Back to the Sandwich 6:14ff

I was thinking of just skipping through this story about John the baptist- it seems like a fairly long interlude (especially for Mark)- but I've just been reading through it in Greek (that sounds far more impressive than it is – the amount of understanding I have when reading through it is not like normal reading) and there are interesting things here. One is the contrast with another 'king' and his family and their family values. Another is with the impressiveness of John the Baptist.

For awhile here the lens pans back from Jesus and his immediate circle. Jesus is causing a stir in the land- from the highest levels of society down. And there a few different theories about him- The guilty conscience of Herod sides with those that said it was John the Baptist back from the dead- others said it was Elijah, others 'a prophet like one of the prophets'. None of these guesses seems too bad- They're probably about as close as you can get in the Jews collective experience. There's a whiff of one of the prophets of old (they don't appear any more- with the exception of John the Baptist- he was like that too) But with such power- hence the comparisons to Elijah. And if Elijah is showing up again that would increase messianic expectation (strong since 400 BC?). The question of the disciples- why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?- is a good one.
Malachi 4:5 – Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord (Yhwh) comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.
- That's the very last sentence in Malachi- the last sentence in our old testament- where did it fit in for the Jews.