John 1:21–30

²¹“Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

²²So they said to him, “Who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

²³John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”^f

²⁴Then the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

²⁶“I baptize with^g water,” John replied, “but among you stands One you do not know. ²⁷He is the One who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

²⁸All this happened at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is He of whom I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’