19 The Jews - Probably the great council sent.
20 I am not the Christ - For many supposed he was.
21 Art thou Elijah? - He was not that Elijah (the Tishbite) of whom
they spoke. Art thou the prophet - Of whom Moses speaks, Deut 18:15.
23 He said - I am that forerunner of Christ of whom Isaiah speaks. I
am the voice - As if he had said, Far from being Christ, or even Elijah,
I am nothing but a voice: a sound that so soon as it has expressed the
thought of which it is the sign, dies into air, and is known no more. Isa
40:3.
24 They who were sent were of the Pharisees - Who were peculiarly tenacious
of old customs, and jealous of any innovation (except those brought in
by their own scribes) unless the innovator had unquestionable proofs of
Divine authority.
25 They asked him, Why baptizest thou then? - Without any commission
from the sanhedrim? And not only heathens (who were always baptized before
they were admitted to circumcision) but Jews also?
26 John answered, I baptize - To prepare for the Messiah; and indeed
to show that Jews, as well as Gentiles, must be proselytes to Christ, and
that these as well as those stand in need of being washed from their sins.
28 Where John was baptizing - That is, used to baptize.
29 He seeth Jesus coming and saith, Behold the Lamb - Innocent; to be
offered up; prophesied of by Isaiah, Isa 53:7, typified by the paschal
lamb, and by the daily sacrifice: The Lamb of God - Whom God gave, approves,
accepts of; who taketh away - Atoneth for; the sin - That is, all the sins:
of the world - Of all mankind. Sin and the world are of equal extent.
