Scholarly discussion concerning Elijah in Luke is affected mainly by the detection of the many
allusions to Elijah in connection with Jesus and at the same time by noting the absence of
some associations of Elijah with John the Baptist familiar from the Gospel according to Mark.
This twofold observation has brought many scholars to rethink whether or not Luke continues to
present John as the Elijah who was to come. In Luke's perspective John is the Elijah promised
by Malachi acting in the spirit and power of the Elijah of old. Luke furthermore agrees with
Malachi that the promised messenger prepares for the Lord. These and several other claims
concerning the theme are proposed to the reader as the fruit both of the scholarly discussion
and of an analysis of the appropriate Lucan texts in this monograph.
