KJV ORIGINAL
And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
Close to the original. Clear modern English.
✦ MADE SIMPLE
So they kept questioning him: 'If you're not the Messiah, and you're not Elijah, and you're not the prophet we've been waiting for — then why are you out here baptizing people?'
⚡ THE BOTTOM LINE
They couldn't understand why John was baptizing if he wasn't one of the big names they were expecting.
📜 Historical Context — Why was this verse written?
The Gospel of John was traditionally written by John, one of Jesus's disciples, for a diverse audience of early Christians and potential converts, likely in the late first century CE. It was written to affirm Jesus's divine identity as the Son of God, to deepen the faith of believers, and to counter emerging theological misunderstandings.
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