17. God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
19. The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John, to ask him, “Who are you?”
20. John 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?” 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!’ ”
24. The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees,
25. then asked John, “If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?”
26. John answered, “I baptize with water, but among you stands the one you do not know.
27. He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals.”
28. All this happened in Bethany on the east side of the River Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29. The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
30. This 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.’
31. I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel.”