The Testimony of John

¹⁹ This is the testimony of John [the Baptist] when the Jews sent priests and Levites to him from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰ And he confessed [truthfully] and did not deny [that he was only a man], but acknowledged, “I am not the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)!” ²¹ They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the [promised] Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”^{(A) 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 the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”^(B)

²⁴ Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵ They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶ John answered them, “I baptize [only] ^[a]in water, but among you there stands One whom you do not recognize and of whom you know nothing.^{(C) 27} It is He [the preeminent One] who comes after me, the ^[b]strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie [even as His slave].” ²⁸ These things occurred in Bethany across the Jordan [at the Jordan River crossing], where John was baptizing.