"This is He of whom I said, `He who is coming after me has
been put before me,' for He was before me."
001:016 For He it is from whose fulness we have all received,
and grace upon grace.
001:017 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ.
001:018 No human eye has ever seen God: the only Son, who is in
the Father's bosom--He has made Him known.
001:019 This also is John's testimony, when the Jews sent to him
a deputation of Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him who he was.
001:020 He avowed--he did not conceal the truth, but avowed, "I am
not the Christ."
001:021 "What then?" they inquired; "are you Elijah?" "I am not," he said.
"Are you the Prophet?" "No," he answered.
001:022 So they pressed the question. "Who are you?"
they said--"that we may take an answer to those who sent us.
What account do you give of yourself?"
001:023 "I am the voice," he replied, "of one crying aloud,
`Make straight the Lord's way in the Desert,' fulfilling the words
of the Prophet Isaiah."
001:024 They were Pharisees who had been sent.
001:025 Again they questioned him. "Why then do you baptize," they said,
"if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?"
001:026 "I baptize in water only," John answered, "but in your midst
stands One whom you do not know--
001:027 He who is to come after me, and whose sandal-strap I am not
worthy to unfasten."
001:028 This conversation took place at Bethany beyond the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.