John 1:19–34

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.

The Lamb of God

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.’ ³¹I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel.”

³²And John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on him. ³³I still did not know that he was the one, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴I have seen it,” said John, “and I tell you that he is the Son of God.”