Was John the dipper Elijah? ~ Cross reference of Luke 3:3 to Isaiah 40:3
Luke was written by a follower of Paul and never met Jesus. He wrote his gospel based on his efforts talking to people who probably knew Jesus or they heard about Jesus from people who knew Jesus. Scholars believe Luke wrote it around the 80 CE. All the 4 gospels have this event documented and I believe it was important for the writers to use prophecies in Malachi and Isaiah to say that Jesus is the promised messiah that Israel is waiting for. In Luke's version John the dipper is portrayed as a very authoritative figure that very much aligns with Jewish & Romans historical writings. In fact Luke says that the people thought John the dipper was the messiah. In Luke you do not see any mention of Elijah but that John the dipper was the voice talked about in Isaiah 40. Matthew goofs up by calling John the dipper as Elijah and quoting Isaiah 40 that has nothing to do with Elijah. Mark plays it safe by quoting both Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3 [which is the prophecy about Elijah coming b...