4  John the Baptist’s  Testimony to Christ  (John 1:19–37)

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 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 on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. (1:19–37)

The ancient world had seen many great men. It had known feared war leaders, like Alexander the Great; judicious lawgivers, like Hammurabi; profound thinkers, like Socrates; powerful rulers, like Augustus Caesar; wise men, like Solomon; and noble religious leaders, like Abraham, Moses, David, and the judges and prophets of Israel. But the greatest of them all was a most improbable candidate by human standards for that supreme honor. He lived his life in obscurity in the desert, far from society and the seats of power and influence. Nor was he wealthy; by the way he dressed and ate he identified with the poor (Matt. 3:4). Yet he had the most important and elevated task in history: to announce the arrival of the Messiah. This man, John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, was introduced in verse 15 where it is recorded that he confessed that Christ was greater than he. Yet Jesus pronounced him greater than any other person who had ever lived before him (Matt. 11:11). He also said that everyone after John in the kingdom was greater than John because they lived in the fullness of all the new covenant work of the Messiah. John died on the other side of the cross and resurrection, though its merits were applied to him as to all Old Testament saints.

As referenced in chapter 2 of this volume, even his birth was totally unexpected, since his mother, Elizabeth, had always been barren, and she and her husband “were both advanced in years” (Luke 1:7) and beyond childbearing times. While his father, Zacharias, a priest (v. 5), was fulfilling his course of ministering in the temple, the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared to him and made a shocking and unexpected announcement: he and Elizabeth were to have a son (vv. 13–17). Though initially terrified (v. 12), Zacharias found it so unlikely that his fear gave way to doubt and he recovered sufficiently to question the veracity of the angel’s message (v. 18). While his incredulity is understandable, having used his voice to express that sinful doubt, Zacharias was denied by God the use of it until the birth of his son (v. 20).

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visited her. In keeping with Gabriel’s prophecy that John would “be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb” (1:15), the unborn baby John, prompted by the Spirit, leaped for joy at the sound of Mary’s greeting (vv. 41, 44).

The unusual circumstances surrounding John’s birth reached a climax at his circumcision. After naming his son John in obedience to Gabriel’s command (v. 13), “at once [Zacharias’s] mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God” (v. 64). No wonder “fear came on all those living around them; and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea” (v. 65), and “all who heard them kept them in mind, saying, ‘What then will this child turn out to be?’ For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him” (v. 66).

Sometime after his remarkable entry into the world, John disappeared into obscurity “in the deserts” until the beginning of his ministry, when he was about twenty-nine or thirty years old (Luke 1:80). When the word of God came to him (Luke 3:2) initiating his prophetic ministry (cf. Jer. 1:2; Ezek. 1:3; Jonah 3:1; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1), he suddenly “appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). Israel had been waiting for four centuries for God to send them a prophet, so John’s dynamic, forceful preaching stirred up an enormous amount of interest. Large crowds from “Jerusalem … and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan” (Matt. 3:5) flocked to hear his message. In keeping with his role as the herald of the Messiah (v. 23; Mark 1:2–3), John exhorted his hearers, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2) and baptized those who repented as a symbol of their spiritual cleansing (Mark 1:5; John 1:28; 3:23).

In this passage the apostle John gives examples of the Baptist’s witness, alluded to earlier (1:6–8, 15). The events recorded here took place at the peak of his ministry, subsequent to John’s baptism of Jesus. While the Lord was in the wilderness being tempted (Matt. 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13), John continued his ministry of preaching repentance and baptizing. On three successive days, to three different groups, he emphasized three truths about Jesus Christ.

FIRST DAY, FIRST GROUP, FIRST EMPHASIS

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. (1:19–28)

The opening phrase, this is the testimony of John, introduces all three accounts in verses 19–37. As noted in chapter 1 of this volume, the noun marturia (testimony) and the related verb martureo (“testify”) are favorite terms of John’s, appearing more than seventy-five times in his writings. John the Baptist was the first witness called by the apostle John to testify to the truth about Jesus Christ.

The term Jews, while certainly appropriate for all the people of Israel, is in the majority of its uses in John’s gospel restricted especially to the religious authorities (particularly those in Jerusalem) who were hostile to Christ. John alluded to that hostility, a repeated theme, when he wrote, “[Jesus] came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him” (1:11). In this verse the term Jews likely targets the San-hedrin, the supreme governing body in Israel (under the ultimate authority of the Romans). John’s powerful preaching (including his scathing denunciation of the Jewish religious establishment; cf. Matt. 3:7–10) and widespread popularity prompted them to send a delegation to investigate him. That some were beginning to wonder if he might be the Messiah (Luke 3:15) further alarmed the Jewish authorities. They feared a popular uprising, which would have been brutally suppressed by the Romans (cf. John 11:47–50) and diminished their power. So this strange prophet not only unsettled the Jewish authorities religiously, but politically as well.

The delegation sent to investigate John was composed of priests and Levites, at least some of whom were Pharisees (see the discussion of v. 24 below). The priests were the human intermediaries between God and man, and officiated at the religious ceremonies (cf. Luke 1:8–9). They were also the theological authorities in Israel. When they were not serving in the temple for their two-week annual duty, they lived throughout the land as local experts on religion. The Levites assisted the priests in the temple rituals (cf. Num. 3:6–10; 18:2–4). Since the temple police force was made up of Levites (cf. 7:32; Luke 22:4; Acts 4:1; 5:24), they likely served as a security detachment to protect the priests in the delegation.

The first question posed to John, “Who are you?” reflects the Jewish leaders’ confusion regarding him (cf. their questions in vv. 21–22), since he did not fit into any of their messianic expectations. The question implied that John might consider himself the Messiah, as his emphatic (cf. his use of the emphatic pronoun ego) reply, “I am not the Christ” (the Greek word for Messiah) indicates. Messiah had come, John insisted, but he disavowed any thought that he might be Him. In fact, the apostle John’s threefold declaration, he confessed and did not deny, but confessed emphasizes the vehemence of the Baptist’s denial. Unlike some of his followers, he clearly understood his subordinate role as the forerunner of Christ (cf. 3:25–30).

If John were not the Messiah, was there a possibility that he might be another significant figure associated with the end times? Hence the delegation next asked him, “Are you Elijah?” Based on the prophecy of Malachi (3:1 and 4:5), the Jews expected Elijah himself to return in bodily form just before Messiah returned to establish His earthly kingdom. Even today many Jewish people leave an empty seat at the table for Elijah when they celebrate their Passover Seder. John’s appearance was strikingly similar to Elijah’s; according to Mark 1:6, “John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist,” while 2 Kings 1:8 describes Elijah as “a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins.” John’s call for repentance (Matt. 3:2) and warning of coming judgment (Matt. 3:10–12) would have further reminded his hearers of Elijah (cf. 1 Kings 18:18, 21; 21:17–24).

But to the question of whether he was Elijah John also replied, “I am not.” He was not Elijah, at least not in the literal sense that he knew his questioners meant; he was not Elijah returned to earth from heaven where he had gone in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Yet there was a sense in which John was Elijah, as Jesus explained to His disciples:

John was not actually Elijah as the Jews expected; instead he was Elijahlike, coming “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). As noted above, John preached with the same boldness and power as Elijah did. Had the Jewish people believed his message and accepted Jesus as the Messiah, John would have been the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy. “If you are willing to accept it,” declared Jesus, “John himself is Elijah who was to come”(Matt. 11:14). With those words, Jesus interpreted Malachi’s prophecy as referring to one similar to Elijah and not to the prophet himself. John’s reply to the delegation may also suggest that he did not understand himself to be Elijah even in the sense that Jesus affirmed he was. Leon Morris notes,

The next query, Are you the Prophet? came from the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15–18 about a prophet like him who would come and speak the word of God. There was no consensus in first-century Judaism about the precise identity of that Prophet (cf. John 6:14; 7:40). Some believed that he, like Elijah, would be a forerunner of the Messiah (possibly Jeremiah or one of the other prophets resurrected; cf. Matt. 16:14); others saw him as the Messiah Himself. The latter view is the correct one, since both Peter (Acts 3:22–23) and Stephen (Acts 7:37) applied Deuteronomy 18:15–18 to Jesus. Thus John denied being that prophet, answering simply, “No.”

Frustrated by John’s string of terse, negative replies and out of obvious options, the exasperated members of the delegation finally said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us?” In light of John’s popularity (and thus his perceived threat to the authorities), they needed a positive answer from him to include in their report to those who sent them. Giving up trying to guess who he might be, they demanded, “What do you say about yourself?”

John’s reply was undoubtedly not what the delegation expected to hear. Rather than claiming to be someone important, he humbly referred to himself merely as a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Leon Morris observes,

John’s self-abasement is reminiscent of Paul, who viewed himself as “the very least of all saints” (Eph. 3:8; cf. 1 Cor. 15:9; 1 Tim. 1:12–16). It is also in keeping with Jesus’ admonition, “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done’” (Luke 17:10).

But John’s response was more than a humble confession; it was an Old Testament prophecy. That text speaks of the coming glory of the kingdom of God and the necessary preparation for it. Understandably, since he is the herald of the king and His kingdom, all four gospels quote Isaiah 40:3 in connection with John the Baptist (cf. Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4). Only here, however, does he actually quote the verse himself. With that quote John both answered the delegation’s question as to his identity and shifted the focus away from himself and onto Christ. His (and Isaiah’s) message, “Make straight the way of the Lord,” was a challenge both to the nation and to his questioners to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah. The analogous imagery is of all barriers being leveled and impediments smoothed out in preparation for the visit of an ancient Eastern king. John and Isaiah likened the hearts of Messiah’s people to a desolate wilderness, through which a smooth, level road needed to be prepared for His coming. Once again, John emphasized his humility and subordinate role. He was merely a laborer, preparing the road in advance of the King.

At this point the apostle John said, Now they had been sent from the Pharisees, which further clarifies the specific intention of the phrase “the Jews” (v. 19). The Sadducees controlled the temple at this time and were the majority party in the Sanhedrin. But here we learn that the Pharisees had sent this delegation. Nor is it likely that the Sadducees would have sent a delegation comprised solely of their archrivals, the Pharisees. Because the high priest and the chief priests were Sadducees, they would have been concerned about John, since he was from a priestly family. This statement, then, may indicate that the Pharisees prompted the confrontation and were included in the delegation. Not content to let the matter drop, they further questioned John about his authority to baptize—something Pharisees would have been far more concerned about than the more religiously liberal Sadducees. The Pharisees’ question, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” was a further challenge. Since by his own admission John was not one of those figures, what authority did he have to baptize?

John answered them by again directing their attention away from himself and onto Christ. Instead of defending his baptizing ministry, he merely acknowledged its limitations by saying, “I baptize in water.” He then shifted the discussion back to the One to whom he bore witness, declaring, “but among you stands One whom you do not know.”

The Old Testament spoke of spiritual cleansing in connection with Messiah’s coming (Ezek. 36:25, 33; 37:23; Zech. 13:1). The Jews therefore baptized proselytes, converts to Judaism, but John was baptizing Jews. That shocked the religious leaders, who viewed the Jews as already God’s kingdom people and not in need of baptism. But those who submitted to John’s baptism thereby acknowledged that their sin had placed them outside God’s saving covenant, and they were no better than Gentiles. John then baptized them as a public expression of their repentance (Matt. 3:6, 11), in preparation for Messiah’s coming. His baptizing was another feature of his witness to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who was already among the people, though they did not know Him and never would (1:10).

John repeated the words attributed to him by the apostle John in the prologue. He identified the Messiah whom they did not recognize as He who comes after me because he was born and began his ministry before Jesus. Then, in a stunning expression of humility, the Baptist reaffirmed the truth that Jesus had a higher rank than he did (1:15). Untying the thong of his master’s sandal was the task of the lowliest slave. John did not even consider himself worthy to perform that most menial and degrading task—one that Jewish teachers were forbidden to demand of their students.

The exact geography of Bethany beyond the Jordan, which John identifies as the location of this dialogue to solidify its historicity, is unknown to us now. Since there was a village named Bethany on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem (Mark 11:1), some scribes mistakenly assumed that the text gives the wrong location for the place where John was baptizing. Therefore some manuscripts incorrectly substitute Bethabara for Bethany. To avoid any confusion, however, the apostle John added the appellation beyond the Jordan to distinguish for the people who knew of both the Bethany where John was ministering from the one near Jerusalem. That there would be two cities of the same name in the same region is not unusual.

John’s first emphasis was simple, yet urgent: Prepare your hearts, because the Messiah is here. The prophecy of Isaiah six hundred years earlier that the way was to be prepared for Messiah’s coming was being fulfilled. And it would not be economic, military, or political. The next conversation proves that it would be a deliverance and a kingdom that was deeply spiritual.

SECOND DAY, SECOND GROUP, SECOND EMPHASIS

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 on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (1:29–34)

The phrase the next day introduces a sequence of days, which continues in verses 35, 43, and 2:1. Apparently, the events from John’s interview with the delegation from Jerusalem (vv. 19–28) to the miracle at Cana (2:1–11) spanned one week. On the day after he spoke to the delegation, John saw Jesus coming to him. Faithful to his duty as a herald, and defining a momentous redemptive moment, John immediately called the crowd’s attention to Him, exclaiming “Behold, the Lamb of God.” That title, used only in John’s writings (cf. v. 36; Rev. 5:6; 6:9; 7:10, 17; 14:4, 10; 15:3; 17:14; 19:9; 21:22–23; 22:1, 3), is the first in a string of titles given to Jesus in the remaining verses of this chapter; the rest include Rabbi (vv. 38, 49), Messiah (v. 41), Son of God (vv. 34, 49), King of Israel (v. 49), Son of Man (v. 51), and “Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (v. 45). That was not a guess on John’s part, but was revelation from God that was absolutely true, as the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus proved.

The concept of a sacrificial Lamb was a familiar one to the Jewish people. All through Israel’s history God had revealed clearly that sin and separation from Him could be removed only by blood sacrifices (cf. Lev. 17:11). No forgiveness of sin could be granted by God apart from an acceptable substitute dying as a sacrifice. They knew of Abraham’s confidence that God would provide a lamb to offer in place of Isaac (Gen. 22:7–8). A lamb was sacrificed at Passover (Ex. 12:1–36; Mark 14:12), in the daily sacrifices in the tabernacle and later in the temple (Ex. 29:38–42), and as a sin offering by individuals (Lev. 5:5–7). God also made it clear that none of those sacrifices were sufficient to take away sin (cf. Isa. 1:11). They were also aware that Isaiah’s prophecy likened Messiah to “a lamb that is led to slaughter” (Isa. 53:7; cf. Acts 8:32; 1 Peter 1:19). Though Israel sought a Messiah who would be a prophet, king, and conqueror, God had to send them a Lamb. And He did.

The title Lamb of God foreshadows Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice on the cross for the sin of the world. With this brief statement, the prophet John made it clear that the Messiah had come to deal with sin. The Old Testament is filled with the reality that the problem is sin and it is at the very heart of every person (Jer. 17:9). All men, even those who received the revelation of God in Scripture (the Jews), were sinful and incapable of changing the future or the present, or of repaying God for the sins of the past. Paul’s familiar indictment of human sinfulness in Romans 3:11–12 is based on Old Testament revelation. As noted in the discussion of 1:9–11 in chapter 2 of this volume, kosmos (world) has a variety of meanings in the New Testament. Here it refers to humanity in general, to all people without distinction, transcending all national, racial, and ethnic boundaries. The use of the singular term sin with the collective noun world reveals that as sin is worldwide, so Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient for all people without distinction (cf. 1 John 2:2). But though His sacrificial death is sufficient for the sins of everyone (cf. 3:16; 4:42; 6:51; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 4:14), it is efficacious only for those who savingly believe in Him (3:15–16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:40; 11:25–26; 20:31; Luke 8:12; Acts 10:43; 13:39; 16:31; Rom. 1:16; 3:21–24; 4:3–5; 10:9–10; 1 Cor. 1:21; Gal. 3:6–9, 22; Eph. 1:13; 1 John 5:1; 10–13). This verse does not teach universalism, the false doctrine that everyone will be saved. That such is not the case is obvious, since the Bible teaches that most people will suffer eternal punishment in hell (Matt. 25:41, 46; 2 Thess. 1:9; Rev. 14:9–11; 20:11–15; cf. Ezek. 18:4, 20; Matt. 7:13–14; Luke 13:23–24; John 8:24), and only a few will be saved (Matt. 7:13–14).

John for the third time (cf. vv. 15, 27) stressed his subordinate role to Jesus, the eternal Word who had become a Man, acknowledging, “This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” John was created. Jesus’ higher rank was infinite. He was the One who created everything (1:1–3), including John. Though John was actually born before Jesus, Jesus existed before him. And though John was a relative of Jesus’ (probably His cousin), since their mothers were related (Luke 1:36), he still did not recognize Him as the Messiah until he baptized Him, so that He might be manifested to Israel. For that most significant of all John’s baptisms, he declared, “I came baptizing in water,” though he was reluctant to baptize Jesus (Matt. 3:14). It was at Jesus’ baptism that God, who sent John to baptize in water, fully revealed Jesus as the Messiah through a prearranged sign. John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him” (cf. Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22). That sign was supernatural proof of Jesus’ messiahship, because God had told John, “He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.”

Like Peter (Matt. 16:17), John understood who Jesus truly was only through divine revelation. That Jesus is far greater than John is reinforced in that He baptizes in the Holy Spirit.

For the sixth time in his gospel (cf. 1:7, 8, 15, 19, 32), John the apostle refers to the Baptist’s witness to Christ, recording his affirmation, “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” As noted in chapter 1 of this volume, witness, or testifying, is thematic in this gospel. John’s testimony in verse 34 is a fitting conclusion to this section, as the narrative makes the transition from him to Jesus. Although believers are in a limited sense children of God (Matt. 5:9; Rom. 8:14, 19; Gal. 3:26; cf. John 1:12; 11:52; Rom. 8:16, 21;9:8; Phil. 2:15; 1 John 3:1–2, 10), Jesus is uniquely the Son of God in that He alone shares the same nature as the Father (1:1;5:16–30; 10:30–33; 14:9; 17:11; 1 John 5:20).

To his first emphasis—Messiah is here—John added an equally compelling exhortation: Recognize Him for who He is—the Son of God, the Messiah, the ultimate sacrificial Lamb for the sin of the world.

THIRD DAY, THIRD GROUP, THIRD EMPHASIS

Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. (1:35–37)

The phrase the next day continues the sequence of days discussed above in connection with verse 29. This is now the third day in the sequence, the second one after John’s encounter with the investigative delegation from Jerusalem. The third group is the smallest one, consisting only of two of John’s disciples (Andrew [v. 40], and John [who never names himself in his gospel]). John looked at Jesus as He walked nearby and repeated to his disciples what he had proclaimed to the crowds on the previous day, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Having heard their teacher speak again those powerful words, the two disciples followed Jesus. John’s willingness to unhesitatingly hand them over to Him is further evidence of his self-effacing humility and complete acceptance of his subordinate role.

That the two disciples followed Jesus does not imply that they became His permanent disciples at this time. It is true that akoloutheo (followed) is used in John’s gospel to mean “to follow as a disciple” (e.g., 8:12; 10:27; 12:26; 21:19; cf. Matt. 4:20, 22; 9:9). But it can also be used in a general sense (e.g., 6:2; 11:31; 18:15; 20:6; 21:20). Andrew and John here received their first exposure to Jesus. Later, they became His permanent disciples (Matt. 4:18–22).

John’s third emphasis follows logically from his first two. Since the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, is here, the only proper response is to follow Him.

Having served his purpose as a witness to the true identity of Jesus, John the Baptist now faded from the scene (apart from a brief mention in 3:23ff.). The rest of the gospel focuses on the ministry of Jesus, something the Baptist himself would have approved of. As he said to some of his disciples who were jealous for his reputation,

He did decrease and, while in prison wondering how that imprisonment fit with the anticipated glory of Messiah’s kingdom, was hit with doubts about Jesus being Messiah. The Lord graciously dispelled those doubts by reporting the record of His miracles (Matt. 11:2–5; Luke 7:19–22).