John 1:21

What then? - What thenare we to think?" or, - What thenart thou?"

Art thou Elias? The Scribes taught that Elijah would come again before the coming of the Messiah (Matthew 17:10), and this belief is repeatedly alluded to in the Talmud. Comp. Malachi 4:5.

I am not A forger would scarcely have ventured on this in the face of Matthew 11:14, where Christ says that John isElijah. But Christ is there speaking figuratively (comp. Luke 1:17); John is here speaking literally. He says he is not Elijah returned to the earth again.

that prophet Rather, the Prophet, the well-known Prophet of Deuteronomy 18:15, who some thought would be a second Moses, others a second Elijah, others the Messiah. From John 7:40-41 we see that some distinguished -the Prophet" from the Messiah; and from Matthew 16:14 it appears that Jeremiah or other prophets were expected to return. Comp. Esther 2:18; 1Ma 14:41. This verse alone is almost enough to prove that the writer is a Jew. Who but a Jew would know of these expectations? Or if a Gentile chanced to know them, would he not explain them to his readers? In John 1:25; John 6:14; John 6:48; John 6:69 our translators have repeated the error of translating the definite article by -that" instead of -the."

No The Baptist knows that -the Prophet" is the Messiah. His replies grow more and more abrupt; -I am not the Christ," -I am not," -No."