17. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.
18. No one has seen God at any time; the one and only, God, the one who is in the bosom of the Father—that one has made him known.
19. And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem so that they could ask him, “Who are you?”
20. And he confessed—and he did not deny, and confessed—“I am not the Christ!”
21. And they asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not!” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No!”
22. Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”
23. He said, “I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’ just as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24. (And they had been sent from the Pharisees.)
25. And they asked him and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26. John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water. In your midst stands one whom you do not know—
27. the one who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal!”
28. These things took place in Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29. On the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
30. This one is the one about whom I said, ‘After me is coming a man who is ahead of me, because he existed before me.’