NOTES for Mat 17:11-12

This is how Christ answers the question about Malachi's prophecy, which says, "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5). It is striking that the Bible's words about the Messiah are understood figuratively, while the words about the Forerunner are understood literally. The Jews expect Elijah's coming, and the disciples are surprised by Christ's interpretation. This gives us a chance to see the distance between what God wants to say to us and what we are able to hear. And that is why, after His Resurrection, Christ's disciples say that we can understand the Old Testament only through the New. Only the real events of Jesus Christ's life enable us to distinguish what the Old Testament was telling us figuratively and what it was telling us literally.