John the Baptist Prepares the Way^(A)

3 In those days John the Baptist^(B) came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea

¹² Even tax collectors came to be baptized.^(A) “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

¹³ “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,”^(A) he told them.

²⁹ (All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John.^(A)

³⁰ But the Pharisees and the experts in the law^(A) rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)