Malachi 4:5

The scribal teaching that 'Elijah must come first' directly reflects Malachi's promise to send Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD. Jesus affirms and reinterprets this expectation, identifying the returned Elijah with John the Baptist. Verbal and thematic volume is high.

'this is Elijah, who is to come' directly invokes Mal 4:5, 'I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD,' interpreting John as the returning Elijah.

The priests' question 'Are you Elijah?' (v.21) invokes the promise that God will send Elijah before the great day of the LORD. The expectation is directly named, so the allusion is secure; John's denial plays against this eschatological script. High coherence.

The popular guess that 'Elijah had appeared' presupposes Malachi's promise that Elijah returns before the day of the LORD, a live Second-Temple expectation (cf. Sirach 48:10). High coherence with Luke's whole Elijah-return motif and high availability.

Malachi 4:5 (3:23 MT) promises Elijah's return 'before the great day of the LORD'; Mark casts John in this role, fusing it with the messenger of Malachi 3:1. Verbal volume in 1:2-8 is indirect, but the Elijah dress (v.6) and Mark 9:11-13 make the figural identification explicit and recurrent. Coherence is the engine of the whole prologue.

The popular guess that Jesus is 'Elijah' draws directly on Malachi's promise to send Elijah before the great day of the LORD; the expectation of Elijah redivivus frames the crowd's christological speculation. Mark develops Elijah typology around John the Baptizer.

The crowd's cry 'A great prophet has arisen among us' activates the expectation of an Elijah-like prophet whose coming Malachi promises before the Day of the LORD. Coherence with the deliberate Elijah typology of the resurrection scene makes this more than incidental, though the verbal link is to the popular prophetic-return hope rather than a citation.

The crowd's repeated options—John, Elijah, a risen old prophet—again invoke the Malachi/Sirach returning-Elijah and eschatological-prophet hopes, here set against the true confession. Recurrence within the chapter strengthens it.

Elijah's appearance on the mountain activates the expectation that Elijah will come before the day of the LORD, made explicit in 9:11-13. His presence beside Moses pairs Law and Prophets as witnesses to Jesus. The motif is developed verbally in the following pericope.

The bystanders' guess that Jesus is 'calling Elijah' and the wait to 'see whether Elijah comes' trade on the expectation, from Malachi, that 'Elijah the prophet' would come before the great day of the Lord. The Elijah-redivivus hope is the Second-Temple backdrop that makes the misheard 'Eloi' into a question about eschatological rescue.

The popular identification of Jesus with Elijah ('some say... Elijah') depends on Malachi's promise that Elijah would return before the day of the LORD, an expectation Matthew engages elsewhere (11:14; 17:10-13).

'Before the great and notable day of the Lord' overlaps the Malachi expectation of the great and dreadful day of the LORD; the phrase is shared eschatological idiom that Joel and Malachi both carry. Faint and mediated through Joel; contested as an independent source.

Expectation of the eschatological prophet/messiah in the wilderness or hidden chamber plays against authentic prophetic anticipation; the 'wilderness' rumor (v.26) trades on Elijah-style wilderness expectation.

'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great day of the LORD' — the bystanders' '(He) is calling Elijah... let's see whether Elijah comes to save him' plays on the Elijah-eschatology expectation; a sound-pun on Eli/Elijah but thematically tied to Malachi.