Matthew records Jesus saying that John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come, while ‎John seems to record John the Baptist denying it. The reason for this apparent inconsistency ‎is a lack of contextualization by readers.‎ Let’s first look at those verses.

‎(Matthew 17:10-13) “The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the ‎law say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and ‎will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not ‎recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way, the ‎Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”‎

(John 1:19-21) “Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in ‎Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to ‎confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “Then ‎who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He ‎answered, “No.”‎

The priests and Levites came to John the Baptist and asked him if he was Elijah. Quite a ‎funny question to ask someone, unless you know the Jewish Scriptures. For God says ‎through the prophet Malachi that He will send Elijah to the people of Israel before a certain ‎time. Therefore, as the Jewish people were expecting Elijah, the question is quite logical.‎

John was about 30 years old when he was asked this question. His parents were already dead; ‎he was the only son of Zechariah from the tribe of Levi. So, when asked if he was Elijah who ‎ascended up into heaven about 878 years earlier, the answer was obviously “No, I am not ‎Elijah.”‎

Jesus also testifies, indirectly, to John not being Elijah in Matthew 11:11, where he says that ‎John is greater than all people who have ever been born. Moses was greater than Elijah, ‎but John was greater than them both.‎

So, what did Jesus mean when he said of John, “he is the Elijah who was to come”? The ‎angel Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic) speaks to Zechariah of his son, John, who was not yet born, ‎saying “he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of ‎the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ‎ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17)‎

The Angel refers to two prophecies, Isaiah 40:3-5 (see Luke 3:4-6 to see this applied again to ‎John the Baptist) and Malachi 4:5-6, mentioned above, which says, “See, I will send you the ‎prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of ‎the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers”. Gabriel ‎unmistakably says that John is the “Elijah” whom God foretold through Malachi the ‎prophet.‎

So, was John Elijah? No. But had the priests and Levites asked him, “Are you the one the ‎prophet Malachi speaks of as ‘Elijah’?” John would have responded affirmatively.‎

Jesus in Matthew 17:11-13 says that the prophecy of Malachi is true, but Elijah had already ‎come. He says that this “Elijah” suffered, like he, Jesus will suffer; “the disciples understood ‎that he was talking to them about John the Baptist“.

Therefore, once we understand the ‎context, it is clear that John was not the literal Elijah, but he was the Elijah that the prophecy ‎spoke of, the one who was to (and did) prepare the way for the Messiah, Jesus, “the Lamb ‎of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).‎

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