John 1:15

John beareth witness of him and crieth, saying, This was he of whom I said, he that cometh after me is become before me: for he was before me.

The principal purpose of this Gospel is stated in John 20:30-31; but this teaching on John the Baptist could have been included, partially at least, to refute the erroneous views of a sect which had continued to follow the Baptist, even continuing to be baptized in his name, as was the case with certain disciples mentioned in Acts 19:3. Although Paul had taught against such an error and had even required the re-baptism of those who held to John's baptism, there could still have been some vestiges of the old error remaining until the time when this Gospel was written. Whether or not this could have been true, the apostolic author here stressed the fact that John the Baptist pointed away from himself and toward the Christ. As one of the great herald's own disciples, originally, John was in a position to speak with the greatest authority on all matters pertaining to the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. This verse shows exactly what the relationship truly was. Between the two, there was the difference between God and man, time and eternity, the finite and the infinite, between the sun and the reflected light of the moon, between the Lord and the servant unworthy to unloose his sandals. Furthermore, John the Baptist himself had faithfully borne witness to the difference.

The statement of the herald John that Christ was "before" him shows that the apostle's understanding of the pre-existence of Christ and the eternity of the Word had begun with his own acceptance of the teaching of the herald John on those very subjects. The herald was six months older than Jesus, and, only in respect to Jesus' eternal existence before the incarnation, could he have affirmed that Christ was before him. Westcott and others reject the meaning here attributed to BEFORE; but Dummelow thought the meaning valid, paraphrasing it thus, "He existed before my birth, and even before his own birth, as the eternal Son of God."[28]