20. The Baptist first confesses what he is not, and what many at the time believed him to be, namely, the Christ (Luke iii. 15). 21. Et interrogaverunt eum: 21. And they asked him: What Quid ergo? Elias es tu? Et then? Art thou Elias? And he dixit: Non sum. Propheta es said: I am not. Art thou the tu? Et respondit: Non. prophet? And he answered: No. 22. Dixerunt ergo ei: Quis es, 22. They said therefore unto ut responsum demus his qui him: Who art thou, that we may miserunt nos? quid dicis de give an answer to them that teipso? sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? 21. *Art thou Elias?* This question arose from a misunderstanding of Mal. iv. 5. *Art thou the prophet?* (ὁ προφήτης), as foretold by Moses (Deut. xviii. 15). These interrogators evidently regarded “the prophet” as different from the Messias, though in reality they were the same. See Acts iii. 22‐24. 23. Ait: Ego vox clamantis in 23. He said: _I am the voice deserto: Dirigite viam Domini, of one crying in the sicut dixit Isaias propheta. wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord_, as said the prophet Isaias. 23. The Baptist with striking humility replies that he is merely a voice, a passing sign—yet that voice spoken of by Isaias, which was to call upon men to prepare their hearts to receive Christ. The Hebrew of Isaias may be rendered: “The voice of one that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord (Jehovah), make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Or, as is more probable from the Hebrew parallelism: “The voice of one that crieth: Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The Baptist, in applying to himself this prophetic passage, which is also applied to him by the three Synoptic Evangelists (Matt. iii. 3; Mark i. 3; Luke iii. 4), gives merely the substance of the original. It is disputed whether Isaias refers in the literal sense to preparing the roads by which the people should return from the Babylonian Captivity, and only in the mystical sense to the preparation for the Messias, or directly and literally to the preparation for the Messias. The latter seems the more probable view. At any rate, the words as applied here mean that the Baptist is the voice to which Isaias referred (in some sense literal or mystical), and that the burden of his cry in the desert of Judea is, that men who heard him in the desert should prepare their hearts for Christ. The language is metaphorical, and alludes to the custom prevalent in those days of sending forward couriers to get the roads ready for advancing princes. 24. Et qui missi fuerant, 24. And they that were sent erant ex Pharisaeis. were of the Pharisees.