Mark 9:9-13

⁹ Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

¹⁰ So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.

¹¹ And they asked Him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

¹² Then He answered and told them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

¹³ But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”

Also found in Matthew 17:9-13 and Luke 9:36.

kept (v.10) = kept carefully and faithfully, kept a strong hold on, mastered

questioning (v.10) = seeking with one another, disputing among themselves with the purpose of finding something out

The apostles still didn’t understand what Jesus meant when He said “the Son of Man should rise [lit. translation] from the dead.”

the asked (v.11) — tense indicates continuous action

Literal translation: And they kept on putting the question to Him, saying, The scribes are constantly saying that it is necessary in the nature of the case for Elijah to come first. — Wuest, page 179.

indeed (v.12) = verily, truly

The Lord made two things clear: first, that ‘Elijah’ had already come in the person of John the Baptist and had been rejected and killed; secondly, the Son of Man would suffer the same fate as His forerunner. “As it is written of him” must refer to the persecutions Elijah suffered (1 Kings 19:1-3). John had found his Ahab and Jezebel in Herod and Herodias. — Guthrie, page 870.

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The aim is to awaken thought in the minds of the disciples by putting together things incongruous. All things to be restored in preparation for Messiah; Messiah Himself to suffer and be set at naught: what then can the real function and fate of Elijah the restorer be? Who is Elijah? In Matthew 11:14, our Lord identifies John the Baptist as Elijah. We are not to understand that he was the actual Elijah of the Old Testament, nor that his appearance and ministry to Israel fulfilled the prophecy of the future coming and ministry of Elijah, but that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the hearts of Israel for the first Advent of Messiah as Elijah will do for His second Advent.

Elijah was persecuted by Jezebel and John was beheaded at the request of Herodias, and as Elijah will in the future be crucified by Antichrist (Revelation 11:8, “where also our Lord was crucified”). — Wuest, page 179.