This
is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He declared, and didn’t deny, but he declared, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” They said therefore to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don’t know. He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loosen.” These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
John 1:19-28
John 1 [10.] He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’” From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
John 1 [19.] This is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
John 1 [20.] He declared, and didn’t deny, but he declared, “I am not the Christ.”
John 1 [21.] They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
John 1 [22.] They said therefore to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
John 1 [23.] He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
John 1 [24.] The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”
John 1 [26.] John answered them, “I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don’t know. He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loosen.” These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
John 1 [29.] The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.’ I didn’t know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel.” John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him. I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
Meaning:
After the prologue, John's Gospel begins its narrative with an official inquiry. The religious leaders in Jerusalem send a delegation to question John the Baptizer. His answers are short and mostly negative, because his whole aim is to turn attention away from himself and toward the one who is coming.
- “Who are you?”
John's preaching and baptizing had stirred the whole country, and many wondered “whether perhaps he was the Christ” (Luke 3:15). They sent priests and Levites, experts in purification rites, and the delegation included Pharisees (verse 24).
- “I am not the Christ”
John answers the question behind the question. He “didn’t deny, but he declared” it, a doubled phrase that stresses how firmly he refused any messianic claim.
- “Are you Elijah?” “Are you the prophet?”
Malachi had promised, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes” (Malachi 4:5). Moses had said, “Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me” (Deuteronomy 18:15). John denies being either.
His denial of being Elijah may seem puzzling, since Jesus said of him, “this is Elijah, who is to come” (Matthew 11:14), and the angel said he would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). Many explain that John was not Elijah returned in person, as people expected, but he fulfilled Elijah's role.
- “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness”
Pressed for a positive answer, John quotes Isaiah: “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!” (Isaiah 40:3). In ancient times roads were prepared before a king's visit. John's call to repentance was preparing hearts for the Lord himself.
- “Why then do you baptize?”
Jews knew washings for purification, and converts from other nations were sometimes baptized. John was calling Israelites themselves to be baptized, as if they too needed a fresh start. The Pharisees asked by what right he did this.
- “whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loosen”
John points beyond his own water baptism to someone already standing among them, unrecognised. Untying sandals was a servant's task; John feels unworthy even of that (Mark 1:7).
The Significance of John 1:19-28
- Knowing who we are not
John was secure enough to say plainly what he was not. Humility begins with refusing to claim a role that belongs to Christ.
- A voice for Christ
John was content to be a voice. Believers are called to speak clearly about Jesus and then step aside so that he is seen.
- Christ among us unrecognised
“Among you stands one whom you don’t know.” Jesus can be close to people who do not yet recognise him. John's testimony invites us to look again.
Cross-References:
Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!” The prophecy John applies to himself.
Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet” The background to the question about Elijah.
Deuteronomy 18:15: “Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you,” The background to the question about the prophet.
Mark 1:7: “After me comes he who is mightier than I,” Mark's account of John's preaching.
Conclusion: John 1:19-28 records John the Baptizer's testimony before the delegation from Jerusalem. He denied being the Christ, Elijah or the prophet, and called himself only a voice preparing the way of the Lord. He pointed to one already among them, whose sandal strap he was not worthy to loosen.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible