John the Baptist as witness and martyr

John's task was to make the crooked straight and the rough ways smooth so that all men might see the grace of God (Luke 3:4-6). But this provoked them to ask yet again: "Why baptizest though then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?" (John 1:25). John's great reply stands at the heart of his work as the King's herald: "I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose" (John 1:26-27). Neither did John know at first who this was; he knew only that God was to identify Him by means of a sign: "He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, ... the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (John 1:33). When at last that sign was fulfilled, John saw, and bare record, that this Man was the Son of God (John 1:34). - Preface.