²⁸ You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’^(A)

²⁰ He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”^(A)

²³ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness,^(A) ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”^[a](B)

3 “I will send my messenger,^(A) who will prepare the way before me.^(B) Then suddenly the Lord^(C) you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant,^(D) whom you desire,^(E) will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord,^(A) in the spirit and power of Elijah,^(B) to turn the hearts of the parents to their children^(C) and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”^(D)

² as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

¹¹ “I baptize you with^[a] water for repentance.^(A) But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with^[b] the Holy Spirit^(B) and fire.^{(C) 12} His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”^(D)

³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

²⁵ questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”