Passage
They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”
John 1:21 (WEB)
Nearby Context
John 1:19 This is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
John 1:20 He declared, and didn’t deny, but he declared, “I am not the Christ.”
John 1:21 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”
John 1:22 They said therefore to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
John 1:23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’Isaiah 40:3 as Isaiah the prophet said.”
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "asked", "elijah", "said", "prophet", and "answered". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "asked" and "elijah", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 20's "He declared and didn t deny but..." into verse 22's "They said therefore to him Who are...", so "asked" and "elijah" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "asked" and "elijah" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.