THE PROMISE OF THE ARRIVAL
OF ELIJAH IN MALACHI
AND THE GOSPELS
WALTER C.
KAISER, JR.
Was John the Baptist the fulfillment of
Malachi’s prediction
about
Elijah the prophet who was to come before that great day of
the
Lord comes? The hermeneutical solution
to this question is
offered
in a generic fulfillment, or what the older theologians called
the novissima. Therefore. Elijah has come "in the
spirit and power"
witnessed
in John the Baptist, and will yet come in the future.
Generic
prophecy has three foci: (1) the revelatory word, (2) all
intervening
historical events which perpetuate that word, and (3) the
generic
wholeness (one sense or meaning) in which the final or
ultimate
fulfillment participates in all the earnests that occupied the
interim
between the original revelatory word and this climactic
realization.
* * *
The NT's interest in the prophet Elijah
may be easily assessed
from
the fact that he is the most frequently mentioned OT figure
in
the NT after Moses (80 times), Abraham (73), and David (59);
Elijah's
name appears 29 or 30 times.1
Even more significant, however, are the
six major and explicit
references
to Elijah in the Synoptic Gospels. There,
some of Jesus'
contemporaries
identified our Lord--in the second of three opinions--
as
Elijah (Mark
of
this popular confusion, for they too repeated it (Matt
Mark
8:27-30; Luke 9:18-21). This connection
between Jesus and
Elijah
continued to hold its grip on many even up to the time of the
crucifixion,
for those who heard Jesus' fourth word from the cross
thought
he was calling on Elijah to rescue him (Matt 27:45-49; Mark
[1]J. Jeremias,
"-----" TDNT2 (1964) 934. The disparity of 29 or 30 is due to a
textual
problem in Luke 9:54.
222 GRACE THEOLOGICAL
JOURNAL
but
Moses and Elijah, talking to Jesus (Matt 17:1-19; Mark 9:2-10;
Luke
9:28-36)?
But there were two other references in
the Synoptics which
referred
to a future coming of Elijah. One came
when Jesus' disciples
asked
why the scribes claimed it was necessary that Elijah had to
come
first (Matt
"Elijah
had come" and said it in such a way that the disciples knew
that
he meant he was John the Baptist. If any
doubt remained, Jesus
said
just that in Matt 11:14--"he is Elijah, the one who was to come."
However, when one turns from the Synoptics to the Fourth
Gospel,
none of these six references are present.
Instead, we find
John
categorically denying that he was either Christ, "that [Mosaic]
prophet,"
or Elijah (John
by
way of contrast with the way he is presented in the Synoptics
that
the Synoptics and John appear to contradict one another
flatly. What
explanation
can be offered for this phenomenon? And what impact
does
it have on the question of the NT author's use of OT citations?
I. THE
ISSUES
At stake in this discussion are three
critical points of tension: (1)
the
identity of that coming messenger or future prophet named
Elijah,
(2) the time of his coming, and (3) the task(s) assigned to him.
Each
of these three questions raises a number of hermeneutical and
theological
issues that have left their mark on various traditions of
interpretation.
However, even before these three tension
points have been
joined,
perhaps there is a prior question which asks if Elijah's coming
is
at all connected with the coming of the Messiah. A recent study by
Faierstein
concludes that:
...contrary to the accepted scholarly consensus, almost no
evidence
has been preserved which indicates that the concept of Elijah as
forerunner of the Messiah was widely known or accepted in the
first
century C.E. . . . The only datum . . . is the baraitha
in b. Erubin 43a-b,
a text of the early third century C.E. . . . The further possibility,
that the
concept of Elijah as forerunner is a novum
in the NT must also be
seriously considered.2
2Morris
M. Faierstein, "Why Do the Scribes Say That
Elijah Must Come First?"
JBL 100 (1981) 86. John H. Hughes, "John
the Baptist: The Forerunner of God
Himself,"
NovT 14 (1972) 212 is of the same opinion:
"There is no reliable pre-
Christian
evidence for the belief that Elijah was to be the forerunner of the Messiah,
and
this helps support the suggestion that the conception originated with
Jesus." [!]
KAISER:
THE PROMISE OF THE ARRIVAL OF ELIJAH 223
Faierstein,
while conveniently avoiding the strong evidence of Mal 3:1;
4:4-5
and the repeated NT allusions, tends to assign either a post-
Christian
date or to reserve judgment on a whole series of evidences
to
the contrary from the Jewish community.
Certainly the
fragment
J. Starcky cited (lkn 'slh l'lyh qd[m], "therefore I
will send
Elijah
befo[re]. . . .") is incomplete;3 but
it should have reminded
Faierstein
to take another look at Mal 3:1; 4:4-5 [Heb
Faierstein
also sets aside the same eighteen rabbinic texts which
L. Ginzberg analyzes differently.
Now, in no fewer than eighteen passages in the Talmud, Elijah
appears
as one who, in his capacity of precursor of the Messiah, will settle
all
doubts on matters of ritual and judicial.4
But
the locus classicus of these eighteen, m.
C Ed. 8.7, is exceptionally
clear. Elijah would establish legitimate Jewish
descent, family har-
mony,
and resolve differences of opinion and religious controversies.
He
would do all this, says m. C Ed. 8.7 ". ..as it is written, Behold
I
will
send you Elijah, the prophet . . . and he shall turn the heart of the
fathers
to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers.”
Once
again, we are brought back to the Malachi texts if we are to
make
any decision on what was normative either for pre-Christian
Judaism
or the NT itself: To this day, Judaism continues to reserve
for
Elijah a distinguished place and loosely to relate it to their fading
expectation
of the coming of the Messiah. This can
best be seen in the
cup
of Elijah and the seat reserved for him at every Passover meal.
The
hope and prayer of every Jew at the conclusion of the Passover--
"next
year in
coming
Messianic era. And at the heart of it remains the open door
for
the new Elijah.
II. MALACHI 3: I; 4:4-5
A.
The Identity of , My Messenger'
God's answer to the impious complaints
of the wicked men and
women
of Malachi's day who mockingly sneered: "Where is the God
of
justice?" was to send his messenger to prepare the way for the God
3J.
Starcky, "Les Quatre Etapes du Messianisme a
505. The fragment is 4QarP. See p. 498 as cited in
Faierstein, "Elijah Must Come
First?"
80, nn. 33-34.
4L.
Ginzberg, An Unknown Jewish Sect (
1976)
212. These 18 texts all end 18 talmudic
discussions and are known by the term
teyqu
which came to mean "The Tishbite will resolve difficulties and problems."
Ginzberg
lists the location of these 18 passages in n. 14 on p. 212.
224 GRACE THEOLOGICAL
JOURNAL
for
whom they allegedly searched. He did not
promise merely a
messenger,
but one that was already familiar to them from the
informing
theology of Isa 40:3, for the words used to describe this
messenger
were the same as those used there: he was "to prepare the
way."5
No doubt the words "my
messenger" (ykixAl;ma) were intended to be
both
a play on the name of the prophet Malachi and prophetic of a
future
prophet who would continue his same work.
But he was
certainly
to be an earthly messenger and not a heavenly being. This
can
be demonstrated from three lines of evidence: (1) in Isaiah the
voice
which called for the preparation of the nation came from
someone
in the nation itself; (2) this same messenger in Mal 3:1 is
associated
with Elijah the prophet in Mal 4:5; and (3) he is strongly
contrasted
with "The Lord," "even the messenger of the covenant" in
Mal
3:1.6
Thus this messenger cannot be the death
angel, as the Jewish
commentator
Jarchi conjectured,7 or an angel from
heaven as another
Jewish
commentator Kimchi alleged from Exod
23:20, a passage
which
finds its context in a time when
journey
into the desert. God's mouthpiece was an earthly proclaimer.
B. The
Identity of the Lord and the Messenger of the Covenant
"The Lord" (NOdxAhA) can only refer to God when used with the
article.8
That he is divine personage is also evident from these
additional
facts: he answers to the question of Mal
the
God of justice?" (2) he comes to "his temple" (Mal 3:1)
and thus
he
is the owner of that house in which he promised to dwell; and
(3)
he is also named the "Messenger of the covenant" (tyriB;ha j`xal;ma).
Furthermore,
it is clear from passages such as Zech 4:14 and 6:5,
"NOdxA
of the whole earth," that NOdxA is used interchangeably with
Yahweh.9
The title "Angel or Messenger of the Covenant," is found
nowhere
else
in the OT. Nevertheless, the title is very reminiscent of the more
5Herbert
Danby, The Mishnah (London: Oxford University,
1958) 437 [italics his].
6These
three arguments are substantially those of E. W. Hengstenberg,
Christology
of
the Old Testament (trans. James Martin) (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1875)
4.164.
7R.
Cashdan, Soncino
Books of the Bible: The Twelve Prophets (ed. A. Cohen;
8So
argues T. V. Moore (The Prophets of the Restoration: Haggai. Zechariah and
Malachi [
34:23;
Isa 1:24; 3:1;
Son.
9So
argues Joyce G. Baldwin (Haggai. Zechariah and Malachi [Tyndale Old
Testament;
1).
KAISER:
THE PROMISE OF THE ARRIVAL OF ELIJAH 225
frequently
used, "Angel of the Lord." That was the same "Angel"
who
had redeemed
gone
before the army as they crossed the
led
with
his glory. He was one and the same as
Yahweh himself. This
Angel
was God's own self-revelation, the pre-incarnate Christ of the
numerous
OT Christophanies.10 He is
the same one discussed in Exod
23:20-23;
("Behold, I send an Angel . . . My name is in him) 33:15
("My
Presence [or face] shall go with you") and Isa 63:9 (The Angel
of
his Presence or face").
The covenant of which he is the
messenger is the same one
anciently
made with
33:14)
and later renewed in Jer 31:31-34 as repeated in Heb
8:7-13
and
all
ages, this context addressed mainly the Levitical
priesthood (Mal
1:6-2:9)
and the nation
covenant
relationship.
Still, it must be stressed that there
are not two persons represented
in
"The Lord" and the "Messenger of the Covenant" but only
one, as
is
proven by the singular form of "come" (xBA).11 Thus the passage
mentions
only two persons: "The Lord" and the preparing messenger.
C. The Connection Between the Announcer’s Task
and
the Work of the Lord
The preparing messenger was "to
clear the way before [the
Lord]." The striking similarity between this
expression (hnApAl; j`r,D, hn.APiU)
and
that found in Isa 40:3, (hvhy j`r,D, Un.Pa) 57: 14 and 62: 10 is too strong
to
be accidental. The resemblance between
Isaiah and Malachi was
drawn
out even to the omission of the article from j`r,D,, "way"; the
only
difference is that in Malachi the messenger is to prepare the way
while
in Isaiah the servants of the Lord are urged to prepare the road.
Under the oriental figure of an epiphany
or arrival of the
reigning
monarch, the text urged for a similar removal of all spiritual,
moral,
and ethical impediments in preparation for the arrival of the
King
of Glory. Whenever a king would visit a
village, the roadway
would
be straightened, leveled, and all stones and obstacles removed
from
the road that the king would take as he came to visit the town.
The
only other instance of this expression is in. Ps 80:9 [Heb 10]: tAyn.iPi
hAyn,pAl;, "You cleared [the ground] before it
[= the vine (or the nation
10See
W. C. Kaiser, Jr., Toward an Old Testament Theology (
Zondervan,
1978) pp. 85, 120, 257-58. See references to the "Angel of the Lord"
in
such texts as Gen 16:7;
11So
argues E. W. Hengstenberg,Christology, 4.168.
226 GRACE THEOLOGICAL
JOURNAL
was
necessary to do some clearing away as a preparation before the
nation
and
to take deep root in the land.
This future messenger would likewise clear
out the rubbish,
obstacles,
and impediments "before me"--the same one who was iden-
tified
in the next sentence as "The Lord," "even the Messenger
of the
Covenant."
The equation of these three terms can be argued for even
more
convincingly when it is noticed that the waw,
"and," which
introduces
the phrase "and the messenger of the covenant whom you
desire"
is an epexegetical waw
used in apposition to the phrase "The
Lord
whom you are seeking." Therefore we translate the whole verse:
Behold, I will send my messenger. He will
clear the way ahead of me.
Suddenly, the Lord whom you are seeking
will come to his temple;
even the messenger of the covenant, whom
you desire, will come, says
cf the Lord of
hosts.
Over against this preparatory work, the
Lord and Messenger of
the
Covenant was to arrive "suddenly" (MxAt;Pi) at his temple. The
people
had longed for the coming of God in judgment as a redress to
all
wrongs (Mal
"unexpectedly.”12
The ungodly hoped for a temporal deliverer, but
Mal
3:2 warned that most would not be able to stand when that day
of
judgment came. Not only would the
heathen gentiles be judged,
but
so too would the ungodly in
judgment
associated with the second advent has been blended in this
passage
with the Lord's arrival in his first advent. It was necessary to
be
prepared for both!
D. The Identity of Elijah the Prophet
Does Malachi expect the Tishbite to reappear personally on the
earth
again? It would not appear so, for Mal
4:5-6 specifically said,
"Behold,
I will send you Elijah the13 prophet, before the great and
it
terrible day of the Lord comes." Only the LXX reads "Elijah the
Tishbite."
The reason Elijah was selected is, (1) he was head of the
prophetic
order in the nation
12T.
Laetsch (Bible Commentary: The Minor Prophets
[
1956]
531) says "Suddenly, pit’ om, is never
used to denote immediacy; it always means
unexpectedly,
regardless of the lapse of time (Joshua 10:9; 11:7; Num. 12:4; Ps. 64:5, 8,
A.V. 4, 7;
Provo 3:25; 6:15; Isa. 47:11; Jer. 4:20, etc.)."
13Jack
Willsey ("The Coming of Elijah: An Interpretation
of Malachi 4:5,"
[unpublished
Master's disseration, San Francisco Conservative
Baptist Theological
Seminary,
1969] 31) notes that the use of the article with --- refers "to Elijah:
specifically,
the Elijah who was known to the readers as the prophet (as opposed to
any
other
possible Elijah)."
KAISER:
THE PROMISE OF THE ARRIVAL OF ELIJAH 227
indirectly
received the same spirit and power that divinely was
granted
to him. There was, as it were, a successive endowment of his
gifts,
power, and spirit to those who followed in his train.
This phenomenon is known already in the
OT, for 2 Chr 21:12
mentions
"a writing from Elijah the prophet" during the reign of King
Jehoram
when Elijah had already been in heaven for many years.
Furthermore,
many of the acts predicted by Elijah were actually
carried
out by Elisha (2 Kgs
(2 Kgs 9:13). Indeed,
Elisha had asked for a double Portion the
portion
of the firstborn (OHUrB;, 2 Kgs 2:9), as
his spiritual inheritance :;i,
from
Elijah. Thus, just as the spirit of Moses came on the seventy
elders
(Num
(2
Kgs2:15).
We are to expect a literal return of
Elijah no more than we
expect
a literal return of David as the future king over
passages
like Jer 30:19; Hos 3:5;
Ezek 34:23; and 37:24 promise a new
David. But it is universally held that this new
David is none other
than
the Messiah himself who comes in the office, line, and promise
of
David. Consequently, we argue that the
new Elijah will be endowed
with
this same spirit and power without being the actual Elijah who
was
sent back long after his translation to heaven.
E.
The Connection Between Elijah and the
Forerunner
There can be little doubt that Elijah
the prophet is one and the
same
as the messenger whom the Lord will send to prepare the way
before
him. Mal 4:5 marks the third great
"Behold" in this book (3: 1;
-:14:1,
and here) and therefore carries our mind and eye back to the
other
two passages. A second similarity is to
found in the participial
phrase,
"I am sending." There is also, in the third place, a similarity
of
mission; for both the verbs "to clear the way" (hOn.Pa) and "to
restore"
(bUw)
are based on verbs which also mean "to turn" and
hence
imply a repentance or turning away from evil and a turning
towards
God. In the fourth place, the play.on sending "my messenger”
with
Malachi's name 10 3:1 is matched in 4:5 by sending "Elijah.”
Finally,
both 3: 1 and 4:5a are followed by references that speak of the
awesomeness
of the day of the Lord (3:2; 4:5b).
F.
The Time of Day of the Lord
This
messenger, who is called the prophet Elijah, is to appear
"before
that great and terrible day of the Lord comes." That day was
14For
a long discussion of the Christian history of interpretation of the NT identity
of
Elijah, see E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1950)
2. 499-
502
and E. W. Hengstenberg, Christology, 4.
195-200.
228 GRACE
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
described
in similar terms in Joel 2:11, 31 and Zeph 1:14. A number
of
the OT prophets view that day as one day and a collective event
which
entailed this three-way puzzle: (1) though five prophets refer to
that
day as "near" or "at hand," their prophecies are spread
over four
centuries
(Obad 15; Joel 1:15; 2:21; Isa 3:6; Zeph 1:7, 14; Ezek 30:3);
(2)
these prophets also saw different immediate events belonging to
their
own day as being part of that "day of the Lord" including
destruction
of
day
in which the Lord "destroyed the whole earth" (Isa 13:5) and
reigned
as "King over all the earth" (Zech 14:1,8-9), a day when "the
elements
will be dissolved . . . and the earth and the works that are in
it
will be laid bare" (2 Pet
deliverance
(Joel
It is just such a day that Mal 3:2; 4:1,
5 mention. The principle of
generic
or successive fulfillment is most important if we are adequately
to
explain and be faithful to all the biblical data. T. V. Moore stated
it
this way:
There are a number of statements by the
sacred writers that are
designed to apply to distinct facts, successively
occurring in history. If
the words are limited to anyone of these
facts, they will seem
exaggerated, for no one fact can exhaust
their significance. They must
be spread out over all the facts before
their plenary meaning is reached.
There is nothing in this principle that is
at variance with the ordinary
laws of language. The same general use of phrases occurs
repeatedly. . . .
Every language contains these formulas,
which refer not to any one
event, but a series of events, all
embodying the same principle, or
resulting from the same cause.
[Thus] . . . the promise in regard to the
"seed of the woman," (Gen.
and includes every successive conquest of
the religion of Christ. ..
[This] class of predictions. ..is ...what
the old theologians called the
.. novissima .
. 15
Thus,
the "Day of Yahweh" is a generic or collective event which
gathers
together all the antecedent historical episodes of God's judgment
and
salvation along with the future grand finale and climactic event
in
the whole series. Every divine
intervention into history before that
final
visitation in connection with the second advent of Christ con-
stitutes
only a preview, sample, down payment or earnest on that
climactic
conclusion. The prophet did not think of
the day of the
15T. V. Moore, Zechariah.
Malachi, 396-99.
KAISER: THE PROMISE OF THE ARRIVAL OF
ELIJAH 229
Lord
as an event that would occur once for all, but one that could
"be
repeated as the circumstances called for it.16
Now, the future Elijah, the prophet,
will appear "before that
great
and terrible day of the Lord comes." Furthermore, as shown in
Mal
3:1 and Isa 40:3, he will prepare the way for Yahweh. But which
coming
of the Messiah is intended by Malachi--the first or second
advent? Since most conclude along with the NT writers
that the
messenger's
preparation was for the first advent of our Lord, and
since
the events included in that day in Mal 3:2ff and Mal 4:1ff
involve
the purification of the Levites, the judgment on the wicked
and
the return of the Yahweh to his temple, it is fair to conclude that
that
day embraces both advents. This is
precisely the situation which
Joel
2:28-32 presents. The fulfillment of
Joel's words at Pentecost is
as
much a part of that day as the seismographic and cosmological
convolutions
connected with the second advent.
The basic concept, then, is that
Malachi's prophecy does not
merely
anticipate that climactic fulfillment of the second advent, but
it
simultaneously embraces a series of events which all participate in
the
prophet's single meaning even though the referents embraced in
that
single meaning are many.17 In
this way, the whole set of events
make
up one collective totality and
constitute only one idea even
though
they involve many referents which are spread over a large
portion
of history. Perhaps the best way to
describe this phenomenon
is
to call it a generic prediction which Willis J. Beecher defined as:
. . . one which regards an event as
occurring in a series of parts,
separated by intervals, and expresses
itself in language which may
apply indifferently to the nearest part,
or to the remoter parts, or to the
whole--in other words, a prediction which
in applying to the whole of
a complex event, also applies to some of
its parts.18
III. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND NEW
TESTAMENT FULFILLMENT
The NT question may now be asked: "Was
John the Baptist the
fulfillment
of Malachi's prophecies or was he not?"
16 Willis J.
Beecher, The Prophets and the Promise
(
Crowell, 1905; reprinted,
17A most helpful
distinction can be found in G. B. Caird, The Language and
Imagery of the Bible
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980) chap. 2. He distinguishes
between meaning v (= value:
"This means more to me than anything else”), meaning E
(= entailment: "This means war”), meaningR (= referent: identifies person(s) or
thing(s)
named or involved), meaningS
(= sense: gives qualities of person or thing) and meaning I
(= intention: the truth-commitment of the
author).
18 W. J. Beecher, The Prophets and the Promise, 130.
230 GRACE
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
A. Three Basic Positions
Three basic answers have been given to
this inquiry: (1) John the
Baptist
fully fulfilled all that was predicted of the messenger who
would
prepare the way and Elijah will not come again;19 (2) Elijah the
Tishbite will personally
reappear and minister once again at the end
of
this age;20 and (3) John the Baptist did come as a fulfillment of
this
prophecy,
but he came in "the spirit and the power of Elijah" and is
thereby
only one prophet in a series of forerunners who are appearing
throughout
history until that final and climactically terrible day of
Yahweh
comes when it is announced by the last prophet in this series
of
forerunners.21
B. A Generic Fulfillment
of the Elijah Prophecy
From our examination of Malachi's prophecy it is clear that we
should adopt the third alternative. The identity, timing, and tasks of
this messenger in Malachi all argue for
his appearance in two
different individuals, if not a series of
them, rather than a single
individual such as John the Baptist.
The NT evidence yields a similar construction. Matt
Jesus as affirming that "he [John the
Baptist] is himself (au]to<j
e]stin)
Elijah, the one who is to come." Again in Matt
"This (ou$toj) is the one of whom it is written, ‘Behold I send my
messenger before thy face, who shall
prepare the way before thee'."
So John was that one-Elijah the prophet!
Yet it is just as clear that John denies that he is Elijah: "I am
not
[Elijah] (e]gw> ou]k ei]mi<, John
John the Baptist came only in the
"spirit and power of Elijah" (e]n
pneu<mati kai> duna<mei, Luke
only denied being Elijah in the popular
misconceptions entertained by
the people of John's day, John could be
identified as Elijah only
because the same Spirit and power that had
energized Elijah had now
fallen on him.
19John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets
(
Eerdmans, 1950) 5. 627; E. W. Hengstengberg, Christology, 4. 165; Oswald T. Allis,
Prophecy and the Church
(Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1974) 49; David
Allan George Knight, "John the
Baptist and Elijah: A Study of Prophetic Fulfillment,"
(Unpublished M.A. thesis; T.E.D.S., Deerfield,
IL, 1978) 115-16.
20John Paul Tan, The Interpretation of Prophecy (
Books, 1974) 185-87; Tertullian, "A
Treatise on the Soul," 3:217.
21Justin Martyr,
"Dialogue with Trypho," 1:219-20; Aurelius
Augustine,
"
and Colleges;
Theology of Malachi," ExpT 7 (1895-96)
126; J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1958) 311-12.
KAISER: THE PROMISE OF THE ARRIVAL OF
ELIJAH 231
C. The New Elijah’s Tasks
Even the task of this coming prophet had this same two-pronged
focus.
Mark
("Why. do the scribes say the first Elijah
must come?") as they were
returmng from the Mount of Transfiguration and hearing about the
Son of Man suffering and being raised
again by saying: "Elijah has
come [e]lqw>n, past] first and is restoring [a]pokaqista<nei, present] all
things." Matt
present with the future tense:
"Elijah is coming (e@rxetai,
present) and
he will restore [a]pokatasth<sei]22 all things." Since
this present is
coupled with a future tense, the present
must be interpreted as a
futuristic present--"Elijah is
coming."
Now the term "restoration" is used in the OT both as a
technical
term for the restoration of
restoration of the inner man.24 We believe that Matthean
and Markan
uses of this verb are parallel, in part,
to the noun form (a]po-
katasth<seouj) used in Acts
remains in heaven "until the time of
the restoration (or 'establish-
ing’)25 of all things that God has spoken by the mouth of
his holy
prophets." That too is a future work
associated with the parousia.
Luke has described John's work as one of going before the Lord
to prepare his ways, of giving the
knowledge of salvation to his
people and giving light to those in darkness
(Luke 1:76-79). He
would also "turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children (e]pistre<yai
kardi<aj pate<rwn e]pi>
te<kna, Luke
4:6 in the verb e]piste<fw instead of the LXX a]pokaqi<sthmi)."
IV.
CONCLUSION: HERMENEUTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The emerging picture is clear.
How can we disassociate Elijah
who is to come from the day of the
Lord? And how can we limit the
day of the Lord entirely to the second
advent and the parousia? Both
errors will lead to a result less than
what was intended by Malachi.
22Both Matthew and
Mark's word for "restoration" is found in the LXX. The
23Jer
24Amos 5:15. I owe
these references to David A. G. Knight, "John the Baptist and
Elijah," 93.
25Some prefer to
link this idea with the fulfillment or establishment of OT
prophecy; see K. Lake and H. J. Cadberry, The Acts of
the Apostles, The Beginnings
of Christianity (ed. F. J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake; 5 vols.;
1933) 4. 38, as cited by Knight,
"John the Baptist and Elijah," 94. This is a strange
word to express that concept when so many
others were available and used by Luke.
The OT usage appears to be too fixed to
allow this novel meaning--especially in a
passage that appeals to the prophets!
232 GRACE
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
Elijah still must come and "restore
all things" (Matt
the great and terrible day of the Lord
comes" (Mal 4:5).
Nevertheless, let no one say that Elijah has not already in some
sense come, for our Lord will affirm the
contrary: "Elijah has come,"
Now, what explanation will adequately
answer all of these phenomena?
Were it not for the fact that this same
type of phenomenon occurs
with so many other similar prophetic
passages, we would need to
conclude that the text presented us with
internal contradictions. But
this is not so, for the list of generic
prophecies wherein a single
prediction embraced a whole series of
fulfillments when all those
fulfillments shared something that was
part and parcel of all of them
is a long one.26
Some will argue that this is nothing more than what most name
“double fulfillment of
prophecy." This we deny. The problem with
“double fulfillment" is threefold:
(l) it restricts the fulfillments to two
isolated events and only two; (2) It
usually slides easily into a theory
of double senses or dual intentionality in
which the human author
usually is aware of none of these referents
or meanings or at most
only one (if it is contemporaneous) with
the other or both fulfillments
left as surprises for the future
generation in which they take place;
and (3) it focuses only on the predictive
word (usually given in
abstraction from the times in which that
word came) and on the final
fulfillment without any attention being
given as to how God kept that
word alive in the years that intervened
between the divine revelation
and the climactic fulfillment.
Only generic prophecy can handle all three foci: (1) the revelatory
word; (2) the series of intervening
historical events which perpetuate
that word; and (3) corporate, collective,
and generic wholeness of that
final fulfillment with whatever aspect of
realization that event has had
in the interim as God continued to promise
by his Word and to act by
his power throughout history. The intervening events, then, while
being generically linked with that final
event, were earnests, down-
payments, samplers, partial teasers until
the total payment came in
God's climactic fulfillment.
That exactly is what happened m the case of John the Baptist.
He was only a sample of a portion of the
work that was to be done in
the final day. We can show this by referring to the
identities, tasks,
and timing given in Malachi and the
Gospels without adding at this
time the further evidence of the work of
one of the two witnesses in
Revelation 11.
26See . C. Kaiser,
Jr., "The Promise of God and the Outpouring of the Holy
Spirit: Joel 2:28-32 and Acts
2:16-21," The living and Active Word
of God, ed.
Morris Inch and Ron Youngblood (Winona
Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1982).
KAISER: THE PROMISE OF THE ARRIVAL OF
ELIJAH 233
John then was Elijah as an earnest, but we
still await the other
Elijahs and especially that final Elijah the prophet before the great
and terrible day of our Lord. The meaning is one; not two, three, or
sensus plenior. Only that sense given by
revelation of God can be
normative, authoritative, and
apologetically convincing to a former
generation of Jews or to our own
generation. We urge Christ's
Church to adopt the single meaning of the
text and a generic meaning
for prophecies of the type found in Mal
3:1 and 4:5-6.
:
Grace
Theological Seminary
www.grace.edu
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