And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you that prophet? And he answered, No.
All Commentaries on John 1:21 Go To John 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And they asked him, &c. When John denied that he was the Christ, the messengers asked him if he were Elias. For him God took away, that he might be the forerunner of Christ. And of him they were then in expectation, according to the words of Malachi ( Malachi 4:5), "Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come," meaning the day of judgment, when Christ shall return to be the judge of all. But the Scribes did not understand this. They thought that there would be but one advent of Christ, and that a glorious one, the precursor of which would be Elias. Thus the Jews think even now that Christ has not yet come, but is about to come with Elias. And yet they ought to have known from the same Malachi ( Malachi 3:1) that there would be another precursor of Christ"s first coming in the flesh, even John the Baptist. "For I," saith the Lord, "do send My messenger, and he shall prepare My way before My face."
Art thou that prophet? Greek, ό πζοφήτης, the prophet par excellence. "Art thou a new and great prophet, such an one as we think will come with Messiah, to be His herald?" So SS. Chrysostom and Cyril. But they (the Jews) were in error. For Christ needed not a prophet, as Moses, who was not eloquent, needed Aaron. But Christ was His own prophet, herald, priest, and lawgiver. Moreover John was not a prophet in the sense that he foretold things to come. But he pointed out with his finger, as it were, Christ present. Therefore was he more than a prophet, as Christ says in the11th of Matthew.
