And they asked him, what then? art thou Elias?
&c.] Elijah, the prophet; the Tishbite, as Nonnus in his
paraphrase expresses it; who was translated, soul and body, to
heaven: the Jews had a notion that that prophet would come in
person a little before the coming of the Messiah; (See Gill on
Matthew
17:10) wherefore these messengers inquire, that since he
had so fully satisfied them that he was not the Messiah, that he
would as ingenuously answer to this question, if he was Elias, or
not: and he saith, I am not;
that is, he was not Elijah the prophet that lived in Ahab's time,
and was called the Tishbite; for John's answer is to the
intention of their question, and their own meaning in it, and is
no contradiction to what Christ says of him, ( Matthew
11:14 ) that he was the Elias that was to come; for he was
the person meant by him in ( Malachi 4:5 ) though
not in the sense the Jews understood it; nor is it any
contradiction to what the angel said to Zacharias, ( Luke 1:17 ) for he does
not say that John should come in the body, but in the power and
spirit of Elias; (See Gill on Matthew
11:14). Art thou that prophet?
Jeremiah, whom some of the Jews F20 have thought to be the
prophet Moses spoke of, in ( Deuteronomy
18:15 ) and expected that he would appear about the times of
the Messiah; see ( Matthew
16:14 ) or any one of the ancient prophets risen from the
dead, which they also had a notion of, ( Luke 9:8 Luke 9:19 ) or, as it may
be rendered, "art thou a prophet?" for prophecy had long ceased
with them: and he answered, no;
he was not Jeremiah, nor any one of the old prophets risen from
the dead, nor a prophet in the sense they meant: he was not like
one of the prophets of the Old Testament; he was a prophet, and
more than a prophet, as Christ says, ( Matthew 11:9
) yet not such a prophet as they were; his prophesying lay not so
much in predicting future events, as in pointing out Christ, and
preaching the doctrine of the remission of sins by him.