For Jesus’ consciousness the healing of the demoniacs was therefore a part of the secret of the Kingdom of God. It sufficed for the people, however, to grasp the purely chronological connection. 5. Jesus and the Baptist. We have seen above that no one could recognise Elijah in the person of the Baptist because his ministry and preaching without miracle did not correspond with the Scriptural representation of the Forerunner’s time. None thought of ascribing to him this office and dignity except—for there was one exception—_Jesus!_ He it was that first gave the people a mysterious hint that this man was the Forerunner: “If ye are willing to receive it, he himself is Elijah, the coming-one” (Mt 11:14). He is aware, however, that with this he is giving utterance to an incomprehensible secret which to his hearers remains just as obscure as the word uttered in the same connection about the man of violence who since the days of the Baptist compel the Kingdom (Mt 11:12). Hence he concludes both these sayings with the oracular phrase: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Mt 11:15). The people, however, were very far from [pg 146] comprehending that this Baptist who had fallen into the hands of Herod could be the prodigious personality who was to stand upon the threshold between the pre-messianic and the messianic age. So the mysterious word of Jesus died upon the air, and the people stuck to the opinion that John was really a prophet (Mk 11:32). The rulers also could reach no conclusion about the personality of the Baptist. For this reason they were worsted in their colloquy with Jesus when they would challenge him for his purifying of the Temple (Mk 11:33). The case was quite the same with the Disciples: they were incapable by themselves of recognising in John the expected Elijah. On the descent from the Mount of Transfiguration they were assailed by scruples about the messiahship of Jesus and about the possibility of the resurrection of the dead which Jesus had touched upon in his discourse. This assumed, indeed, that the messianic era was already present, and this could not yet have dawned, for “Elijah must first come, as the scribes demonstrate” (Mk 9:9-11). Thereupon Jesus replied to them that John was this Elijah, even though he was delivered into the power of men (Mk 9:12, 13). [pg 147]