²⁴ Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. ²⁵ And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

²⁶ John answered them, saying, ^(A)“I baptize with water, ^(B)but there stands One among you whom you do not know. ^27 (C)It is He who, coming after me, ^[a]is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”

²⁸ These things were done ^(D)in ^[b]Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.