5 in mind. “I am not” is his curt answer. If this seems contrary to the Lord's words in Matthew 11:4, the answer is that, though in a spiritual sense John was Elijah (that is, a prophet of similar spirit and power — Luke 1:17), yet the Jews had thoughts of a literal re-incarnation, which was not by any means true: John was not personally Elijah.

Elias. — A word here about the prophet Elijah will not be out of place. The Jews looked for his coming in accordance with the prediction of Mal. 4:5. And evidently this, which was the teaching of the scribes, was used to nullify the Lord's claim to be the Christ. For clearly the prophet Elijah had not reappeared before the Lord began His ministry. Now this matter created a difficulty for the Lord's disciples, which they could not solve. The Lord, the Messiah, was here; but Elijah, the prophet, had not come. Were the scribes wrong in their teaching? therefore asked Peter, James, and John, as they came down from the mount, where the Father's voice they had heard, bearing witness to His Son (Matt. 17:10). The difficulty was connected with the truth of the two advents, which as yet the disciples did not understand. The Lord came in humiliation. He will come again in power and glory. A forerunner preceded the first advent. A forerunner will appear before the second. The Lord then replied to the question of the disciples: "Elias indeed comes, and shall restore all things. But I say to you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but did to him whatsoever they listed" (Matt. 17:11-12). The scribes were right as to the coming of Elias. He will come, and restore all things. Nothing like that, however, has yet been witnessed down here. John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of Elias, could not be said to have done that. He was, however, the forerunner for that day, as we learn how, on another occasion, the Lord said, "If ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come" (Matt. 11:14). Nevertheless, before the advent in power Elijah will reappear. How this will be brought about it is not for us to speculate. God will fulfil His word, and it will then be made plain. John could therefore say that he was not Elias. And in confirmation of this it should be observed, that whilst the Lord applies a prophecy of Malachi (3:1) to John the Baptist, he never quotes Mal. 4:5 as referring to him. Now the only passage in which Elijah is mentioned by name in Malachi is never quoted with reference to John the Baptist. The inference, therefore, is clear, — John was the messenger sent before the face of Christ, as Mal. 3:1 had foretold but he was not Elijah of Mal. 4:5.

Again they miss entirely His words as to His resurrection, but ask about the teaching of the scribes that Elias (Elijah) must first come. Malachi 4:5-6 is very plain that Elijah would come before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The Lord Jesus answered that this was true, but that Elijah had already come, and men had done what they pleased wit h him, and would similarly inflict suffering on the Son of Man. Then they rightly understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist. John was certainly not personally Elijah, but was the same type of prophet as Elijah, one who stood apart from the people, pressing upon them the claims of God's righteousness. This is seen in Luke 1:17: "He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias." No doubt however this is only a partial fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy, for another prophet of the same character will arise when Israel is about to face the horror of the great tribulation. This seems to be one of the two witnesses of Rev.11:3.

The whole chapter is a future prophecy. While there has been a partial fulfillment of the first verse of the third chapter, everything in this concluding chapter awaits its fulfillment. Elijah the prophet is announced. John the Baptist came in the Spirit and power of Elijah, but he was not the Elijah promised here. If ye will receive it, said our Lord, this is Elijah who should come. It was a testimony to faith and not the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy. If the Jews had accepted Christ, John would have been Elijah. Our Lord bears witness to this. "Elias truly shall come first and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them." When the age closes another one will appear, the Elijah announced by Malachi, who does his work of restoration before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. His work will be carried on among the people Israel. Deceivers and impostors have occasionally arisen who claimed to be this Elijah; the most prominent in recent years is the Dowieite delusion of Zion City. Such is the havoc produced by not dividing the Word of Truth rightly.

Then we have, "His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things; but I say unto you that Elias has come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed" (vers. 10-12). He shows that, to faith, Elias was come. If the nation had received the word preached by John, Elias' mission would have been fulfilled, according to the prophecy in Malachi; but the nation refusing Jesus as well as His forerunner, faith alone could recognize the testimony of John the Baptist as being virtually that of Elias. This accords with the statement we had in Matthew 11, "If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was to come;" showing that it was not Elias actually and literally, but the spirit and power of Elias in the person of John the Baptist. The Messiah is coming in glory by and by, and Elias is coming too. But the Messiah was come in weakness now, and humiliation, and His forerunner had been put to death. It was Elias who was come in the person of the suffering John the Baptist, and his testimony was despised. The disciples are led into the secret of this: "Elias is come already, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist" (vers. 12, 13).

There is somewhat of difficulty in the next answer. For when asked, "Art thou Elijah?" he says, "I am not." How is this denial from the lip of John himself to be reconciled with the Lord's own testimony to His servant in Matt. 17:11-12? "Elijah truly shall first come and restore all things. But I say to you, that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist." And they were right. The key appears to lie in Matt. 11:14: "And if ye will receive it" (says the Lord in vindicating John at a time when, if ever, he seemed to waver in his testimony; for who but One is the Faithful Witness?) "this is Elijah which was [lit. is] to come." Such a word, however, needed ears to hear. Like the Lord (Son of man no less than Messiah), his testimony and his lot were to be in unison with an advent in shame and sorrow as well as in power and glory. The Jews naturally cared only for the latter; but, to avail not only for God, but for the true wants of man, first must Jesus suffer before He is glorified, and comes again in power. So Elijah came to faith ("if ye will receive it") in the Baptist, who testified in humiliation and with results in man's eyes scanty and evanescent. But Elijah will come in a manner consonant with the return of the Lord to deliver Israel and bless the world under His reign. To the Jew, who only looked at the external, he was not come. To point to the Baptist would have seemed mockery; for if they had no apprehension of God's secrets or His ways, if they saw no beauty in the humbled Master, what would it avail to speak of the servant? The disciples, feeble though they might be, enter into the truths hidden from men, and are given to see beneath the surface the true style of the servant and of the Master to faith.

Nevertheless John does take his stand of witness to Jesus, to His personal and Divine glory; and to this end, when challenged who he was, applies to himself in every Gospel the prophetic oracle attached to him: "I (am the) voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of Jehovah."30 Jesus was Jehovah, John no more than a voice in the desolation of the earth — yea, of Israel — to prepare the way before Him.

Hence the difficulties of learned men perplexed them. "And they asked Him, saying, Why do the scribes say that Elias must first have come? And He answering, told them, Elias indeed, having come first, restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of Man, that He must suffer much, and be set at nought. But I say unto you, that Elias also is come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they would, as it is written of him." Our Lord does not dispute the truth pressed by the scribes; but as He points out His own approaching shame and suffering before He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels, so He shows a similar application of Elias's case in the person of John the Baptist, while the strict coming of Elias or Elijah awaits its fulfilment in the latter day92. To faith the forerunner is already come, as well as the Lord Himself. Unbelief must feel both by-and-by.

In the N.T. John the Baptist was in the character of Elijah as the prophet who was to come before "the great and terrible day of the Lord," to affect the hearts of the people, if he had been received; but not being received, except by a few, John declared to the Jews that he was not Elijah. So it remains for Elijah's ministry to be fulfilled ere Christ appears in glory. Mal. 4:5-6; Matt. 11:14; Luke 1:17; John 1:21.

Moses and Elijah were seen on the mount of transfiguration, as representatives of the law and the prophets; but theirs was then a subordinate place, for the proclamation was "This is my beloved Son; hear him." Matt. 17:3; Mark 9: 4; Luke 9: 30. Elijah's testimony was given in righteousness: his ministry demanded that the righteous claims of God as the Jehovah of His people should be satisfied. Elisha's ministry differed from this, and was more of grace.

The Lord, in Matt. 11:10, warrants our personal application of Mal. 3:1 to the Baptist, stopping short of the verses that follow, which await His coming again. And though Luke 1:17 clearly refers to Mal. 4:5-6, it is even there only applied morally, or to faith, not historically; as our Lord Himself puts the case in Matt. 11:14, and Mark 9:13: "And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah which is to come." Nothing is farther from His mind than to set aside a future action of Elijah (compare Mark 9:12; John 1:21) before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come, a description in no way suiting His first advent in grace, even though moral judgement accompany that grace.

The messenger is clearly John the Baptist; for this passage, as well as another from Isaiah, is specially applied to him in the gospels. (Mark 1:2; Luke 1:76.) This must be distinctly observed in order to understand the difference between his mission and that of Elijah "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." (Mal. 4:5-6.) True, our Lord said, "Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed; "but His meaning is explained by another passage. Speaking to the multitude concerning the Baptist, He said, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: not withstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it [viz., that which the Lord was teaching], this is Elias, which was for to come." (Matt. 11:11-14.) Thus, if the Jews had received John the Baptist, they would also have received the Messiah, and the kingdom would at once have been established in power; and in that case Malachi 4:5-6, would have been true of John. But in fact it was not; for though multitudes gathered around him when he first rang out the cry, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," there was but little conscience work, and scarcely any turning "the heart of the fathers to the children," or "the heart of the children to their fathers;" and finally, as we know, he died by the hand of the executioner in his solitary prison. Although, therefore, his mission was "in the spirit and power of Elias," and he would have been Elias, in all that his mission signified, had the Jews received him, he was not the fulfilment of the prophecy in the next chapter. That remains, and God will yet send "Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." But the Baptist was the Lord's messenger, and prepared the way before Him by heralding His coming and preaching the baptism of repentance; and few as they were, he did undoubtedly "make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (See John 1:35-51)

We read moreover, "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple." Two things are here to be noticed: first, the Person who should come, and then the manner of His coming. It is Jehovah who speaks: "I," He says, "will send my Messenger;" and He who sends His Messenger is also Adonai — the Lord in the words, "The Lord, whom ye seek," being Adonai, not Jehovah. The two appellations are combined in Psalm 110: "Jehovah said unto Adonai, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." He is also the Messenger of the covenant" whom the Jews professed to delight in. This title may be understood by a scripture in Exodus: "Behold, I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way … my name is in Him" — proof that he was a divine Person, inasmuch as name in the Word is always the expression of the truth of what the Person is. Thus the One who should come is Jehovah, Adonai, and the Angel of the covenant; and all this Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth was, and proved Himself to be in manifold ways in His presentation to Israel. But their eyes were blinded, and they would not see; and they closed their ears that they might not hear; so that while, as with this poor backslidden remnant, they asked, "Where is the God of judgment?" the Lord whom they sought came suddenly to His temple, and coming to His own they received Him not, but they took Him, and with wicked hands crucified Him on Calvary.

The manner of His coming is described as "suddenly" — coming suddenly to His temple; and it was there that the pious remnant in Jerusalem found Him. Simeon "came by the Spirit into the temple," and there met in the babe of Mary the Lord's Christ, and was permitted in infinite grace to take Him up in his arms, and as he did so he said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." There was also "one Anna … and she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." (Luke 2:29-38.) And again and again did the Lord come to His temple during His earthly sojourn (John 2; Matt. 21), though His people knew Him not; and now it remains that this prediction shall be accomplished when He returns in power and glory for the salvation of His people, and to establish His dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth.