John 1:15

Devotion exegesis

15 Ἰωάννης μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ κέκραγεν λέγων, Οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον, Ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν.

15 John testifies about him. He cries out, saying, "This was the one of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'"

This kind of a riddle is called a mashal. It seems to have either a double meaning or a hidden meaning. You could call it a riddle or an enigma. Typically, a mashal's meaning eludes its hearers the first time they come into contact with it. Although John the Baptist uses a mashal, and the Apostles are not opposed to using them in the Epistles of the New Testament, Jesus himself preferred another more illustrative and expansive saying: the parable.

In this mashal, it might be easy for us to see the meaning, since we've been led by John the author up to this point.

Ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος He who comes after me (that is, after John the Baptist) is Jesus, and this makes complete and perfect sense when we remember that John was Jesus' forerunner, just as Malachi had foretold (Malachi 4:5-6).

ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν,...has surpassed me, From our perspective, this would almost be giving it away: Who else could surpass one of God's prophets but God himself? However, in the culture of the first century AD, the prophets' glory and respect for them grows the further back in time we go. In other words, Malachi was greater than John because Malachi lived 400 years before John. And Isaiah was greater than Malachi because he lived about 400 years before Malachi. And David was greater than Isaiah because he lived about 400 years before Isaiah. And Moses was greater than David because he lived about 400 years before David. And Abraham was greater than Moses because he lived about 400 years before Moses. Don't get caught up in my ball-park "400 year" tallies--the point is that the longer ago the man lived, the greater he would be considered to be. And yet, John says, the one who was coming after him had surpassed him.

ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν. because he was before me. The "before" here is πρῶτός, "before" in the sense of chronology. If John had meant that Jesus was "before" him meaning "standing right in front of," he would have said πρός rather than πρῶτός. Jesus is before all of us in time, because he is our Maker. He is God.

John used this enigma to carry out his task as the messenger of God, the prophet who foretold Jesus, and yet without saying anything that would in any way limit or constrain Jesus. John's task was to point to Jesus, not to tell Jesus what to do. In view of the Apostles' confused ideas of who and what Jesus was even at the end of his ministry ("Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?" Acts 1:6), and in view of John's own confusion (Matthew 11:2-3), it was better that he just carried out his task faithfully. he pointed to Jesus.

Our witness to Jesus begins there, pointing him out. This is our Savior, who came to take away our sins. And in him, we have freedom from death and hell and from the devil himself. And so we ask God to help us in our other freedom: The freedom to resist temptation; to say no to sin, through Jesus. His blood bought us, and we look to him for our strength and for healing.