Who is Elijah?

August, 2003

by: Jack Hughes

• Prophecy and End Times

Everyone knows who Elijah is — right? Hmmm? We know about the Old Testament prophet named Elijah and we also know that Malachi said Elijah would come again, and we know that Jesus said John the Baptist was Elijah, and John the Baptist denied being Elijah, and Jesus said Elijah was still coming. This has caused many to ask, "So who is Elijah?" Let's examine the Scriptures and see.

Elijah the Old Testament Prophet

Elijah appears in I Kings 17:1, functioning as a prophet of God. During his ministry Elijah was used by God to call Israel to repentance and to perform many miracles. He is unique in the Bible as he was one of two people who never died physically, being taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot (II Kings 2:1-12). He appears again in Mt. 17:1-4 on the Mount of Transfiguration along with Moses.

Elijah the Forerunner of Jesus' First Coming

In Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, the Lord says through Malachi in Mal. 3:1, “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple…” Later, in the last chapter of Malachi, the Lord says, “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” (Mal. 4:5-6). These two prophesies were cherished by the Jews because they predicted the coming of the Messiah and a spiritual revival in Israel. The Jews knew that God would send a messenger ahead of the Messiah and then suddenly He would appear in His temple!

In Mal. 4:5-6 Malachi says that before the day of the Lord comes, God would send Elijah. The purpose of Elijah's coming would be three fold, 1) to restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers i.e., bring repentance to the land, 2) to prevent the land from being cursed by God, 3) to prepare the way for the Messiah's coming. In Isa. 40:3-5 Isaiah speaks of this same forerunner saying, “A voice is calling, Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Here, as in Mal. 3:1, a forerunner is predicted who will come to prepare the people for the Messiah's coming.

This is where things get interesting. All four Gospels apply Isaiah's prophesy to John the Baptist (Mt. 3:3; Mk. 1:3; Lk. 3:4-6; Jn. 1:23). Not only that, but when the angel appeared to Zacharias, John the Baptist's father, he quoted from Mal. 4:5-6 and applied the prophesy to John also. According to the Gospels, John the Baptist came as a forerunner to Jesus' first coming, baptizing and calling people to repentance. Jesus himself explained to his disciples and the crowd that John the Baptist was Elijah in Mt. 11:11-15 saying: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings' palaces! But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ … For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” When we put all of these things together we have what seems to be conclusive evidence that John the Baptist was “Elijah” the long awaited forerunner of the Messiah. And if that was all the Bible said, there would be no problem, but that is not all the Bible says!

In Jn. 1:19-28 we have the Apostle John's account of John the Baptist's ministry. In this section some priests and Levites questioned John wondering if he was the promised forerunner “Elijah.” They asked him, “Are you Elijah?” and John responded with a definitive, “No” (Jn. 1:21). But John does explain his identity by applying Isa. 40:3-5 to himself.

Adding to this confusing text is the statement Jesus Himself made about John in Mt. 17:10-13. Jesus had just finished taking Peter, James, and John up to the mountain where He was transfigured before them in His Kingdom glory and there they also saw Moses and Elijah. The whole experience must have made them think about Elijah because on the way down Matthew says, “And His disciples asked Him, 'Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' And He answered and said, '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 the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.”

In this portion of Matthew, Jesus makes it clear that “Elijah is coming,” but immediately after saying that He also says, “Elijah already came” and the disciples “understood that he had spoken to them about John the Baptist.” The two statements in John 1:21 and Mt. 17:11 seem to tell us that John isn't Elijah!

A key text which helps us unravel all of this is Lk. 1:17. In Lk. 1:17 the angel is speaking to Zacharias and says, “It is he [John the Baptist] who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah” and then the angel quotes Mal. 4:6. It is important to note that the Angel did not say, “He will be Elijah” but that he will go in the “spirit and power of Elijah.” The word “spirit” could refer to the Holy Spirit, and we know John was filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb (Lk. 1:15), but it probably refers to the passion and focus of Elijah's spirit, his heart's desire to call people to repentance. This matches John the Baptist's ministry very well. Both Elijah and John the Baptist proclaimed the truth, called men to repentance, and had a holy zeal to restore Israel to the Lord. Both were filled with the Holy Spirit and the power of God to proclaim God's truth. This is why Jesus referred to John the Baptist as “Elijah.” He came as a voice crying out in the wilderness, he came before the Messiah, and he preached repentance and faith in the coming Lord of glory.

But there were some things John didn't do. He didn't display miraculous powers like Elijah and only led a small remnant of Israel to repentance. So in some ways John the Baptist was “Elijah” but there is another coming who will actually be Elijah. We might say that John was the “Elijah” of Jesus' first coming but there is also the “Elijah” of Jesus' second coming.

Elijah the Forerunner of Jesus' Second Coming

The “Elijah” of Jesus' second coming is found in Rev. 11:1-14. In this section of the Book of Revelation, John describes the “two witnesses” of God who prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, which is forty–two months or three and a half years at which time it does not rain (the length of the drought in Elijah's day. See I Kings 17:1; James 5:17). They are clothed in sackcloth, the clothes of repentance (Elijah called the people of his day to repentance). The witnesses proclaim God's Word (like Elijah did). The text says if anyone tries to harm them, fire flows from their mouth and devours their enemies (Elijah commanded fire to consume his enemies in II Kings. 1:9-16). They also have the power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every plague (like Moses Ex. 3-12). The two witnesses preach repentance and prepare the people of Israel for the Lord (as prophesied in Isa. 40:3-5; Mal. 3:1; 4:5-6). Most scholars believe that one of the two witnesses is Elijah, the other being Moses or Enoch. Some believe Enoch is a good candidate since he never died (like Elijah) while others believe one of the witnesses is Moses since he represents the law, was a great prophet, and the text mentions plagues being performed like those performed in the Book of Exodus by Moses.

So now we have our question answered. John the Baptist fulfilled the same ministry and purpose as the promised coming of Elijah and that is why, “if you care to accept it, he himself is Elijah.” Yet, there is another Elijah coming who will proclaim God's Word, do the same miracles as Elijah, lead Israel in a great spiritual revival in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ and the great and terrible Day of the Lord. This is the “Elijah to come.”