You yourselves can bear witness to my having said, `I am not the Christ,' but `I am His appointed forerunner.'
He it is who was spoken of through the Prophet Isaiah when he said, »The voice of one crying aloud, `In the desert prepare ye a road for the Lord: make His highway straight.'«
And you moreover, O child, shall be called Prophet of the Most High; For you shall go on in front before the Lord to prepare the way for Him,
He avowed–he did not conceal the truth, but avowed, »I am not the Christ.«
»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.«
Again they questioned him. »Why then do you baptize,« they said, »if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?«
He who is to come after me, and whose sandal-strap I am not worthy to unfasten.«