John Chapter 3 verse 25 Holy Bible

ASV John 3:25

There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purifying.
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BBE John 3:25

Then a question came up between John's disciples and a Jew about washing.
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DARBY John 3:25

There was therefore a reasoning of the disciples of John with a Jew about purification.
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KJV John 3:25

Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.
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WBT John 3:25


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WEB John 3:25

There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John's disciples with some Jews about purification.
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YLT John 3:25

there arose then a question from the disciples of John with `some' Jews about purifying,
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 25. - There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purifying. Such proximity of two such leaders, teaching and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven, and baptizing into a glorious hope, a Divine future, and a spiritual change, was certain to excite controversy. The word (ζήτησις) "questioning" is used in Acts 15:2 for the dispute at Antioch, and Paul uses the same phrase for dangerous, useless, and angry debate (1 Timothy 6:4; 2 Timothy 2:23; Titus 3:9). It was, perhaps, not the first, and certainly it was not the last, of the controversies which raged over the symbolic purification of the Church. John's disciples appear to have taken up arms against some particular Jew, who was prepared either to question the right of Jesus to baptize, or the essential value of this ordinance. This "Jew" was apparently maintaining a greater potency for the baptism of Jesus than John could claim for his, and was basing his view upon the testimony which John had already borne to Jesus. Purifying was the great theme of Essenic and Pharisaic profession. It was without doubt one of the great symbolic purposes of the Levitical legislation. The purification of the flesh was, however, in Christ's teaching, a very small part of the claim for purity. Nothing less than a spiritual and radical moral change availed, and our Lord insisted on this to the disparagement of the mere ceremonial. This was the first recorded discussion on the nature and value of baptismal purifying. Would that it had been the last! The question arose among those who had been baptized by John, whether another had any right to administer such an ordinance? Could another receive the confession of sins? Was the baptism of John to terminate now that he had come of whom John himself had said, "This is he that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit"

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(25) Then there arose a question.--For "the Jews," the reading of the better MSS. is, a Jew. The question arose on the side of John's disciples. What the exact nature of it was we do not know, and have no means of judging. It was one of the questions which in every age has arisen about external rites, and has too often been accompanied by a neglect of inner principles. This arose in some way from the fact of the disciples of Jesus baptising near to the place where John was baptising, and doubtless was closely connected with these baptisms. The fact is only preserved as an incidental introduction to the remarkable testimony of the Baptist which follows.