John the Baptist Talks about Jesus

²² After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside. He spent some time there with them and began baptizing. ²³ John was also baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People^[a] kept coming and were being baptized, ²⁴ since John had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵ Then a controversy about ritual purification sprang up between a certain Jew^[b] and John’s disciples, ²⁶ so they went to John and told him, “Rabbi,^[c] the man who was with you on the other side^[d] of the Jordan, the one about whom you testified—look, he’s baptizing, and everyone is going to him!”

²⁷ John replied, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to them from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves are my^[e] witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,^[f] but I have been sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹ It is the bridegroom who gets the bride, yet the bridegroom’s friend, who merely^[g] stands by and listens for him, is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That’s why this joy of mine is now complete. ³⁰ He must become more important, but I must become less important.”