One Is Coming Who Will Send the Holy Spirit So As To Produce Good Grain For the Harvest and To Cleanse His Threshing Floor (3:15-18).
‘And the people also were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ.'
The words of John stirred the people and aroused their expectations. A recognition that the last days were coming filled their hearts. So they even began to ask themselves whether he might possibly be the promised Messiah (compare John 1:20; John 1:25; Acts 13:25). A note of uncertainty and wishfulness is indicated in the Greek text (mepote with the optative).