page_title: John 1
section_title: Testimony of John the Baptist (verses 19–34)
hierarchical_section_title: John 1 / Analysis / Testimony of John the Baptist (verses 19–34)
caption_attribution_description: English: Papyrus 106; Jhn_1_29-35 Nederlands: Papyrus 106; Joh_1_29-35
context_page_description: John 1 is the first chapter in the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that John composed this gospel.
context_section_description: The second part (verses 19–34) shows the preparation that John the Baptist was in the process of making for the coming of the Messiah, the Messiah's arrival and the Messiah's first disciples. John has been introduced in verse 6 ("a man sent from God") and his witness, known already by the reader, has already been recalled: "This is the One I told you about". The Greek text has the past tense (εἶπον) but both Charles Ellicott and the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges prefer a present tense translation such as "John bears witness". Verses 19–34 present John's manifesto, delivered to the priests and Levites sent by the Pharisees to investigate his message and purpose. In response to their enquiries, John confesses that he is not the Messiah, nor the reappearance of the prophet Elijah (contrast Matthew 11:14, where Jesus states that John is "Elijah who is to come"), nor "the prophet".
  John then reveals that when the One comes he would be unfit to even so much as untie his sandals, let alone baptize Him like the many he had up to that point. No sooner than the next day the Messiah appears before John the Baptist, and he then acknowledges Jesus as the Lamb of God (verse 29) of whom he had been speaking (verse 30).
  The evangelist divides this series of events into four 'days': the day (or period) when the Jerusalem delegation met John to enquire into his identity and purpose (verses 19–29) is followed by John seeing Jesus coming towards him "the next day" (verse 29), and on "the next day again" he directs his own disciples towards following Jesus (verses 35–37). A fourth 'day' follows (verse 43) on which Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and invited Philip to follow him. Bengel calls these "Great Days!"
caption: John 1:29–35 on Papyrus 106, written in the 3rd century
exif: {}