John 1:19–28

John the Baptist’s Message

¹⁹The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John, to ask him, “Who are you?”

²⁰John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: “I am not the Messiah.”

^21*“Who are you, then?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?”

“No, I am not,” John answered.

“Are you the Prophet?”^b they asked.

“No,” he replied.

²²“Then tell us who you are,” they said. “We have to take an answer back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

^23*John answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah:

“I am ‘the voice of someone shouting in the desert:

Make a straight path for the Lord to travel!’ ”

²⁴The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees, ²⁵then^c asked John, “If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?”

²⁶John answered, “I baptize with water, but among you stands the one you do not know. ²⁷He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals.”

²⁸All this happened in Bethany on the east side of the River Jordan, where John was baptizing.