John the Baptist Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this, and followed Jesus. John, also, was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there were many streams there; and people were constantly coming and being baptized. (For John had not yet been imprisoned). Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a fellow Jew on the subject of 'purification;' and the disciples came to John and said: "Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, and to whom you have yourself borne testimony – he, also, is baptizing, and everybody is going to
John the Baptist , 'Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?' The disciples are then told by Jesus that Elijah came in the person of John the Baptist, These passages are applied to John in the Synoptic Gospels. But where Matthew specifically identifies John the Baptist as Elijah's spiritual successor (), the gospels of Mark and Luke are silent on the matter. The Gospel of John states that John the Baptist denied that he was Elijah. Many scholars believe there was contact between the early church in the Apostolic Age and what is called the "Qumran-Essene community". The Dead Sea