Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 17:10

10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes, that Elias must first come?

Before these Words, Mark saith, Ch. 9. v. 10. And they kept that Saying with themselves; questioning one with another, what this rising from the dead should mean? Then he addeth. And they asked him, Saying, Why say the Scribes, that Elias must first come. The Disciples (as appeareth) were as yet very imperfectly instructed in the Doctrine of Mans Redemption by Christ, tho Christ had before told them, that as Ionah was three Days, and three Nights in the Belly of the Whale: So he should be three Days, and three Nights, in the Belly of the Earth. How dull the best of Men are to apprehend spiritual Mysteries, which are above the reach of our Reason? The Iews had a Tradition, and retain it to this day, That before the coming of the Messias, Elias should come; they build it upon, Mal. 4.4, 5. That they had such an Expectation appeareth by their sending to Iohn the Baptist, Ioh. 1.21. to know if he were he, meaning Elias the Tishbite (for him they expected) and this was their great Error, and still blindeth them. The Disciples had now seen Elijah and possibly might wonder at our Saviours forbidding them to speak of the Vision, as thinking, that nothing could more conduce, to the receiving of him as the Messiah: Or, possibly they might wonder at Elijah's so soon leaving the Earth, the Messiah being come, whom they expected he should come before. So as tho they were fully satisfied, that Christ was the true Messiah, yet they knew not how to reconcile their Faith to the Promise, or to their Tradition built upon the Promise. This causeth the Question.

Marginal references: Chap. 11.14.