23. He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24. (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)
25. They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26. John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know,
27. even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
28. These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
30. This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’
31. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32. And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.