From Jesus’ standpoint, this absolute solidarity between God and the Son of Man on the one hand, and himself on the other presented no enigma, for it was based upon his messianic selfconsciousness; he can speak thus because he is conscious of being himself the Son of Man. It was quite different for the people, and for the Disciples before the revelation at Cæsarea Philippi. How can Jesus of Nazareth, in a manner so sovereignly self-confident, proclaim his absolute solidarity with the Son of Man? This assertion forced the people to reflect upon his personality. Who was this whose manifestation mightily extended out of the pre-messianic and into the messianic æon itself, so that God and the Son of Man receive into the Kingdom such as had confessed him, if this confession did not lose its value by reason of the defect of moral worthiness, as he himself once expressly declared by way of warning? Such importance as Jesus claimed for himself belonged to only _one_ personality,—Elijah, the mighty Forerunner,—for his manifestation stretched out of the present into the messianic [pg 139] æon and bound both together. Hence the people held that Jesus was Elijah. In this was expressed the highest estimate which Jesus’ personality could wring from the masses. In this case it is not a question of one of the customary misunderstandings so beloved of the secondary Gospel narrators, but the people _could not,_ from Jesus’ appearance and proclamation, come to any other conclusion about him. 3. Jesus Is Elijah through the Signs which Proceed from Him. In order to render intelligible the attitude of Jesus’ contemporaries towards himself and his work, we must rid ourselves of two false presuppositions with which we constantly though unconsciously operate. First, the expectation at that time was not fixed upon the Messiah but upon the Forerunner promised by prophecy. Secondly, no one in any way detected this Forerunner in the person of the Baptist. Both of our presuppositions run precisely to the contrary effect, and thereby we spoil our historical perspective. The appearing of the Messiah in conjunction with the great crisis which he brings about constitutes the supernatural drama which the world awaits. But before the curtain [pg 140] rises there must arise among the expectant sons of men the man who is to speak the prologue of the piece; who then, so soon as the curtain is lifted, associates himself with the celestial personages which conduct the action of the drama. Hence men are in expectancy first of all not for the rising of the curtain and the appearing of the Messiah but for the speaker of the prologue. _It was important to signalise the entrance of the Forerunner upon the stage in order to know to what hour the hand of the world clock pointed._