And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
John 1:21
In John 1:21, the Jews (particularly, the Levites) are asking John the Baptist who he is. They ask of he is Elijah, or the prophet. In Matthew 16:14, an almost paralleled statement is made which adds Jeremiah.
What makes this interesting is that they knew the Messiah was to appear soon. This is part of the shock and surprise we are meant to understand in Matthew 2, when it is the Gentiles from the East who are coming and inquiring about the Jewish king to be born. The Scribes reply, apparently with little to no interest, that he will be born in Bethlehem, quoting Micah 5. Matthew’s gospel being tailored to the Jewish audience, making the clear distinction between the attitude of the Jews and the Gentiles, it is made clear in this passage. The Jews knew but took no note. The Gentiles actively went pursuing him. The Jews knew the Messiah was to appear soon, and when they heard of John the Baptist, they questioned him on this fact.
“Are you Elias?” That is, the Greek form of “Elijah.” Elijah was said to have been taken by whirlwind into heaven, and much second temple Jewish literature argues that he was taken bodily, without dying. They expected Elijah to come back, bodily, before the coming of the Messiah. The first question of these Jews was, essentially: “are you Elijah appearing before the coming Messiah?” John replies to them “no,” while Jesus says “yes,” John is Elijah (Matthew 18:12-13). Either John seemed to not quite understand that he was to be symbolically as an antitype of Elijah, coming before the Messiah, or he did not wish to confuse them into thinking he was literally Elijah coming down from heaven. Either way, John’s response to them is, no, which prompts the next question.
“Are you the prophet?” Muslims will often assert that this prophet they asked for is Muhammad, yet without any basis or clarification on why that must be. This prophet may be Jeremiah, who many of the Jews expected to appear also before the Messiah. However, I’m not inclined to believe that this is what they meant. At Matthew 16:14 they say “Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” If John was not the prefigure to the Messiah, then they are asking about the Messiah directly. The prophet to come. I believe this is a reference to Deuteronomy 18:18, “I will raise up a prophet from among you and put my words in his mouth.” Are you this prophet to come? I believe they are asking if John is this Messiah to come, and this is the Messiah they expected. A prophet from among the people.
The point I wish to make about this passage, is:
First, they never asked if John was God, or if God was coming. This doesn’t seem to be on their minds.
Second, if this is a reference to Deuteronomy 18 (and many other scholars believe it may be), this is very interesting that it comes just after the dialogue on the word of God coming into the world.
How often do Trinitarians run to John 1:1, 3, 9, 10, and 14, to assert that the word which was coming into the world, was God in the form of Jesus? His supposed incarnation from a preexistent state to becoming flesh in a hypostatic union? Yet, John is making a call back to this passage. What are the implications here? The word becoming flesh is, “I will put my words in the mouth of this prophet.” Could this be the simple way in which we are meant to interpret and understand John 1:14? John isn’t the prophet to come. “No, I am not.” But he testifies to this prophet to come. Jesus is not the word which became flesh, but the flesh that became the word. The word was placed on his mouth. This shouldn’t be such a strange connection for us. For even Peter links this prophecy to Jesus (see Acts 3). How many times in John’s gospel does Jesus say that the words he speaks are not his own, but what the Father has put on his mouth? (See John 14:24 for example)
John has just finished testifying that he is “the one who will make straight the path of the Lord.” The Lord being God. By being the forerunner of the Messiah who speaks God’s words, John’s role is to encourage Israel to listen to the one who comes after him, because he “does not speak from himself, but the Father has told him what to say.” God is dwelling in the man, Jesus, tabernacling in the temple that is his body, and the word is becoming flesh because his words are on his mouth.