21. They asked him, "What then? 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 may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?"
23. He said, "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said."
24. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.
25. 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 in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.
27. It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."
28. These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
30. This is He on behalf of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'