He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said."

 In this verse John uses a very significant word to describe Jesus. He says that Jesus was the real light. In Greek there are two words which are very like each other. The King James Version and the Revised Standard use the word true to translate both of them; but they have different shades of meaning. The first is alethes ( G227) . Alethes ( G227) means true as opposed to false; it is the word that would be used of a statement which is true. The other word is alethinos ( G228) . Alethinos ( G228) means real or genuine as opposed to unreal. 