They
asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
Mark 9:11
Mark 9 [9.] As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept this saying to themselves, questioning what the “rising from the dead” meant.
Mark 9 [11.] They asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
Mark 9 [12.] He said to them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to, even as it is written about him.”
Meaning:
Walking down the mountain, Peter, James, and John have a question. They had just seen Elijah appear with Jesus (Mark 9:2-4), and Jesus had spoken of the Son of Man rising from the dead (Mark 9:9-10). If the end of the age was arriving, where was the Elijah who was supposed to come first? Their question reveals the hopes and the teaching of their time.
- “Why do the scribes say”
The scribes were the experts in the law of Moses who copied, studied and taught the Scriptures. Their teaching shaped what ordinary Jews believed about the future. In Mark they often oppose Jesus, but on this point they were reading the Scriptures correctly. Their mistake, as Jesus will explain, was not recognising how the prophecy had been fulfilled (Mark 9:12-13).
- “That Elijah must come first”
The teaching came from the closing words of the Old Testament: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5-6). Earlier Malachi had promised, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me” (Malachi 3:1). Many expected Elijah to return in person before the Messiah came. Jewish families still leave an empty place for Elijah at the Passover meal.
The expectation was widespread. When people tried to explain Jesus himself, some said, “He is Elijah” (Mark 6:15), and the disciples had reported the same rumour at Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:28).
- A question behind the question
The disciples had just confessed Jesus as the Christ and seen him in glory. Yet if Elijah must come first and restore all things, how could the Messiah suffer and be killed, as Jesus had been teaching? Perhaps they also wondered whether Elijah’s brief appearance on the mountain was the promised coming. Their question is an honest attempt to fit what they had seen into what they had been taught.
Mark has already given his readers the answer. His Gospel opens with Malachi’s promise of a messenger and then introduces John the Baptizer (Mark 1:1-2), who appeared in the wilderness “clothed with camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist” (Mark 1:6), like the prophets of old.
The Significance of Mark 9:11
- Bring your questions to Jesus
The disciples did not hide their confusion; they asked Jesus. Believers today also meet passages and teachings that seem hard to fit together. The right response is to bring those questions to the Lord in prayer and in the Scriptures, trusting that he will give understanding.
- God keeps his promises in his own way
The prophecy about Elijah was fulfilled, but not in the way most people expected. God’s promises are always kept, yet he often fulfils them in ways that surprise us. Humility helps believers recognise God’s work even when it does not look as they imagined.
Cross-References:
Malachi 4:5: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes." The source of the scribes’ teaching that Elijah must come first.
Malachi 3:1: "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple;" The messenger prepares the way for the Lord himself.
Matthew 17:10: "His disciples asked him, saying, “Then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”" Matthew records the same question on the way down the mountain.
Mark 8:28: "They told him, “John the Baptizer, and others say Elijah, but others: one of the prophets.”" The expectation of Elijah’s return was in the air.
Conclusion: After seeing Elijah on the mountain and hearing Jesus speak of rising from the dead, the disciples asked why the scribes taught that Elijah must come first. The teaching rested on Malachi’s promise and was widely held. Jesus’ answer will show that the prophecy had already been fulfilled in John the Baptizer. The question reminds believers to bring their confusion honestly to Jesus and to trust that God keeps every promise, often in unexpected ways.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible