Holier Than Thou - Biblical Contradictions

Was John the Baptist Elijah?

Matthew 11:13-14, "For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come."

Matthew 17:11-13, "Jesus replied, 'To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.' Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist."

Mark 9:13, "But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

John 1:19-23, "Now this was John's testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, 'I am not the Christ.' They asked him, 'Then who are you? Are you Elijah?' He said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' He answered, 'No.' Finally they said, 'Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?' John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, 'I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ [Isaiah 40:3]' ”

According to Matthew and Mark, Jesus considered John the Baptist to be the return of Elijah, however, according to John, John the Baptist denied he was Elijah.

"Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." (Ecclesiastes 7:3-4, KJV)

"Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 8:15, KJV)