20. He confessed (admitted the truth) and did not try to conceal it, but acknowledged, I am not the Christ!
21. They asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not! Are you the Prophet? And he answered, No! [Deut. 18:15, 18; Mal. 4:5.]
22. Then they said to him, Who are you? Tell us, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?
23. He said, I am the voice of one crying aloud in the wilderness [the voice of one shouting in the desert], Prepare the way of the Lord [level, straighten out, the path of the Lord], as the prophet Isaiah said. [Isa. 40:3.]
24. The messengers had been sent from the Pharisees.
25. And they asked him, Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?
26. John answered them, I [only] baptize in (with) water. Among you there stands One Whom you do not recognize and with Whom you are not acquainted and of Whom you know nothing. [Mal. 3:1.]
27. It is He Who, coming after me, is preferred before me, the string of Whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose.
28. These things occurred in Bethany (Bethabara) across the Jordan [at the Jordan crossing], where John was then baptizing.
29. The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! [Exod. 12:3; Isa. 53:7.]
30. This is He of Whom I said, After me comes a Man Who has priority over me [Who takes rank above me] because He was before me and existed before I did.
31. And I did not know Him and did not recognize Him [myself]; but it is in order that He should be made manifest and be revealed to Israel [be brought out where we can see Him] that I came baptizing in (with) water.