John 1:20

confessed, and denied not Antithetic parallelism, as in John 1:3.

but confessed Rather, and he confessed, to introduce whathe confessed.

I am not the Christ -I" is emphatic, implying that some one else not far distant is the Christ. Throughout the section (20 34) John contrasts himself with the Christ by an emphasis on -I."

the Christ It is to be regretted that our translators have so often omitted the definite article before -Christ," although it is inserted in the Greek. In the Gospel narrativesthe article should always be preserved in English as here. Comp. Matthew 16:16; Matthew 26:63; Mark 8:29; and contrast Matthew 24:5; Luke 23:35; Luke 23:39, &c. To us -Christ" is a proper name, but to the Evangelists it is a title, - theChrist," the Messiah so long expected. See Lightfoot, On Revision, p. 100.