‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘what authority have you for acting like this? Or who gives you this authority?’3In reply he said to them, ‘And I will ask you a question, just one. Tell me:4John’s baptism: what was its origin, heavenly or human?’5And they debated this way among themselves, ‘If we say heavenly, he will retort, “Why did you refuse to believe him?”;6and if we say human, the whole people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.’7So their reply was that they did not know where it came from.8And Jesus said to them, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.’
The New Jerusalem Bible: Reader’s Edition, (New York: Doubleday.) 1990.