Tanakh Prophecy
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD."
Fulfillment
"Elijah has come already, and they did not know him — He spoke of John the Baptist."
Rabbinic Sources
"Elijah comes to announce and prepare for the Messiah."
Deep Dive: Path prepared by Elijah
Historical Context
The prophecy found in Malachi 4:5–6, which states, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD," is situated within a critical period in Israel's history. Malachi, the last of the Twelve Minor Prophets, likely wrote this text during the post-exilic era, around the 5th century BCE, shortly after the return of the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity. This was a time marked by a longing for restoration, both spiritually and politically, as the Jewish community faced challenges in re-establishing their identity and covenant relationship with God.
Archaeological evidence from this period, such as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, demonstrates the fervent hope among various Jewish sects for prophetic fulfillment and messianic restoration. The Qumran community, for instance, anticipated a dual messianic figure, one of priestly lineage and another of royal descent, with the return of Elijah being
Two Millennia of Adversary Positions
5 eras of objections to this prophecy, with primary sources and Messianic corrections.
Trypho the Jew (per Justin Martyr)
Elijah Has Not Come to Anoint the Messiah
"For we all expect that Christ will be a man born of men, and that Elijah will come to anoint him. But if this man appear to be Christ, he must certainly be known as man born of men; but from the fact that Elijah has not yet come, I infer that this man is not He [the Christ]."
Trypho argues that the Jewish people universally expect Elijah to physically return and anoint the Messiah before he is revealed. Since Elijah has not yet appeared, he concludes that Jesus, who was not anointed by a returned Elijah, cannot be the Christ.
Rashi
Elijah Will Literally Arrive a Day Before
"Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet: [This is] a day before the coming of the day of the Lord, so that he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children."
Rashi interprets Malachi's prophecy to mean that Elijah the prophet will literally and physically appear one day before the 'day of the Lord.' His specific mission will be to reconcile Jewish families and bring peace to the world, preparing Israel to accept God's dominion.
Maimonides (Rambam)
Elijah's Coming is Expected but Details are Unknowable
"And some of the Sages say that Elijah will come before the coming of the Messiah. And all these and similar things, no man will know how they will be until they are, for they are undefined in the words of the prophets, and also the Sages have no tradition regarding these matters, but only according to the text."
Maimonides affirms the tradition from the Sages that Elijah will come before the Messiah. However, he classifies the specific details and order of such messianic-era events as obscure and ultimately unknowable, cautioning that they are not fundamentals of faith and that one should simply wait for their fulfillment rather than speculate on the details.
Tovia Singer
John the Baptist's Own Denial Disproves the Claim
"Who, then, should we believe? Should we accept Jesus’ testimony that John the Baptist was Elijah, or should we believe John the Baptist himself, who insisted he was not Elijah? Bear in mind that according to the Christian scriptures, John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Therefore, he was not a man who would lie."
Tovia Singer presents the testimony of John the Baptist himself as the definitive refutation of the Christian claim. When asked point-blank 'Are you Elijah?', John unequivocally states 'I am not' (John 1:21). Singer argues that since Christian texts claim John was filled with the Holy Spirit, he would not lie, making his own testimony more credible than Jesus's later claim about him.
IslamQA.info
Elijah's Return is an Unfounded Jewish Belief
"The belief that Ilyaas is still alive is part of the beliefs of the Jews, but there is no sound evidence for it in our religion. Rather what appears to be the case is that he died."
From an Islamic standpoint, the premise of the argument is rejected. The belief that the Prophet Ilyas (Elijah) is still alive and will return to earth is considered a Jewish tradition that lacks any sound evidence in Islamic sources (the Qur'an and authentic Hadith). Mainstream Islamic scholarship holds that Elijah died, making the question of his return and its fulfillment by John the Baptist (Yahya) a moot point.