1:26 John answered them, 1 “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not recognize, 2 1:27 who is coming after me. I am not worthy 3 to untie the strap 4 of his sandal!”
1 tn Grk “answered them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
2 tn Or “know.”
3 tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”
sn The humility of John is evident in the statement I am not worthy. This was considered one of the least worthy tasks of a slave, and John did not consider himself worthy to do even that for the one to come, despite the fact he himself was a prophet.
4 tn The term refers to the leather strap or thong used to bind a sandal. This is often viewed as a collective singular and translated as a plural, “the straps of his sandals,” but it may be more emphatic to retain the singular here.