John 1:20-28

20He didn’t deny it but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”

21“What then?” they asked him. “Are you Elijah?” “I am not,” he said. “Are you the Prophet?” “No,” he answered.

22“Who are you, then?” they asked. “We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What can you tell us about yourself?”

23He said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord  — just as Isaiah the prophet said.”

24Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.

25So they asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you aren’t the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?”

26“I baptize with water,” John answered them. “Someone stands among you, but you don’t know him.

27He is the one coming after me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to untie.”

28All this happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.