²⁸ You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ^(A)‘I am not the Christ, but ^(B)I have been sent before him.’

^20 (A)He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

²³ He said, “I am ^(A)the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight^[a] the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

3 ^(A)“Behold, I send ^(B)my messenger, and ^(C)he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord ^(D)whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and ^(E)the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, ¹⁷ and ^(A)he will go before him ^(B)in the spirit and power of Elijah, ^(C)to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and ^(D)the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, ^(E)to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

^2 (A)As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,^[a]

^11 (A)“I baptize you with water ^(B)for repentance, but ^(C)he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you ^(D)with the Holy Spirit and ^(E)fire. ¹² His ^(F)winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and ^(G)gather his wheat into the barn, ^(H)but the chaff he will burn with ^(I)unquenchable fire.”

³ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

²⁵ They asked him, ^(A)“Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”