[1:19] The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John to ask him, “Who are you?”
[1:20] John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: “I am not the Messiah.”
[1:21] “Who are you, then?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?” “No, I am not,” John answered. “Are you the Prophet?” they asked. “No,” he replied.
[1:22] “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?”
[1:23] 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!’”
[1:24] The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees,
[1:25] then asked John, “If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?”
[1:26] John answered, “I baptize with water, but among you stands the one you do not know.
[1:27] He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals.”
[1:28] All this happened in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.