Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageThey questioned him: "Then why are you baptizing, if you are not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the Prophet?"
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GThey questioned him and said, "Why then are you immersing, if you are not the Messiah, nor Eliyahu, nor the Prophet?"
KJV
King James VersionAnd they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
BSB
Berean Standard Bibleasked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
Footnotes
βαπτίζω is typically transliterated as "baptize" rather than translated; the Greek root βάπτω means "to dip, immerse, plunge." In a Jewish context, Yochanan's practice was understood against the background of ritual immersion (tevilah) at a mikveh—a full-body immersion for purification or inaugural consecration. The F.O.G uses "immersing" to make this physical, Jewish-ritual reality concrete; the F.O.G Message retains "baptizing" as the established liturgical term. The questioners' logic is revealing: without the authority of an established eschatological role, what right does he have to perform this public, messianic-scale act?
