²⁶ `But what have ye gone forth to see? a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and much more than a prophet:

⁷⁶ And thou, child, Prophet of the Highest Shalt thou be called; For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, To prepare His ways.

⁶ and if we may say, From men, all the people will stone us, for they are having been persuaded John to be a prophet.'

⁹ `But what went ye out to see? -- a prophet? yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet,

¹⁰ for this is he of whom it hath been written, Lo, I do send My messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.

¹¹ Verily I say to you, there hath not risen, among those born of women, a greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the reign of the heavens is greater than he.

¹² `And, from the days of John the Baptist till now, the reign of the heavens doth suffer violence, and violent men do take it by force,

¹³ for all the prophets and the law till John did prophesy,

¹⁴ and if ye are willing to receive `it', he is Elijah who was about to come;

¹⁶ the law and the prophets `are' till John; since then the reign of God is proclaimed good news, and every one doth press into it;

²⁶ and they came unto John, and said to him, `Rabbi, he who was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou didst testify, lo, this one is baptizing, and all are coming unto him.'

²⁷ John answered and said, `A man is not able to receive anything, if it may not have been given him from the heaven;

²⁸ ye yourselves do testify to me that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am having been sent before him;

²⁹ he who is having the bride is bridegroom, and the friend of the bridegroom, who is standing and hearing him, with joy doth rejoice because of the voice of the bridegroom; this, then, my joy hath been fulfilled.

³⁰ `Him it behoveth to increase, and me to become less;

³⁵ he was the burning and shining lamp, and ye did will to be glad, for an hour, in his light.