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24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.[a])[b] 25 So they asked John,[c] “Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ,[d] nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 John answered them,[e] “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not recognize,[f]

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Footnotes

  1. John 1:24 sn Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.
  2. John 1:24 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
  3. John 1:25 tn Grk “And they asked him, and said to him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity, and the phrase has been simplified in the translation to “So they asked John.”
  4. John 1:25 tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).sn See the note on Christ in 1:20.
  5. John 1:26 tn Grk “answered them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legōn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
  6. John 1:26 tn Or “know.”