John 1:19-28

This is the testimony of John the Baptist. Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He willingly confessed that he was not the MESSIAH. So they asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?" "I am not," he replied. "Are you the Prophet?" "No," answered John. "Then who are you?" they asked. "Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?" John replied, quoting Isaiah, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the LORD." Those who had been sent were Pharisees, and asked him, "Why then do you baptize if you are neither the MESSIAH, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize in water, but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, and I am not even worthy to untie his shoes." This encounter took place in Bethany, on the East side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.