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Here is a portion of John 1 from the KJV:

19And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?

20And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

21And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.

22Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

23He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

24And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

25And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?

26John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;

27He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

Here is my question. They are asking John if he is a certain prophet. What's the prophet's name?

Jersey Girl
:-)

The three personages mentioned in the above passage besides John are the Messiah, Elijah and Isaiah.

In the time of Jesus and John the banks of the river Jordan were crowded with baptised converts who accepted John as a prophet of God. Among those who came to see him were members of the jewish authority - members of the Sanhedrin, whose obligation it was to test Johns claim.

The question they asked was the same as the question asked to Christ by Peter James and John as they came down from the Mount of Transfiguration. John the Baptist had come as an Elias (*) to prepare the way before Christ, who then, himself, came as the Elias who was to restore all things as far as the meridian dispensation was concerned. John was the Elias of preparation, Jesus the Elias of the restoration.

As Peter, James, and John left the Mount of transfiguration, Jesus confirmed John the Baptist's prior announcement that he, John, was an Elias; then our Lord revealed the further truth that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, Elias shall restore all things, as the prophets have foretold.

Peter, James, and John knew, as Malachi had written, that Elijah the prophet was to come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Mal. 4:5-6.) Apparently also they, and all of the Jews, knew of some other ancient prophecies (since lost and now unknown to us) which specified that before Christ came, Elias should first come and restore all things. What troubled the three apostles was that Jesus, whom they knew to be the Christ, had come and been ministering for nearly three years, after all of which Elijah had come. How was it, they pondered, that the scriptures promised that Elias would precede the coming of the Son of Man, and would restore all things by way of preparation for that transcendent event, when in fact he had come after?

In answer, Jesus explains: "Yes, it is truly written in the prophets that Elias shall first come and restore all things, and it is also written that Elijah shall return before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come. But both of these comings are yet future. Elijah and Elias shall both return in the last days as part of the restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets. Then Elijah shall restore again the keys of the sealing power, and Elias shall bring to pass the restoration of all things. All this is yet furture; it is not for your day. But as pertaining to this dispensation, that Elias who is John the Baptist has already come; he it is who prepared the way before my face; he it is who taught what the prophets had foretold about me; and as was also foretold concerning him; he was rejected and slain."

Elijah the prophet, the same person who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on April 3, 1836, and conferred upon them the keys and sealing power. (D&C 110:13-16.) Elias, a name-title used to signify the combined ministries of all the ancient prophets who came to restore keys and authority in modern times, has also performed his assigned ministery. Between May 15, 1829, when the resurected John the Baptist returned to confer keys and priesthood, and September 6, 1842 - when Joseph Smith, writing by way of revelation, recorded the list of ancient prophets who, each in turn, had returned bringing their "dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories" (D&C 128:18-21) - the work of Elias of the restoration was accomplished.


(*) :
Bible DICTIONARY
Elias
There are several uses of this word in the scriptures.
It is the N.T. (Greek) form of Elijah (Hebrew), as in Luke 4: 25-26, James 5: 17, and Matt. 17: 1-4. Elias in these instances can only be the ancient prophet Elijah whose ministry is recorded in 1 and 2 Kings. The curious wording of JST Mark 9: 3 does not imply that the Elias at the Transfiguration was John the Baptist, but that in addition to Elijah the prophet, John the Baptist was present.
Elias is also a title for one who is a forerunner, for example, John the Baptist, as in JST Matt. 11: 13-14, JST Matt. 17: 10-13, and JST John 1: 19-28. These passages are sufficiently clarified to show that anciently two Eliases were spoken of, one as a preparer and the other a restorer. John was sent to prepare the way for Jesus, Jesus himself being the Restorer who brought back the gospel and the Melchizedek Priesthood to the Jews in his day (see JST John 1: 20-28, in the Appendix). In this particular instance there is reflected also the comparative functions of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods.
The title Elias has also been applied to many others for specific missions or restorative functions that they are to fulfill, for example, John the Revelator (D&C 77: 14); and Noah or Gabriel (D&C 27: 6-7, cf. Luke 1: 11-20).
A man called Elias apparently lived in mortality in the days of Abraham, who committed the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland (Ohio) Temple on April 3, 1836 (D&C 110: 12). We have no specific information as to the details of his mortal life or ministry.
Thus the word Elias has many applications and has been placed upon many persons as a title pertaining to both preparatory and restorative functions. It is evident from the questions they asked that both the Jewish leaders and the disciples of Jesus knew something about the doctrine of Elias, but the fragmentary information in our current Bibles is not sufficient to give an adequate understanding of what was involved in use of the term. Only by divine revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith is this topic brought into focus for us who live in the last days.

Thanks Mok and Gaz! I'm going to keep track of this thread for a bit longer before I comment.

Jersey Girl