The following comes from Byron R. Merrill, Elijah: Yesterday, Today, and Forever (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997), 167-68:
Some modern Christian scholars tend to believe that John the Baptist was
indeed Elijah, and that there is no need to look for any future coming of the
prophet. [15] It is interesting, however, that many of the early Christian
writers alluded to the fact that John the Baptist and Elijah were not the same
person. [16] St. Augustine, writing in the fifth century a.d., explained:
"As there are two comings of the Judge, there will be two heralds. The
[Judge] sent before Him the first herald [John] calling him Elia, because Elia
would be in the Second Coming what John was in the first." [17] This
remark seems to indicate that the scholars who lived closer to Christ's
lifetime believed that John and Elijah were separate beings and that Elijah
would be the one to prepare the way for the coming of Christ in the last days.
According to legend, Elijah and Enoch will serve a special mission in
the last days in which they will be killed by the anti-Christ and will then be
resurrected three days later. One source states that Elijah and Enoch will be
put to death on an altar by the anti-Christ and then will be raised again by
two angels who are identified as Michael and Gabriel and will thus be able to
continue the fight against the anti-Christ. [18] It has been rumored that the
anti-Christ will come from the tribe of Dan, [19] probably because Dan is not
listed with the other tribes in Revelation 7:5-8. After Elijah and Enoch have
killed the anti-Christ and banished evil forever, [20] Elijah will
ceremoniously anoint Christ, the long-awaited Messiah. [21]
Notes for the Above:
15. J. Louis Martyn,
"We Have Found Elijah," in Jews, Greeks and Christians: Religious
Cultures in Late Antiquity: Essays in Honor of William David Davies, ed. R.
Hamerton-Kelly and R. Scroggs (Leiden: Brill, 1976), 184; Kent Brower,
"Elijah in the Markan Passion Narrative," Journal for the Study of
the New Testament 18 (June 1983): 87; The Catholic Encyclopedia, 5:271-72.
16. Saint Paulinus of Nola,
Letters of St. Paulinus of Nola, vol. 2 (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press,
1966-67), 101.
17. The Catholic
Encyclopedia, 5:272.
18. Richard Bauckham,
"The Martyrdom of Enoch and Elijah," Journal of Biblical Literature
95 (1976): 447.
19. Mackay, "Early
Christian Interpretation," 229.
20. Cassiodorus,
Cassiodorus: Explanation of the Psalms (New York: Paulist Press, c. 1990-c.
1991), 7.
21. Morris M. Faierstein,
"Why Do the Scribes Say That Elijah Must Come First?" Journal of
Biblical Literature 100 (March 1981): 85.
To Support this Blog:
