Matthew 11:3

King James Version (1611 Edition)

And said vnto him, Art thou hee that should come? Or doe wee looke for another?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
and asked him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

King James Version
And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

English Standard Version
and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

New American Standard Bible
and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or are we to look for someone else?"

New Century Version
They asked him, "Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?"

Amplified Bible
and asked Him, "Are You the Expected One (the Messiah), or should we look for someone else [who will be the promised One]?"

Geneva Bible (1587)
Art thou he that shoulde come, or shal we looke for another?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?"

Legacy Standard Bible
and said to Him, "Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for someone else?"

Berean Standard Bible
to ask Him, "Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?"

Contemporary English Version
to ask Jesus, "Are you the one we should be looking for? Or must we wait for someone else?"

Complete Jewish Bible
asking, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else?"

Darby Translation
and said to him, Art *thou* the coming [one]? or are we to wait for another?

Easy-to-Read Version
They asked him, "Are you the one we have been expecting, or should we wait for someone else?"

George Lamsa Translation
And said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect another?

Good News Translation
"Tell us," they asked Jesus, "are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?"

Lexham English Bible
and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"

Literal Translation
John said to Him, Are You the One coming, or are we to look for another?

American Standard Version
and said unto him, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?

Bible in Basic English
To say to him, Are you he who is to come, or are we waiting for another?

Hebrew Names Version
and said to him, "Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?"

International Standard Version
and asked him, "Are you the Coming One, or should we wait for someone else?"Genesis 49:10; Numbers 24:17; Daniel 9:24; John 6:14;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
and said to him, Art thou He that cometh, or another are we to expect?

Murdock Translation
and said to him: Art thou he that cometh, or are we to expect another?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Art thou he that shoulde come? or do we loke for another?

English Revised Version
and said unto him, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?

World English Bible
and said to him, "Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?"

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And said to him, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?

Weymouth's New Testament
"Are you the Coming One, or is it a different person that we are to expect?"

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and seide to him, `Art thou he that schal come, or we abiden another?

Update Bible Version
and said to him, Are you he that comes, or do we look for another?

Webster's Bible Translation
And said to him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

New English Translation
"Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"

New King James Version
and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"

New Living Translation
"Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?"

New Life Bible
They asked, "Are You the One Who was to come, or should we look for another?"

New Revised Standard
and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
said unto him, Art, thou, the coming one? or, a different one, are we to expect?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another?

Revised Standard Version
and said to him, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
and sayde vnto him. Arte thou he that shall come: or shall we loke for another.

Young's Literal Translation
said to him, `Art thou He who is coming, or for another do we look?'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and sayde vnto him: Art thou he yt shal come, or shal we loke for another?

Mace New Testament (1729)
art thou he that was to come, or must we expect another?

Simplified Cowboy Version
he sent some of his boys out to ask Jesus, "Are you the real deal or should we be waitin' on someone else?"

Contextual Overview

¹ And it came to passe, when Iesus had made an end of commaunding his twelue Disciples, hee departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. ² Now when Iohn had heard in the prison the workes of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, ³ And said vnto him, Art thou hee that should come? Or doe wee looke for another? ⁴ Iesus answered and saide vnto them, Go and shew Iohn againe those things which we doe heare and see: ⁵ The blind receiue their sight, and the lame walke, the lepers are cleansed, and the deafe heare, the dead are raised vp, and the poore haue the Gospel preached to them. ⁶ And blessed is he, whoseouer shal not be offended in me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Art: Matthew 2:2-6, Genesis 3:15, Genesis 12:3, Genesis 49:10, Numbers 24:17, Deuteronomy 18:15-18, Psalms 2:6-12, Psalms 110:1-5, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 9:7, Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 23:6, Ezekiel 34:23, Ezekiel 34:24, Daniel 9:24-26, Hosea 3:5, Joel 2:28-32, Amos 9:11, Amos 9:12, Obadiah 1:21, Micah 5:2, Zephaniah 3:14-17, Haggai 2:7, Zechariah 9:9, Malachi 3:1, Malachi 4:2, John 4:21, John 7:31, John 7:41, John 7:42

he that: Matthew 21:5, Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9, Luke 19:38, John 16:14, John 12:13, Hebrews 10:37

Reciprocal: Isaiah 35:5 - the eyes Mark 14:61 - Art Luke 22:67 - Art John 6:14 - This John 9:36 - Who John 10:24 - How John 11:27 - which John 13:19 - that I Acts 19:4 - John Hebrews 9:11 - Christ Hebrews 10:5 - when

Cross-References

Genesis 11:4
And they said; Goe to, let vs build vs a city and a tower, whose top may reach vnto heauen, and let vs make vs a name, lest we be scattered abroad vpon the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 11:6
And the LORD said; Behold, the people is one, and they haue all one language: and this they begin to doe: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they haue imagined to doe.

Genesis 11:7
Goe to, let vs go downe, and there cofound their language, that they may not vnderstand one anothers speech.

Genesis 11:18
And Peleg liued thirtie yeeres, and begate Reu.

Genesis 14:10
And the vale of Siddim was full of slime-pits: and the Kings of Sodome & Gomorrah fled, and fell there: and they that remained, fled to the mountaine.

Exodus 1:14
And they made their liues bitter, with hard bondage, in morter and in bricke, and in all maner of seruice in the fielde: all their seruice wherein they made them serue, was with rigour.

Exodus 2:3
And when shee could not longer hide him, she tooke for him an arke of bul-rushes, and daubed it with slime, and with pitch, and put the childe therein, and shee layd it in the flags by the riuers brinke.

2 Samuel 12:31
And he brought foorth the people that were therein, and put them vnder sawes, and vnder harrowes of yron, and vnder axes of yron, and made them passe through the bricke-kilne: And thus did he vnto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So Dauid and all the people returned vnto Ierusalem.

Psalms 64:5
They incourage themselues in an euill matter: they commune of laying snares priuily; they say, Who shall see them?

Proverbs 1:11
If they say, Come with vs, let vs lay wait for blood, let vs lurke priuily for the innocent without cause:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And said unto him,.... By the disciples he sent; this was the message they came with, and this the question they were to ask, and did,

art thou he that should come? A "periphrasis" of the Messiah, well known to the Jews; for he had been spoken of frequently in the prophecies of the Old Testament, as the Shiloh, the Redeemer, the Prophet, and King that should come; particularly, by this circumlocution, reference seems to be had to Habakkuk 2:3. "It shall surely come", כי בא יבא, which may be rendered, "for he that cometh", or "is to come, shall come". So that the question in plain terms is, whether he was the Messiah? John could not be ignorant of this, who had seen the Spirit of God descending on him at his baptism, heard a voice from heaven, declaring him the Son of God; and had so often pointed him out to others, and had borne frequent testimonies that he was the Lamb of God, and bridegroom of his church: wherefore this question was put, not upon his own account, but his disciples, that they might have from the mouth of Christ a full and satisfactory answer, which would remove all their doubts and scruples, and attach them to Christ, now he was about to die, and leave them, than which nothing was more desirable to him. Though some have thought, that John's faith was somewhat slackened; and through his long imprisonment, he began to doubt whether he was the Messiah or not: and others have been of opinion, as particularly Dr. Lightfoot, that the reason of this message was, neither the ignorance and unbelief of John, or his disciples; but that John, with the rest of the Jews, having a notion of a temporal kingdom, and hearing of the mighty works of Christ, wonders that he himself was not delivered out of prison by him, grows impatient upon it, and asks, if he was the Messiah? And if he was, why did he suffer his forerunner and chief minister to lie in prison?

or do we look for another, to release me, and set up this kingdom?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Art thou he that should come? - That is, Art thou the Messiah, or the Christ? The Jews expected a Saviour. His coming had been long foretold, Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 9:1-6; Isaiah 11:1-5; Isaiah 35:4-6; Isaiah 53:1-12; Daniel 9:24-27. See also John 6:14. Compare Deuteronomy 18:18-19. In common language, therefore, he was familiarly described as “he that was to come.” Luke adds here Luke 7:21, that at the time when the messengers came to him, Jesus “cured many of their infirmities, and plagues, and of evil spirits.” An answer was therefore ready to the inquiries of John.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Matthew 11:3. Art thou he that should come — ο ερχομενος, he that cometh, seems to have been a proper name of the Messiah; to save or deliver is necessarily implied. Luke 7:19.

There is some difficulty in what is here spoken of John. Some have thought he was utterly ignorant of our Lord's Divine mission, and that he sent merely for his own information; but this is certainly inconsistent with his own declaration, Luke 3:15, c. John 1:15; John 1:26; John 1:33; John 3:28, c. Others suppose he sent the message merely for the instruction of his disciples that, as he saw his end approaching, he wished them to have the fullest conviction that Jesus was the Messiah, that they might attach themselves to him.

A third opinion takes a middle course between the two former, and states that, though John was at first perfectly convinced that Jesus was the Christ, yet, entertaining some hopes that he would erect a secular kingdom in Judea, wished to know whether this was likely to take place speedily. It is very probable that John now began, through the length of his confinement, to entertain doubts, relative to his kingdom, which perplexed and harassed his mind; and he took the most reasonable way to get rid of them at once, viz. by applying to Christ himself.

Two of his disciples — Instead of δυο, two, several excellent MSS., with both the Syriac, Armenian, Gothic, and one copy of the Itala, have δια, by; he sent by his disciples.