On the basis of Malachi 4.5 (in the Hebrew text, Mal 3.23), many Jews also believed that Elijah would appear before the end of time to prepare the way for the day of the Lord. When asked, Are you Elijah? John replied emphatically, No, I am not.

In translating the sentence Are you Elijah? It is important not to suggest merely “Is your name Elijah?” In languages which require some specification as to whether a person is dead or still living, the introduction of such a marker would indicate clearly that the Jewish authorities were asking John the Baptist whether he was a kind of reincarnation of Elijah. Most languages, however, have no such convenient device and simply to ask one person whether he is someone else may not make sense. Therefore, in some languages the rendering is “Is your work the work of Elijah?” or even “Are you the same as Elijah?”

According to Deuteronomy 18.15, 18, Moses promised that God would continue to send Israel Prophets like himself. But by New Testament times the Prophet was a particular figure of Jewish eschatological expectation. In 7.40-41 also, the Prophet is distinguished from the Messiah. Evidently the author of the Gospel intends to make it clear to his readers that John the Baptist did not understand himself to be any of those persons expected in Jewish religious thought.

In some languages it may not be sufficient to use a definite article such as “the” in the question Are you the Prophet? Such a use of the article would be misleading in some languages, since “the Prophet” has not been previously identified in this particular context. Accordingly, in some languages such a phrase as “that special prophet” is justified, and it may be desirable to introduce a marginal note to indicate the relation of this question to Old Testament prophecies and to the views of Jewish religious leaders in New Testament times.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .