John 1:22

They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

Them that sent us ... are identified as Jews (John 1:19), and Pharisees (John 1:24), that sect, due to the nature of their party, being far more concerned with the promised coming of a Messiah than were the Sadducees, and likewise with what they suspected might be the literal resurrection of Elijah. The Sadducees did not believe in any resurrection.

The manner and content of the questioning here, as well as the appeal to the prophecy of Isaiah, a moment later, are in full harmony with the apostle's statement that the Pharisees had initiated this investigation. The supposition that the Sadducees made up the whole body of the Sanhedrin has never been proved; and for men to make such a supposition the grounds of declaring John in error here is illogical. People know too little about Democrats and Republicans in our own times to make any assumption that we have any thorough knowledge of the political intricacies of the Jewish Sanhedrin in the times of Christ. In fact, all that we really know is the information contained here in the Gospel, which came from inspired sources and not from contemporary human records, which, it may be assumed, have been colored and distorted in every conceivable manner through the bias or ignorance of uninspired writers.

Having answered their threefold question regarding Christ, Elijah, and that Prophet, negatively, John next responded with an affirmative statement regarding himself.