“And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?”
King James Version (KJV)
1:19 The Jews - Probably the great council sent.
Joh 1:19 This is the record of John. The writer now plunges at once into his history. He passes by the childhood of the Lord, John's ministry, and comes at once to the time when Jesus, thirty years old, is acknowledged by the Father as the Son of God. When the Jews sent priests and Levites. The Jewish rulers, the Sanhedrin, the court or parliament of seventy-one members who ruled Israel. The delegation sent to John was official. His preaching in the wilderness of Jordan had stirred the whole land, and they were sent to ascertain his character. Matthew, Mark, and Luke use the term "Jews" very seldom (16 times), John often (70 times), a proof that he wrote far away from Palestine and for Gentiles.