Men and women in the Bible

10. I would like to know whether – according to you – John the Baptist was Elijah or not?

John the Baptist was not Elijah because when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who he was and they asked him, ‘Are you Elijah?’ he said: “I am not” (John 1:21).

It is true that Jesus called John “Elijah who is to come” but He said also: “If you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14 – NKJV), and above all Jesus said: “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things” (Matthew 17:11 – NKJV), confirming thus that John was not Elijah. On the other hand, the prophet Elijah was taken up into heaven without seeing death (2 Kings 2:1-18), therefore if John had been Elijah he could not have been born of the union of Elizabeth and Zacharias, but he would have come into this world by descending from heaven.

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