Who is 'Elias?'
An important figure for the Restoration in the Last Days
Most Protestants and Catholics read about Elias in the New Testament and they presume this is a Hellenized version of the name of the prophet Elijah. They misinterpret the prophecy that Elias would come to restore all thing to mean he was John the Baptist.
Joseph Smith added clarity to this doctrine, stating that Elias was both a man and a priesthood office. To hold the office of an Elias was to be a forerunner. John the Baptist was an example of a man holding the calling and office of Elias. He came to prepare the way for the arrival of Jesus, to prepare people to receive and accept Christ’s greater light.
Yet Elias was also a man who lived in Old Testament times. He appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery during the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in April 1836, along with Moses, Elijah, and the Savior himself.
Elias also appeared at the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus was transfigured and the three apostles, Peter, James, and John, heard the voice of the Father testify of Jesus’ divinity. The Joseph Smith Translation of the New Testament relates that, at this event, Moses, Elias, and Elijah appeared, and that John the Baptist was also present. From these two transcendent visions, Elias is a different person than John the Baptist and from Elijah.
Some wording in Doctrine and Covenants 110, where Elias appeared, relates that there may have been a man in the days of Abraham who committed the keys of the “gospel of Abraham” to our dispensation. John 17 tells us that the expectation of the Jews in Jesus time was that he would come again to “restore all things.” Jesus explained to the disciples that Elias had ended come and that the people had done away with him, meaning John the Baptist. This is another example of Elias the office, not Elias the man.
Doctrine and Covenants, Section 27, gives us some insights into who the Elias was who was charged with restoring all things. Speaking of a reunion of all these righteous patriarchs of the past, the Lord told Joseph Smith That Elias was given the responsibility for the restoration of all things. The keys of bringing to pass the restoration were committed to him. The Lord elucidates that he (Elias) appeared to Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, to announce the birth of John. In Luke’s gospel, we read that this was the angel Gabriel, who also announced the birth of Jesus to Mary, and who appeared to Joseph in a dream.
Joseph Smith later explained that the patriarchs of the ancient dispensations in mortality, were known by their angelic names before their birth. Adam was Michael, the archangel. Gabriel was Noah, Raphael is presumed to be Enoch. Scholar John Pratt wrote a treatise on the identities of the seven angels found here. It’s an interesting read.
Thus it appears that the Elias to whom the keys of the restoration of all things, who coordinated all the revelatory events of the Restoration, was none other than Gabriel or Noah. This is significant, and it makes sense, that the prophet who presided over the destruction of the Earth by water, would preside over the dispensation in which the world will be destroyed by fire. The Flood was the Earth’s baptism; the Second Coming will be its confirmation, or baptism by fire.
We are fortunate for the clarity provided by a modern prophet. Joseph Smith saw and met all of these ancient patriarchs, from whom he received instruction and keys of authority. We are not reliant solely upon interpreting holy writ for understanding, but we have the more sure word of prophecy, from a living prophet in our time.