25. "Now as Yochanan was completing his course, he was saying, 'What do you suppose me to be? I am not! But, hinei, he comes after me of whom I am not worthy to untie the sandal of his feet."
26. "Achim, Bnei Mishpochah Avraham, and Yirei Elohim, it is to us that the dvar of this Yeshu'ah HaGedolah (Great Deliverance) was sent out. [TEHILLIM 107:20]
27. "For the ones dwelling in Yerushalayim and their moshlim (rulers) did not have da'as of this one or of the dvarim of the Nevi'im being read every Shabbos; they fulfilled these dvarim by condemning him.
28. "Even without finding a cause for a mishpat mavet, they asked Pilate that he be done away with.
29. "When they finished all the things having been written about him, he was taken down from HaEtz (DEVARIM 21:23), and they put him into a kever (tomb, Isa 53:9).
30. "But Hashem made him to stand up alive again from the Mesim,
31. "and he was seen over many yamim by the ones having come up with him from the Galil to Yerushalayim who now are his edim to the people.
32. "And we are preaching to you the Besuras HaGeulah of the Havtachah made to Avoteinu, [YESHAYAH 40:9; 52:7]
33. "That Hashem has fulfilled this havtachah for us, their banim, having made to stand up alive again Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua, as also in the Tehillim it has been written, BENI ATAH, ANI HAYOM YELIDETICHA ("You are My son; today I have become your father"). [TEHILLIM 2:7]
34. "And that He made him to stand up alive again from the Mesim, no longer to return to decay, thus he has said, `I will give you CHASEDEI DOVID HANE'EMANIM. [YESHAYAH 55:3 TARGUM HASHIVIM]
35. "Therefore, also elsewhere in the Tehillim, he says LO TITEN CHASIDECHA LIR'OT SHACHAT ("You will not allow your Chasid (Moshiach) to undergo decay"). [TEHILLIM 15:10; 16:10 TARGUM HASHIVIM]
36. "For Dovid, after in his own dor (generation) he had served birtzon Hashem, fell asleep, and VAYISHKAV DOVID IM AVOTAV ("and Dovid rested with his fathers") and he experienced decay. [SHMUEL BAIS 7:12; MELACHIM ALEF 2:10; SHOFETIM 2:10; DIVREY HAYAMIM BAIS 29:28]
37. "But whom Hashem made to stand up alive again did not experience decay.