Christ call John 'Elijah', because, like Elijah, John was an admonisher, a zealot, and a desert-dweller. The Lord therefore refutes the opinion of the Pharisees who held that Elijah would be the forerunner of the first coming of the Messiah. How does He refute? 'Elijah cometh first, and restoreth all things: and how is it written of the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things?'
What Christ is saying is this: when Elijah the Tishbite comes, he will make peace with the unbelieving Jew, and will bring them to faith. thus he will be the forerunner of the second coming. For if the Tishbite, who shall restore all things, were the forerunner of the first coming, how then is it written that the Son of Man shall suffer this and that?
Logically it comes to this: if we believe the Pharisees' teaching that Elijah will be the forerunner of the first coming, then the Scriptures are false which say that Christ will suffer. But if these Scriptures are true, then the Pharisees are wrong in teaching that Elijah will be the forerunner of the first coming. For Elijah shall restore all things, and then there will be no Jew who remains an unbeliever, but as many as hear Elijah's preaching will believe. The Lord confounds the opinion of the Pharisees when he says that Elijah, meaning John, has already come, and they did unto him whatsoever they pleased. For they did not believe in him, and in the end his head was cut off, as the trophy of some game.
11. Elijah indeed will come first. We have stated elsewhere the origin of that error which prevailed among the Jews. As John the Baptist was to resemble Elijah by restoring the fallen condition of the Church, the prophet Malachi (4:5,6)had even given to him the name of Elijah; and this had been rashly interpreted by the scribes, as if Elijah the Tishbite (1 Kings 17:1) were to return a second time to the world. Christ now declares that every thing which Malachi uttered was true, but that his prediction had been misunderstood and distorted from its true meaning. The promise, says he, that Eliah would come was true, and has been already fulfilled; but the scribes have already rejected Elijah, whose name they idly and falsely plead in opposing me.
And will restore all things. This does not mean that John the Baptist restored them perfectly, but that he conveyed and handed them over to Christ, who would complete the work which he had begun. Now as the scribes had shamefully rejected John, Christ reminds his disciples that the impostures of such men ought not to give them uneasiness, and that it ought not to be reckoned strange, if, after having rejected the servant, they should, with equal disdain, reject his Master. And that no one might be distressed by a proceeding so strange, our Lord mentions that the Scripture contained predictions of both events, that the Redeemer of the world, and Elijah his forerunner, would be rejected by false and wicked teachers.
Having failed to find any reference in Chrysostom's writings, I was reading Iraeneus writings this morning trying to seek for clues. While it too offers no clues to this particular passage, Iraeneus does talk about the destruction of Jerusalem in the past tense and references Josephus, indicating John the Baptist was "in the spirit of" Elijah. It does not appear from his writing (albeit, it was vague) that he felt Elijah and Enoch would return and all Jews would be saved.
I will admit I might have missed a work that describes all this.
And whence did the disciples know this? He had already told them, He is Elias, which was for to come; but here, that he hath come; and again, that Elias cometh and will restore all things. But be not thou troubled, nor imagine that His statement wavers, though at one time He said, he will come, at another, he hath come. For all these things are true. Since when He saith, Elias indeed cometh, and will restore all things, He means Elias himself, and the conversion of the Jews which is then to take place; but when He saith, Which was for to come, He calls John, Elias, with regard to the manner of his administration. Yea, and so the prophets used to call every one of their approved kings, David; and the Jews, rulers of Sodom, and sons of Ethiopians; because of their ways. For as the other shall be forerunner of the second advent, so was this of the first. Chrysostom
This is a very interesting take on this whole story. Thanks for posting it.