Matthew Poole and continuators on John 1:21

21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias ? And he saith, I am not . Art thou that Prophet ? And he answered, No .

Iohn was at Bethabara when these Messengers came to him, v. 28. they asked him if he were Elias. The Iews had not onely an expectation of the Messias, but of Elias to come as a Messenger before him, according to the Prophecy, Mal. 4.5. as appeareth, Matth. 17.10. Mar. 9.11. of which they had a gross Conception here, That Elias should come, out of Heaven personally, or at least that his Soul should come into another Body (according to the Pithagorian Opinion) now the meaning of the Prophecy was, That one should come like Elias, and this was fulfilled in Iohn, Luke 1.17. as our Saviour tells us, Matth. 17.12. Mark 9.13. but they asked the Question according to that notion they had of Elias.

To which Iohn answereth, that he was not neither that Elias that ascended in a Fiery Chariot to Heaven; nor any body informed with Elias's Soul, (and thus the words of our Saviour, Matth. 17.12. Mark 9.12. are easily reconciled to this Text.)

They go on, and ask him if he were that Prophet, or a Prophet? Some think that he meant the Prophet promised, Deut. 18.18. but that was no other than Christ himself, which he had before denied himself to be; nor doth it appear from any Text of Scripture, that the Iews had any expectation of any other particular Prophet; but it is plain from Luke 9.8. that they had a notion that it was possible one of the old Prophets might rise again from the Dead, for so they guessed there concerning Christ: But others think that the article in the Greek here is not emphatical; and they onely asked him if he were a Prophet; for the Iews had a general notion, that the Spirit of Prophecy had left them ever since the times of Zechariah and Malachy; which they hoped was returned in Iohn the Baptist, and about this they question him, if he were a Prophet?

To which he answereth, No, Neither that Prophet promised, Deut. 18.18. nor yet any of the old Prophets risen from the dead; nor yet one like the Prophets of the Old Testament, who onely Prophecied of a Christ to come; but as Christ calls him, Matth. 11.9. More than a Prophet, one who shewed and declared to them a Christ already come; for the Law and the Prophets Prophecied but until Iohn; the Law in its Types foreshewing, the Prophets in their Sermons foretelling a Messiah to come, Iohn did more. His Father indeed, Luke 1.76. called him the Prophet of the highest; but there Prophet is to be understood not in a strict, but in a large sense, as the term Prophecy is taken, Rom. 12.6. And the term Prophet often signifieth one that revealeth the Will of God to men; in which large sense Iohn was a Prophet, and yet more than a Prophet in the stricter notion of the term; and in that sense No Prophet, that is, no meer Prophet; so Numb. 11.19. Moses tells the people they s[illegible: 1 letter]ould not eat flesh one, or two, or five, or ten, or twenty days, because they should eat it a whole Month together.

Marginal references: A Prophet.