Mark 9:12

12 Jesus answered, "They are right to say that Elijah must come first and make everything the way it should be. But why does the Scripture say that the Son of Man will suffer much and that people will treat him as if he were nothing?

Mark 9:12 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 9:12

And he answered, and told them
Allowing that their observation was right, and that this was the sense of the Scribes, and that there was something of truth in it, when rightly understood:

Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things:
(See Gill on Matthew 17:11);

and how it is written of the son of man, that he must suffer many
things, and be set at nought.
The sense of Christ is, that John the Baptist, whom he means by Elias, comes first, and restores all things: and among the rest of the things he sets right, this is one, and not of the least; namely, that he gives the true sense of such passages of the sacred writings, which related to the contemptuous usage, rejection, and sufferings of the Messiah; as that in these he was the Lamb of God typified in the sacrifices of the law, who by his sufferings and death takes away the sin, of the world; and therefore he exhorted and directed those to whom he ministered, to look unto him, and believe in him; see ( John 1:29 ) ( Acts 19:4 ) .

Mark 9:12 In-Context

10 So the followers obeyed Jesus, but they discussed what he meant about rising from the dead.

11 Then they asked Jesus, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"

12 Jesus answered, "They are right to say that Elijah must come first and make everything the way it should be. But why does the Scripture say that the Son of Man will suffer much and that people will treat him as if he were nothing?

13 I tell you that Elijah has already come. And people did to him whatever they wanted to do, just as the Scriptures said it would happen."

14 When Jesus, Peter, James, and John came back to the other followers, they saw a great crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them.