for the promotion of the faith, that the event may be recognised as already corresponding to the expectation of the Scribes. — vpurW) first) sc. before the Messiah's kingdom.
11. "EPXZTUI, cometh) The present tense, midway between prediction and fulfilment ; and the ministry of John was effica cious also after his death. — dToxaraffr^e/, shall restore) The same verb is used by the LXX. in Mai. iii. 24 [iv. 6]. And this office of restoring all things furnishes a proof that the prophecy concerning Elias did not refer to his brief appearance on the Mount of Transfiguration. — -rrdvra, all things) sc. regarding parents and children, i.e. seminally j1 see John x. 40, 41, and Acts xix. 3.
12. As, but) He teaches that there is not only no inconsist ency, but also an actual congruity, between the coming of Elias and the death of the Messiah. — ovx ivsyvuffav aurii/, they knew him not) although Jesus (xi. 14) had openly told it them.2 — oaa. edfr.r,<fa.v, whatsoever they listed3) The death of John is not as cribed to Herod alone ; cf. Gnomon on ch. xiv. 9. Jesus asserts that Elias has come in the person of John the Baptist ; John denies it ; both truly, if you compare these apparently conflict ing statements with the questions to which they were replies. The Jews asked John, whether he were Elias (cf. ch. xxvii. 49) — he, that is to say, who was to come before the second advent, or great and terrible day of the Lord. John therefore replies in the negative. The disciples, comparing the opinion of the Scribes with the discourses of Christ, and endeavouring to re concile them together, fancied that Elijah the Tishbite would
1 " Seminaliter," i.e., he will sow the seed of these things : lie will initiate them, as the preparation for what is to follow. — (I. B.)
2 The world either altogether disbelieves the truth, or else, clinging to mere expectations, refuses to believe the actual fulfilment itself.
-v. g.
3 Whatsoever they listed, and that too owing to their evil and wanton lust. It is this very blind perversity of the world which causes the necessity that one must burst through so many obstacles to a good cause. It not seldom happens, that one who has effected some good, waits in expectation of most splendid recompences from the world on that account. But the man who knows God, the world, and himself, cannot long persist in such an expecta tion. The merits which receive remuneration of this kind are not spiritual but worldly. — V. g.
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