Resulting Comments - What Of The Return of Elijah? (9:9-13).
What they had seen had stirred their thinking and they now asked Jesus on the way down from the mountain about the anticipated coming of Elijah. That is what they had been taught from childhood on the authority of the Scribes. Why then had Elijah not come?
Analysis.
a And they asked Him, saying, “How is it that the Scribes say that Elijah must first come?” (Mark 9:11)
b And He said to them, “Elijah indeed does come first, and restores all things” (Mark 9:12 a).
c “And how is it written of the Son of man, ‘That He should suffer many things and be set at nought?' ” (Mark 9:12 b).
b But I say to you, that Elijah is come (Mark 9:13 a).
a And they have also done to him whatever they would, even as it is written of him (Mark 9:13 b).
Note that in ‘a' the Scribes (from the Scriptures - Malachi 4:5) say that Elijah must first come, and in the parallel they have treated him badly, also as the Scriptures have said. In ‘b Jesus confirms that Elijah would indeed come first, and in the parallel confirms that he has already come (in the person of John the Baptiser). Centrally in ‘c' He refers to what the Scriptures have said about the Son of Man, and how He too is to be ill-treated and set at nought.