John 1:30Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And everyone knows that the Forerunner came into the world six months before the Lord's birth in the flesh.

The Lord is called "Man" perhaps because He had reached mature age, for He was baptized at thirty years of age.

Or He is called this in the sense that He is the Man of every soul and the Bridegroom of the Church.

For the Apostle Paul says: "I betrothed you, to present you to one Man, namely Christ" (2 Cor 11:2).

So also the Forerunner says: "I am only the friend of the Bridegroom and the mediator, but the Man comes after me. I draw souls to faith in Christ, and He is the Man Who will be united to them."

Therefore He alone is the one Lamb, Who did not come as all others do. For He was not conceived in iniquity, since He was not conceived from mortal men, nor did His mother bear Him in sin.

A Virgin conceived Him, and a Virgin gave Him birth; for she conceived Him in faith and received Him in faith.

Therefore, "Behold, the Lamb of God." He does not have that shoot from Adam. He only took flesh from Adam, and did not take sin.

He Who did not receive sin from our mixture is the One Who takes away our sin. "Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world."

You know that some people sometimes say: "We remove sins from men; we are holy. For if the one baptized is not holy, how can he remove another's sin, if he himself is a man full of sin?"

This refers to the schismatic Donatists in North Africa, who made the efficacy of the Mysteries depend on the holiness of the priest who performed them.

Blessed Augustine fought against the Donatists and devoted a considerable cycle of works to this question.

To refute arguments of this sort, let us not use our own words. Let us read what follows: "Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world."

Let men not rely on the opinion of men. Let the sparrow not fly to the mountain, but let it hope in God (cf. Ps 10:1).

If it lifts up its eyes to the mountains, from where its help will come, it will understand that its help is from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth (cf. Ps 102:1-2).

John was a man of such high dignity. When he was asked, "Are you the Christ?" he answered, "No."

They asked, "Are you Elijah?" He answered, "No." They asked, "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No."

They asked, "Then why do you baptize?" He answered: "Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.

This is He of Whom I said: 'After me comes a Man Who has come to be before me, because He was before me'" (Jn 1:28-29).

"After me He comes," because He was born later than I. "He has come to be before me," because He surpasses me.

"He was before me," because "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1).

In exactly the same way the divine Evangelist cries out: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14).

And John the Baptist, who shares the name of John the Theologian, cried out, saying: "After me comes a Man Who ranks before me, because He was before me" (Jn 1:30).

Having shown one person, he at the same time indicated both the divine and the human nature. He indicated the human by the words "Man" and "comes," and the divine by the words "because He was before me."

Yet he did not know one who comes after and another who existed before him. Rather, he acknowledged one and the same as pre-eternal, as God, and as man after He was born of the Virgin.

For He comes like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit refining and purifying like silver and like gold.

He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver" (3:2-3). But for the lawless He will be a fire burning up the stubble (4:1).

For God Himself gave him this as a sign. When sending him to baptize with water, God told him that the One upon Whom he would see the Spirit descending and remaining is the One Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (33).

"And I saw this," John concludes his speech, "and not only knew Him myself, but, according to my calling, also bore witness to others that this is the Son of God."

That John here names Jesus Christ the Son of God in the proper sense is shown by the fact that in verse 30 he confesses Him as existing from eternity.

Or perhaps in the sense that He is the Man of every soul and the Bridegroom of the Church.

For the Apostle Paul said: 'I betrothed you, to present you to one Man, namely Christ' (2 Cor 11:2).

So also the Forerunner says: 'I am only the friend of the Bridegroom and the mediator, but the Man comes after me.

I draw souls to faith in Christ, and He is the Man Who is united to them.'"

Then, in order to remove every doubt about the truth of his testimony concerning Christ, he indicates how he learned of his own calling and of Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to receive baptism from John. But the stern prophet of the wilderness, for the first time since reverent crowds had begun gathering around him to receive baptism from him, was troubled and stepped back.

"I need to be baptized by You," he says reverently to Christ, "and are You coming to me?" (Mt 3:14).

With his God-enlightened soul he saw in Jesus the very object of his long hopes and expectations. "I did not know Him," he said somewhat later (Jn 1:30), as if wishing to say that he had begun his preaching not because he knew Him, nor by agreement with Him.

Rather, he baptized and spiritually awakened Israel so that the people, being spiritually enlightened, might receive Christ when He appeared in the proper disposition, as the true Messiah.

Even before Christ appeared, John had expressed the firm conviction that God had heard the cry of His people and had granted the Messiah, although He had not yet been revealed to him.

In his hope in God, he said to the people: "Among you stands One whom you do not know" (Jn 1:26), namely, the true Messiah. "He is the One who comes after me, who has come before me," the true Messiah, "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."

This is not a man of ordinary origin, but One sent from God to dwell temporarily among men. John's long communion with God in the wilderness, his prayers and tears, raised him to the height of spiritual majesty.

This gave him wondrous insight to foresee what had not yet been revealed. For his God-enlightened spirit, the coming of the Messiah had already become a living truth, waiting only for its appointed time to be manifested.

And now at last it visibly stood before him in the person of Him who asked baptism from him.

It is not surprising that John was troubled by such a request from the God-man who had appeared to him. He knew that only One wholly free from sin could be the Messiah, and such was He who stood before him.

The humility, meekness, and purity that so struck him clearly testified to this for him. John's heart trembled at the thought that he saw before him precisely "the Lamb of God, who takes upon Himself the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29).

Isaiah's exalted depiction of Him upon whom Jehovah laid the iniquities of His people, and who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, had long been applied to the Messiah.

This thought instantly arose in John's soul when he saw before him the Messiah, who truly was taking upon Himself the sins of humanity.

Meanwhile Christ, having completed His preparatory work in the wilderness and gained victory over the prince of this world, again appeared in the place where John continued preaching and baptizing.

This appearance of Christ took place on the day after the delegation from the Sanhedrin had addressed John with a question about his person and his authority.

Now he received the opportunity to give definite testimony about the One whom he had baptized amid such extraordinary signs.

Feeling the greatest reverence toward Jesus, a reverence that seemed to pass into fear, John could not draw near to Him and enter into friendly conversation. Pointing from afar to the One who had appeared, he publicly and solemnly testified.

He declared that this was the Messiah, who had been revealed to him by a special sign, "the Lamb of God, who takes upon Himself the sins of the world."

At this, John already openly appeared as the herald of the Messiah's coming. He proclaimed to all the extraordinary signs that had taken place at the Baptism of Jesus, bearing witness to him that "this is the Son of God" (Jn 1:29-34).

They expected Him to subdue all the kingdoms of the earth and make the Jewish people ruler over all other peoples.

But John the Baptist said that the Messiah promised through the prophets is a meek and humble Lamb. He came to earth for the redemption of men from sin.

Therefore what awaits Him on earth is not glory and majesty, but suffering and death. He will be a propitiatory sacrifice to God for the sins of men.

To believing Jews, John the Baptist's words recalled Isaiah's prophecy, forgotten by the scribes and Pharisees.

In chapter 53 of his book, Isaiah depicts Christ the Messiah as "an unblemished Lamb, silent before His shearer," bearing our sins, grieving and suffering for our iniquities.

"He lived the whole time in the wilderness, not in his father's house" (Chrysostom). How then did he say to Jesus, "I need to be baptized by You" (Mt 3:14)? These words show that John knew the exalted person of Jesus.

Yes, he knew Him by an inner illumination of the mind as soon as Jesus appeared to him. But this knowledge was not yet wholly sufficient. Clearer and more convincing indications were required concerning who Christ Jesus is.

"I saw," says the Forerunner, "the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remaining upon Him." Even this was not enough. "He who sent Me to baptize with water said to me: Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."

The vision of the dove descending upon Jesus was certainly not an act of imagination, even if the imagination had been stirred by the Holy Spirit. The Evangelist Matthew relates that when Jesus was baptized, He immediately came up from the water, and the heavens were opened to Him.

The clouds were parted, as we see when lightning flashes. Saint Mark (Mk 1:10) and John say that the Forerunner saw the Spirit of God as a dove. Saint Luke expresses it more definitely: descending in bodily form, σωματικω ειδει.

It is clear that the Spirit of God descended visibly, in a form perceptible to the bodily senses, as He descended upon the apostles.

Did others besides the Forerunner see all this? "If they did see it," says Chrysostom of the Jews, "for such things bodily eyes alone are not needed, but especially the eyes of the mind, so that one does not take an actual thing for an empty sign."

This means that capable people, people with a right direction of mind and heart, saw it. But there was no need for everyone to see it. In itself, this was quite enough to recognize the Messiah in Jesus.

Yet the Jews could still express doubts against the correctness of John's objective vision. The Forerunner says that just as the Lord appeared to the prophets and announced this or that will of His, so the Lord Himself appeared to the son of Zachariah and announced His thought.

"Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." Do you believe the appearances of the Godhead to the prophets? Then you must also trust me in my preaching that Jesus is the Messiah.

He will accomplish among men the grace-filled, inward baptism that is to transform the very hearts of men. Otherwise you must renounce the whole history of the people of God.

For this reason John says, "I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." When did the Forerunner testify that Jesus is the Son of God?

"He called Him the Lamb and said also that He would baptize with the Holy Spirit. But that He is the Son of God he did not say" in John's Gospel.

"The other Evangelists do not write that after the Baptism he said anything. Passing over the events of this time in silence, they speak of Christ's miracles, which occurred after John's imprisonment.

From this we may conclude that they passed over this and much else in silence. This very Evangelist, John, showed the same at the end of his Gospel" (Chrysostom, Zigabenus).

Here then is another testimony of the Forerunner concerning Jesus, the Son of Mary. It is a testimony showing in Jesus an extraordinary messenger of God, indeed the Son of God, and a testimony strengthened by the witness of heaven.

After this, the Lord in the flesh was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Having been tempted, He struck down the devil by His word.

Then came the moment of the Lord's appearance for preaching. The Gospel depicts this moment.

"In the beginning was the Word," says the Evangelist. The Word became flesh. His herald was John the Baptist.

He bore witness of Him to the people, that He was among them and was coming. And behold, He appears in the humble form of a man.

All eyes are turned to Him, and John cries out: "Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world."

The people and the scribes standing in silent expectation, as well as those sent from the Sanhedrin, could not fail to understand that the Coming One to Whom John pointed had been foretold by the prophets.

They could not fail to remember that the prophet Isaiah had spoken of the Messiah: "He was despised, and we esteemed Him not"; "He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our diseases"; "He was oppressed, yet He suffered willingly."

"Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth" (Is 53:3-7, 11).

It is precisely in this sense, with direct reference to the prophecies, that John calls the coming Lord "the Lamb Who takes away the sins of the world."

The Paschal lamb too was a type of the great sacrifice offered for our sins.

Yet, while pointing to the human person appearing to the people, John again repeats the mysterious words we read in verses 27 and 15: "He has come to be before me," "He was before me."

That is, he removes the existence of this man, according to appearance, into the mysterious depth of the past.

Now, pointing to Him, he testifies that he spoke of Him when he spoke of the Great One whose sandal strap he was unworthy to loose.

Then John reveals still more majestically the revelation received by him from God, and the sacred vision that showed him the Lamb of God, Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.