The leaders in Jerusalem wanted to know who this new preacher claimed to be. Barnes explains that the great council of the nation, the Sanhedrin, "had, among other things, the charge of religion," and that many people supposed John might be the Messiah (Luke 3:15). Gill describes the same council as the body whose "business it was to inquire into, examine, and try prophets, whether true or false." Matthew Henry sees a less friendly motive too: the leaders were jealous of John's growing influence and wanted grounds to silence him if they could find any. John's reply shows what the question was really about. He answered a question they had not yet spoken: "I am not the Christ" (John 1:20).

"And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ" (John 1:20). The delegation kept pressing: was he Elias, or "that prophet"? He said no to both (John 1:21). Only when they demanded a positive answer did he describe himself in the words of Isaiah: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (John 1:23). Barnes points out that "If John had been an impostor he would have taken advantage of this excited state of public feeling." Instead he turned every question away from himself.

"Record" translates the Greek martyria, testimony or witness. John's Gospel had already introduced John as one who "came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light" (John 1:7). Here that witness begins under official questioning.

Priests served at the altar, and Levites assisted in the temple. Gill notes that priests and Levites sat in the great Sanhedrin, and that the messengers were very likely members of it; the Jewish rule he quotes grounds this in Deuteronomy 17:9, "thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites." In John's Gospel, "the Jews" often means the religious leaders in Jerusalem; Barnes identifies those who sent the delegation as the Sanhedrin. Luke records that "all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not" (Luke 3:15).

The Gospel calls this "the record of John." His whole life was a witness that pointed away from himself. The writer had already said, "He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light" (John 1:8). When the leaders asked, "Who art thou?", the first thing John made clear was who he was not.

Matthew Henry puts it well: "He was great as the prophet of the Highest, but not the Highest himself." The next day, John answered the deeper question by pointing to Jesus: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Later he reminded his own disciples, "I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him" (John 3:28).