John 1:20

Complete Jewish Bible

he was very straightforward and stated clearly, "I am not the Messiah."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He didn’t deny it but confessed: “I am not the Messiah.”

King James Version (1611)
And he confessed, and denied not: but confessed, I am not the Christ.

King James Version
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."

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."

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)!"

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."

Berean Standard Bible
He did not refuse to confess, but openly declared, "I am not the Christ."

Darby Translation
And he acknowledged and denied not, and acknowledged, I am not the Christ.

Easy-to-Read Version
Without any hesitation he said openly and plainly, "I am not the Messiah."

Geneva Bible (1587)
And he confessed and denied not, and said plainely, I am not that Christ.

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

Good News Translation
John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: "I am not the Messiah."

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.

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.

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]

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.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he confessed and denyed not, and sayde playnely, I am not that Christe.

English Revised Version
And he confessed, and denied not; and he 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.

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.

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."

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."

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."

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And he confessed and denyed not and sayde playnly: I am not 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.

Simplified Cowboy Version
John flat out told them, "I am not the Top Hand. I cannot save you."

Contextual Overview

¹⁹ Here is Yochanan's testimony: when the Judeans sent cohanim and L'vi'im from Yerushalayim to ask him, "Who are you?" ²⁰ he was very straightforward and stated clearly, "I am not the Messiah." ²¹ "Then who are you?" they asked him. "Are you Eliyahu?" "No, I am not," he said. "Are you ‘the prophet,' the one we're expecting?" "No," he replied. ²² So they said to him, "Who are you? — so that we can give an answer to the people who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?" ²³ He answered in the words of Yesha‘yahu the prophet, "I am The voice of someone crying out: ‘In the desert make the way of Adonai straight!'" ²⁴ Some of those who had been sent were P'rushim. ²⁵ They asked him, "If you are neither the Messiah nor Eliyahu nor ‘the prophet,' then why are you immersing people?" ²⁶ To them Yochanan replied, "I am immersing people in water, but among you is standing someone whom you don't know. ²⁷ He is the one coming after me — I'm not good enough even to untie his sandal!" ²⁸ All this took place in Beit-Anyah, east of the Yarden, where Yochanan was immersing.

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
God made the dome and divided the water under the dome from the water above the dome; that is how it was,

Genesis 1:14
(A: ii) God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years;

Genesis 1:22
Then God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply and fill the water of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

Genesis 1:24
(A: iii) God said, "Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature — each kind of livestock, crawling animal and wild beast"; and that is how it was.

Genesis 1:25
God made each kind of wild beast, each kind of livestock and every kind of animal that crawls along the ground; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:30
And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as food every kind of green plant." And that is how it was.

Genesis 2:19
So from the ground Adonai , God, formed every wild animal and every bird that flies in the air, and he brought them to the person to see what he would call them. Whatever the person would call each living creature, that was to be its name.

Genesis 8:17
Bring out with you every living thing you have with you — birds, livestock and every animal that creeps on the earth — so that they can swarm on the earth, be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

1 Kings 4:33
King Shlomo was king over all Isra'el, and these were his high officials: ‘Azaryah the son of Tzadok, the cohen; Elichoref and Achiyah the sons of Shisha, secretaries; Y'hoshafat the son of Achilud, secretary of state; B'nayah the son of Y'hoyada, commander of the army; Tzadok and Evyatar, cohanim; ‘Azaryah the son of Natan, chief administrator; Zavud the son of Natan, the king's trusted counselor; Achishar, in charge of the palace; Adoniram the son of ‘Avda, in charge of forced labor. Shlomo had twelve officers over all Isra'el who were in charge of providing food and supplies for the king and his household; each one was in charge of provisions for one month out of the year. They were: the son of Hur, in the hills of Efrayim; the son of Deker, in Makatz, Sha‘albim, Beit-Shemesh and Eilon-Beit-Hanan; the son of Hesed, in Arubot; he also had charge of Sokhoh and all the territory of Hefer; the son of Avinadav, in all the area of Dor; he had Tafat the daughter of Shlomo as his wife; Ba‘ana the son of Achilud, in Ta‘anakh, Megiddo, and all Beit-Sh'an by Tzartan below Yizre‘el, from Beit-Sh'an to Avel-M'cholah, as far as beyond Yokme‘am; the son of Gever, in Ramot-Gil‘ad; he was in charge of the villages of Ya'ir the son of M'nasheh in Gil‘ad and in charge of the region of Argov in Bashan, sixty large cities with walls and bronze bars; Achinadav the son of ‘Iddo, in Machanayim; Achima‘atz, in Naftali; he also took Basmat the daughter of Shlomo as his wife; Ba‘ana the son of Hushai, in Asher and in Alot; Y'hoshafat the son of Paruach, in Yissakhar; Shim‘i the son of Ela, in Binyamin; and Gever the son of Uri, in the land of Gil‘ad, the country of Sichon king of the Emori and ‘Og king of Bashan. Over all these, there was one administrator in the land. Y'hudah and Isra'el were as numerous as sand grains on the seashore; they ate, drank and enjoyed themselves.

Psalms 148:10
wild animals and all livestock, creeping reptiles, flying birds,

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.