Luke 3:15

And as the people were in expectation (in the Greek πζοσδοκου̃ντες, suspecting, expecting, as Vatablus renders it when the people were hoping, or were in suspense with hope, desire, and expectation), and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not the Messiah promised to the fathers, and so eagerly expected by all the Jews at this particular time when the sceptre had passed from Judah, and Daniel's seventy weeks, the sign of Christ's coming, were fulfilled. As the people, then, were spreading this report about John, the chief men of the Jews at length sent messengers to him to ask him whether he were Christ (Joh 1:19). Such was the holiness of John. So S. Ambrose, Bede, and others explain.