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John 1:19-28
New American Standard Bible
John 1:19-28
New American Standard Bible
The Testimony of John the Baptist
19 This is (A)the testimony of John, when (B)the Jews sent priests and Levites to him (C)from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 And he confessed and did not deny; and this is what he confessed: “(D)I am not the [a]Christ.” 21 And so they asked him, “What then? Are you (E)Elijah?” And he *said, “I am not.” “Are you (F)the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Tell us, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am (G)the voice of one calling [b]out in the wilderness, ‘Make the way of the Lord straight,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24 And the messengers had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the [c]Christ, nor Elijah, nor (H)the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, saying, “(I)I baptize [d]in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 It is (J)He who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy even to untie the (K)strap of His sandal.” 28 These things took place in Bethany (L)beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing people.
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John 1:19-28
J.B. Phillips New Testament
John 1:19-28
J.B. Phillips New Testament
John’s witness
19-20 This then is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He admitted with complete candour, “I am not Christ.”
21 So they asked him, “Who are you then? Are you Elijah?” “No, I am not,” he replied. “Are you the Prophet?” “No,” he replied.
22 “Well, then,” they asked again, “who are you? We want to give an answer to the people who sent us. What would you call yourself?”
23 “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24-25 Now some of the Pharisees had been sent to John, and they questioned him, “What is the reason, then, for your baptising people if you are not Christ and not Elijah and not the Prophet?”
26-28 To which John returned, “I do baptise—with water. But somewhere among you stands a man you do not know. He comes after me, it is true, but I am not fit to undo his shoes!” (All this happened in the Bethany on the far side of the Jordan where the baptisms of John took place.)
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John 1:19-28
New International Version
John 1:19-28
New International Version
John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah
19 Now this was John’s(A) testimony when the Jewish leaders[a](B) in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”(C)
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”(D)
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”(E)
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness,(F) ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”[b](G)
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with[c] water,”(H) John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me,(I) the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”(J)
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan,(K) where John was baptizing.
Footnotes
- John 1:19 The Greek term traditionally translated the Jews (hoi Ioudaioi) refers here and elsewhere in John’s Gospel to those Jewish leaders who opposed Jesus; also in 5:10, 15, 16; 7:1, 11, 13; 9:22; 18:14, 28, 36; 19:7, 12, 31, 38; 20:19.
- John 1:23 Isaiah 40:3
- John 1:26 Or in; also in verses 31 and 33 (twice)
New American Standard Bible (NASB) 
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.