A) Elijah was an icon of Zealot violence, hence he was sanitized as the persecuted John the Baptist (in other terms, John the Baptist is only a tool to sell a new politically correct Elijah)
B) all the midrash from Elijah serves to rehabilitate John the Baptist against the Marcionite defamation of him (in other terms, the midrash from Elijah is only a tool to sell a new politically correct John the Baptist).
