Why did John the Baptist doubt who Jesus was in Luke 7?

Answer 1

More than any other early Christian writer, the author of Luke was a master of using repetition to confirm a story in the minds of his readers. He seems to have found that if he repeated the same information three times, in different circumstances, then his readers accepted it as the truth. Luke had Jesus associated frequently with John the Baptist, raising John to the status of a prophet, almost an equal of Elijah, but acknowledging Jesus to be greater.

The references in chapter 7 enabled John to once again acknowledge Jesus as one greater than he, while seeking confirmation that Jesus was the Messiah,then the disciples repeated this message and finally Jesus summarised all his miracles that would indeed prove him to be the Messiah. The message, implicitly and explicitly, that Jesus truly was the Messiah was repeated three times in a short passage. This is evidence of a literary masterpiece.

Answer

The 'doubting' question posed by John was for the benefit of his disciples. It was intended that they would receive confirmation that Christ was Messiah.