Trypho said: To my mind, however, they who say He has been man, and has been anointed, by selection, and has become Christ, speak with greater acumen than you and yours who say what you now affirm. For all of us Jews expect that Christ will be man of merely human origin, and that Elijah will come and anoint Him. But if this man seems to be the Christ, one must certainly acknowledge that He is man of merely human origin. Yet as Elijah has not come I declare that He is not even Christ.
Then I in turn asked him: Does not the word by Zechariah say that Elijah will come before that great and terrible Day of the Lord?
He answered: Most certainly.
If therefore the word compels you to acknowledge that it was prophesied that there would be two Advents of Christ, one in which He will appear liable to suffering, and without honour and form; and the other, in which He will come in glory and as Judge of all, as has been proved earlier at some length, shall we not perceive that the word of God has proclaimed that Elijah will be the forerunner of the great and terrible Day, namely, His second Advent?
Most certainly, he answered.
And so our Lord, I said, charged us in His doctrines that this very thing would take place, saying that Elias also would come. And we know that this will take place when our Lord Jesus Christ is about to come in glory out of heaven, just as the spirit of God that was in Elijah, that is to say in John (who was a prophet in your race, and after whom no other prophet has ever appeared among you) came forth as the herald of His first appearance. For John, seated by the River Jordan, cried aloud: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that is mightier than I shall come, whose sandals I am not fit to carry; He shall baptize you with (the) Holy Ghost and fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He shall thoroughly purge His threshing-floor, and shall gather the wheat into the barn, but the stubble He shall burn with fire unquenchable.
This very Prophet did Herod your king shut up in prison, and when Herod’s birthday was being celebrated, and his niece was dancing in a way that pleased him, he told her to ask whatever she should desire. The mother of the girl suggested to her to ask for the head of John who was in the prison. And when she had asked, he sent and commanded the head of John to be brought on a charger.
Therefore also our Christ spoke, when He was still on earth, to those who were saying that Elijah must come before Christ: Elijah indeed will come and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they recognized him not, but did to him whatsoever they would. And it is written: Then the disciples understood that He spake to them about John the Baptist.
Then Trypho said: This phrase also of yours seems to me strange, that God’s spirit of prophecy which was in Elijah has also been in John.
To this I replied: Does it not seem to you that the same thing happened in the case of Joshua, the son of Nun, who received the leadership of the people in succession after Moses, when Moses was told to lay his hands on Joshua, God Himself saying: And I will transfer some of the spirit that is in thee to him?
He answered: Most certainly.
As therefore, I say, while Moses was still among men, God transferred some of the spirit that was in Moses to Joshua, thus also was God able to cause spirit from Elijah to come upon John, in order that, as Christ appeared without glory at His first Advent, in the same way also the first Advent of the spirit, which ever remained unsullied in Elijah, might be seen to be without glory, as was that first Advent of Christ.
For the Lord is said to fight with hidden hand against Amalek, and you will not deny that Amalek fell. But if it is said that only in the glorious Advent of Christ Amalek will be fought, what kind of fruit will that word of Scripture have which says with hidden hand God fights with Amalek? You can perceive that some hidden power of God belonged to Christ in His crucifixion, at whom even the demons tremble, and, in fact, all the powers and authorities of the earth.