Mark 9:11 (WEB)

Passage

They asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

Nearby Context

Mark 9:9 As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Mark 9:10 They kept this saying to themselves, questioning what the “rising from the dead” meant.

Mark 9:11 They asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

Mark 9:12 He said to them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised?

Mark 9:13 But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to, even as it is written about him.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "asked", "saying", "scribes", "elijah", "must", "come", and "first". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "asked" and "saying", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "They kept this saying to themselves questioning..." into verse 12's "He said to them Elijah indeed comes...", so "asked" and "saying" belong inside that flow. In Mark context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "asked" and "saying" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.