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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Elijah expected
Malachi promised Elijah would come back before the great day of the Lord. By Jesus' time many were waiting for him, and the Gospels keep raising his name.
When the advance team shows up, you know the main event is close. Elijah was a prophet who did not die; he was taken up into heaven. The last book of the prophets said God would send him back before the great day. So people kept asking about new prophets: is this Elijah?
Many looked for Elijah to come back and ready things for the end (Malachi 4:5-6). Sirach (48:10) also predicts his return, and it is common in later Jewish writing. Elijah was taken to heaven alive (2 Kings 2:11). Wright says that because he had not really died, it seemed fitting that he might come back. Keener's notes on John 1:21 name Elijah and the prophet like Moses as two separate figures expected before the Messiah. Later rabbis pictured the returning Elijah as a master of the law who would settle legal disputes. John's leather belt recalls Elijah's in 2 Kings 1:8, and his camel hair was the clothing of mourning. Other rabbinic traditions pictured Elijah acting like an angel who helped rabbis in need, which helps explain the bystanders at the cross. The ESV Study Bible calls the hope widespread in Judaism. It notes that Jesus speaks of John as coming with Elijah's spirit and power. Some elites held that prophecy had ceased after Malachi. Only a few holy men were thought able to bring rain by prayer, and Honi the Circle-drawer, Josephus' Onias, was chief among them. Elijah was their great model, and James 5:17-18 makes him a model for every believer instead. A probable Jewish tradition held that Elijah's drought lasted three and a half years, the span of the two witnesses of Revelation 11. Hippolytus, Tertullian and Jerome expected Enoch and Elijah, who had never died, to return as those witnesses.
An analogy: a herald walking ahead of a royal procession. When you see him turn the corner, you stop looking at him and start looking past him for the king.
When a prophet appears, people ask whether this is Elijah, as they do of Jesus in Mark 6:15. Jesus calls John the Elijah who was to come in Matthew 11:14. Luke 1:17 says John would go in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Not a herald anyone could fill. The hope was for one particular prophet, taken up alive, to come back himself. When Jesus calls John the Elijah who was to come, Keener reads it as figurative, and the ESV Study Bible says Elijah on the mountain is no reincarnation.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-3-1-12\/","n":"Matthew 3:1-12, John at the Jordan","s":"John preaches repentance in the Judean wilderness because the kingdom of heaven has come near. He calls Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers and warns of the winnowing fork.","r":"Matthew 3:1-12"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-11-2-30\/","n":"Matthew 11:2-30, John's question, children in the square, an easy yoke","s":"John asks from prison whether Jesus is the one to come. Jesus praises John, compares his generation to sulking children, pronounces woes on the lake towns, and offers rest under his yoke.","r":"Matthew 11:2-30"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-27-27-56\/","n":"Matthew 27:27-56, Mock king, the cross and the torn curtain","s":"Soldiers dress Jesus as a mock king. He is crucified as king of the Jews between two rebels, cries out in the words of Psalm 22 and dies; the curtain tears, the earth shakes, and women watch from a distance.","r":"Matthew 27:27-56"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-1-1-13\/","n":"Mark 1:1-13, John in the wilderness","s":"John preaches and baptizes at the Jordan, dressed like Elijah. Jesus is baptized, hears the voice from heaven and is driven into the wilderness for forty days.","r":"Mark 1:1-13"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-6-14-29\/","n":"Mark 6:14-29, Herod's banquet and John's death","s":"Herod hears of Jesus and thinks John has risen. Mark then tells how Herod, at his birthday banquet, had John beheaded.","r":"Mark 6:14-29"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-8-27-9-1\/","n":"Mark 8:27-9:1, Peter's answer at Caesarea Philippi","s":"Asked who he is, Peter says the Messiah. Jesus says the Son of Man must suffer, rebukes Peter, and calls followers to take up the cross.","r":"Mark 8:27-9:1"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-9-2-13\/","n":"Mark 9:2-13, The transfiguration","s":"On a high mountain Jesus is changed before three disciples, Elijah and Moses appear, and a voice says to listen to him. Coming down, they ask about Elijah.","r":"Mark 9:2-13"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-15-21-41\/","n":"Mark 15:21-41, The cross","s":"Jesus is crucified as king of the Jews between two bandits, mocked by passers-by, and dies with a loud cry. The temple curtain tears, and women watch from a distance.","r":"Mark 15:21-41"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-1-5-25\/","n":"Luke 1:5-25, A priest's turn at the incense altar","s":"An elderly village priest, picked by lot to offer incense in the sanctuary, learns from the angel Gabriel that his childless wife will have a son who will prepare Israel for God with an Elijah-like power.","r":"Luke 1:5-25"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-7-11-17\/","n":"Luke 7:11-17, A widow's only son on the bier","s":"At the gate of Nain Jesus meets a funeral for a widow's only son. He touches the bier, raises the young man and gives him back to his mother, and the crowd says a great prophet has arisen.","r":"Luke 7:11-17"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-9-51-62\/","n":"Luke 9:51-62, A Samaritan refusal and three would-be followers","s":"Setting out for Jerusalem, Jesus is turned away by a Samaritan village and rebukes James and John for wanting to call down fire. On the road he tells three would-be followers what following him will cost.","r":"Luke 9:51-62"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-1-19-34\/","n":"John 1:19-34, Not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the Prophet","s":"Priests and Levites from Jerusalem ask John who he is. He denies being the Messiah, Elijah or the Prophet, calls himself the voice in the wilderness, and points to Jesus as the Lamb of God.","r":"John 1:19-34"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/james-5-13-20\/","n":"James 5:13-20, Elders, oil and Elijah's prayer","s":"The suffering should pray and the cheerful sing; the sick should call the church's elders to pray over them and anoint them with oil. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful, as Elijah's was, and whoever turns a sinner back covers a multitude of sins.","r":"James 5:13-20"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-11-1-14\/","n":"Revelation 11:1-14, the measured temple and the two witnesses","s":"John is told to measure God's temple and its worshipers but to leave out the outer court, given to the nations to trample for forty-two months. Two witnesses in sackcloth prophesy with the powers of Elijah and Moses, are killed by the beast from the Abyss and left unburied in the great city, then raised and taken up to heaven.","r":"Revelation 11:1-14"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/matthew-17-1-8\/","n":"Matthew 17:1-8","s":"The transfiguration, six days later, on a high mountain.","r":"Matthew 17:1-8"}
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 1:6, 6:15, 8:28, 9:4, 9:11 and 15:35
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comments on Mark 6:14-16, Mark 9:2-13 and Mark 15:33-39
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Mark 6:14b-15 and 9:4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Matthew 11:13
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 1:19-28 (comment on 1:20-21)
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on John 1:21
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on James 5:17-18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on James 5:17-18
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:4 and 11:6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:3-6
