Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, November 24th, 2024
the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Read the Bible

George Lamsa Translation

John 1:20

And he confessed and did not deny it; but he declared, I am not the Christ.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Jesus, the Christ;   Thompson Chain Reference - John the Baptist;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - John;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - John the baptist;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Baptize, Baptism;   John the Baptist;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Universalists;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - John the Baptist;   Revelation of John, the;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Deny;   John;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - John the Baptist;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Benedictus;   John the Baptist;   Manuscripts;   Prophet;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - John the Baptist;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Baptist;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Jesus christ;   John the apostle;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Affirm;   Baptism (Non-Immersionist View);   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Affirmatives;  

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Without any hesitation he said openly and plainly, "I am not the Messiah."
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And he confessed and denyed not and sayde playnly: I am not Christ.
Hebrew Names Version
He confessed, and didn't deny, but he confessed, "I am not the Messiah."
International Standard Version
He spoke openly and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."[fn]Luke 3:15; John 3:28; Acts 13:25;">[xr]
New American Standard Bible
And he confessed and did not deny; and this is what he confessed: "I am not the Christ."
New Century Version
John spoke freely and did not refuse to answer. He said, "I am not the Christ."
Update Bible Version
And he confessed, and did not deny; and he confessed, I am not the Christ.
Webster's Bible Translation
And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
English Standard Version
He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
World English Bible
He confessed, and didn't deny, but he confessed, "I am not the Christ."
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ.
Weymouth's New Testament
He avowed--he did not conceal the truth, but avowed, "I am not the Christ."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He knoulechide, and denyede not, and he knoulechide, For Y am not Crist.
English Revised Version
And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ.
Berean Standard Bible
He did not refuse to confess, but openly declared, "I am not the Christ."
Amplified Bible
And he confessed [truthfully] and did not deny [that he was only a man], but acknowledged, "I am not the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)!"
American Standard Version
And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ.
Bible in Basic English
He said quite openly and straightforwardly, I am not the Christ.
Complete Jewish Bible
he was very straightforward and stated clearly, "I am not the Messiah."
Darby Translation
And he acknowledged and denied not, and acknowledged, I am not the Christ.
Etheridge Translation
And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Meshicha.
Murdock Translation
And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed I am not the Messiah.
King James Version (1611)
And he confessed, and denied not: but confessed, I am not the Christ.
New Living Translation
He came right out and said, "I am not the Messiah."
New Life Bible
He told them without holding back any words, "I am not the Christ!"
New Revised Standard
He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah."
Geneva Bible (1587)
And he confessed and denied not, and said plainely, I am not that Christ.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and he confessed, and did not deny, - and he confessed - I, am not, the Christ;
Douay-Rheims Bible
And he confessed and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ.
Revised Standard Version
He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he confessed and denyed not, and sayde playnely, I am not that Christe.
Good News Translation
John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: "I am not the Messiah."
Christian Standard Bible®
He didn’t deny it but confessed: “I am not the Messiah.”
King James Version
And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
Lexham English Bible
And he confessed—and he did not deny, and confessed—"I am not the Christ!"
Literal Translation
And he acknowledged and did not deny; yea, he acknowledged, I am not the Christ.
Young's Literal Translation
and he confessed and did not deny, and confessed -- `I am not the Christ.'
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And he confessed and denyed not. And he confessed, and sayde: I am not Christ.
Mace New Testament (1729)
he own'd it, and did not deny it; but made this protestation, I am not the Christ.
New English Translation
He confessed—he did not deny but confessed—"I am not the Christ!"
New King James Version
He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
Simplified Cowboy Version
John flat out told them, "I am not the Top Hand. I cannot save you."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
Legacy Standard Bible
And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."

Contextual Overview

19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? 20 And he confessed and did not deny it; but he declared, I am not the Christ. 21 Then they asked him again, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you a prophet? And he said, No. 22 Then they said to him, Who are you? so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say concerning yourself? 23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Straighten the highway of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. 24 Those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him and said to him, Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor a prophet? 26 John answered and said to them, I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know; 27 This is the one who comes after me, and is ahead of me, the one even the strings of whose shoes I am not good enough to untie. 28 These things happened in Bethany, at the Jordan crossing, where John was baptizing.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

John 3:28-36, Matthew 3:11, Matthew 3:12, Mark 1:7, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:15-17

Reciprocal: John 1:8 - that light John 1:24 - that Christ Acts 13:25 - whom

Cross-References

Genesis 1:7
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament; and it was so.
Genesis 1:14
Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.
Genesis 1:22
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply on the earth.
Genesis 1:24
Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so.
Genesis 1:25
And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:30
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food; and it was so.
Genesis 2:19
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name.
Genesis 8:17
Bring forth with you every beast of every kind that is with you, both fowl and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth; that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the face of the earth.
1 Kings 4:33
And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even to the, hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts and of fowl and of creeping things and of fishes.
Psalms 148:10
Wild beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he confessed, and denied not,.... He freely, and without any reserve, declared, and in the plainest and strongest terms professed to the messengers before all the people, that he was not the Messiah; nor did he retract his confession, or draw in his words again, or drop any thing that looked doubtful or suspicious;

but confessed, I am not the Christ: he stood to it, and insisted on it, that he was not that illustrious person; nor had they any reason to entertain such an opinion of him; nor would he have them do so; they might assure themselves he was not Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am not the Christ - This confession proves that John was not an impostor. He had a wide reputation. The nation was expecting that the Messiah was about to come, and multitudes were ready to believe that John was he, Luke 3:15. If John had been an impostor he would have taken advantage of this excited state of public feeling, proclaimed himself to be the Messiah, and formed a large party in his favor. The fact that he did not do it is full proof that he did not intend to impose on people, but came only as the forerunner of Christ; and his example shows that all Christians, and especially all Christian ministers, however much they may be honored and blessed, should be willing to lay all their honors at the feet of Jesus; to keep themselves back and to hold up before the world only the Son of God. To do this is one eminent mark of the true spirit of a minister of the gospel.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 1:20. He confessed, and denied not; but confessed — A common mode of Jewish phraseology. John renounces himself, that Jesus may be all in all. Though God had highly honoured him, and favoured him with peculiar influence in the discharge of his work, yet he considered he had nothing but what he had received, and therefore, giving all praise to his benefactor, takes care to direct the attention of the people to him alone from whom he had received his mercies. He who makes use of God's gifts to feed and strengthen his pride and vanity will be sure to be stripped of the goods wherein he trusts, and fall down into the condemnation of the devil. We have nothing but what we have received; we deserve nothing of what we possess; and it is only God's infinite mercy which keeps us in the possession of the blessings which we now enjoy.


 
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