Elijah

This song is focused on the tradition of the Jewish Passover and the symbolism within (interestingly enough it seems from a specific latter-day saints point of view). When John said "this song is about jail...kinda"... I believe he is telling the story of him being released from jail (one of the times). This makes sense because passover is at the same time both the celebration of the freedom of the Israelites shortly following the (biblical) plagues (the literal part), as well as a symbolic celebration of redemption via God (the figurative part).

As for the lyrics (I'll just cover a few)...

The first part of the song seems to refer to cooking a Kosher meal. Coconut oil is a very common ingredient when cooking Kosher.

The second part of the song refers to idols and finally eating the food cooked in the first part because now he is starving (from fasting/lent/etc). This again is direct reference to passover.

"set the table, those three extra places one for you, one for your doubts, one for god" : this refers to the order in which the return of the messiah will occur: Elias, Elijah, God. In that way it may also be seen as a symbolism of time.

"feel the fulness (yes one 'L") of time, in the empty tomb" : The term "fulness of time" in the biblical sense refers to the idea of all time had between start (in this case the start of passover) and end (the return of the messiah). This is a clear reference to the tomb of the risen Christ. This could go a million different ways with analysis ... whether you place the character in this song in jail, finally home, home but thinking about jail, or just in a bad relationship and thinking about the end of the world... etc. Do with it however it relates to you best.

"Feel the future, kicking in your womb" : I find this possibly the most interesting part of the song. This I actually had to research a bit and the best I can come up with is from the King James version of the Bible, Luke 1:44 which states ":For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy". This is the story of Elizabeth visiting Mary to tell her that she is the mother of god. Mary basically tells her that as soon as Elizabeth began speaking baby Jesus started kicking inside her womb.

• Just an FYI that I am actually agnostic. I didn't want to leave the impression that I am a crazed theist with too much time on his hands. I guess I'm an agnostic with too much time on his hands... and a general interest in things that I don't subscribe to.

**I've never written here (or anywhere) before, nor have I ever really gone into detail with anyone about my opinion behind the meaning of John's songs. I hope that this wasn't too horrible and boring and drawn out for people that just want to enjoy the damn song. If so, I apologize.