"Elijah cast the old faith in Yahweh in a new mould and placed it on a new foundation. This justifies the tradition that places him beside Moses." (543)
He is a figure of the Messianic age (Mal 3:23 MT) (543).
Three parallel traditions about Elijah's return developed in intertestamental times.
1. Elijah is from the tribe of Gad; he would return to prepare the way for God and deliver Israel in the last days (543-44)
2. from the tribe of Benjamin; he would be the forerunner of the Messiah (544).
3. Tribe of Levi; he would be the high priest of the Messianic age (544).
Texts
Sir. 48.10 - E will restore tribes of Israel, paralleled with Isa 49:6, in which the Servant restores the tribes (thus E fulfills a messianic function). (544)
Mal 3.23 (MT) combined with 2.24, E would be eschat. high priest. Mal 3.24, E is to reconcile men. Restore pure doctrine and pure community. (544)
Acc. to Targum, God would gather the diaspora through E and Moses. Midrash on Ps. 43, there are 2 deliverers, E of Levi and Messiah of David's house (544).
Qumran speaks of 2 messiahs, one from Judah, one priestly (presumably Levite). (DNTT doesn't give Q reference) (544)
Elijah in NT
- mentioned 29 times.
- Mk 15.34/Mt 27.46, Jesus prays the words of Ps. 22.1(2), misunderstood to ask for Elijah; because E did not intervene, Jesus' messianic claim could have been considered a failure. (Is there evidence of this? Cf. A. Schlatter, Der Evangelist Matthaus, 1963, 783). (544)
- E was to come before the dawn of the end (Mk 9.11; Mt 17.10)
- Some thought JB was E, some thought Jesus was E (Mk 6.15; 8.28) (545)
- Mk 9.11, E must come first; expression of Jewish expectation of E as forerunner of Messiah (545).
- Appearance of E and Moses with Jesus in Mk 9, "it is an announcement of the beginning of the end time" (545).
- E could also function at J's transfig as confirmation/foreshadowing of his coming suffering because Elijah is a suffering figure (Mk 9.12f; Rev 11.3; non-canonical lit., but no examples!) (545).
Reoccuring Sources
- Thrall, M., "Elijah and Moses in Mk's acct of the Transfig", NTS
- Robinson, J. A. T., "Elijah, John, and Jesus," in Twelve NT Studies, 1962, 28-52.
Evaluation
- Bietenhard describes who E is in OT
- his analysis in NT is mostly surrounding Transfiguration and extra-biblical tradition about E's role in coming of Messiah.
- Interesting note about E being a foreshadowing/confirmation of Jesus' coming suffering. Perhaps E as a man of sorrows; is there something from E's story that is brought to mind - transported into Jesus' story? Or is it E's connection to the Servant in Isaiah that brings this across?
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