“This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
King James Version (KJV)
1:28 Where John was baptizing - That is, used to baptize.
1:29 He seeth Jesus coming and saith, Behold the Lamb - Innocent; to be offered up; prophesied of by Isaiah, #Isa 53:7|, typified by the paschal lamb, and by the daily sacrifice: The Lamb of God - Whom God gave, approves, accepts of; who taketh away - Atoneth for; the sin - That is, all the sins: of the world - Of all mankind. Sin and the world are of equal extent.
1:31 I knew him not - Till he came to be baptized. How surprising is this; considering how nearly they were related, and how remarkable the conception and birth of both had been. But there was a peculiar providence visible in our Saviour's living, from his infancy to his baptism, at Nazareth: John all the time living the life of a hermit in the deserts of Judea, #Luke 1:80|, ninety or more miles from Nazareth: hereby that acquaintance was prevented which might have made John's testimony of Christ suspected.
Joh 1:30 This is he of whom I said. See Joh 1:27. He was before me. Existed before I was born.