John 1:15 He who comes after me is preferred before me

John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'"

The Apostle John inserts this parenthetical reference to John the Baptist between the 14th, and the 16th and 17th verses; right in the middle of his dialog of the fullness of the grace and truth of Jesus.  So we will also postpone our discussion of grace and truth in order to explain why The Baptist's testimony might merit such a mention in the midst of Christ's attributes.  This will provide an opportunity to discuss the background of both Johns.

Besides being a witness to the ministry of Jesus, the Apostle John is the only New Testament writer who was also a disciple of John the Baptist.  This Apostle is therefore compelled to offer his own first hand observations of John the Baptist in order to supplement the three synoptic gospels.

Jesus did come after John in both his birth and his ministry.  Luke's gospel tells us that in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy the angel Gabriel was sent to announce to the virgin Mary that she would bear the Son of God.  This places the birth of Jesus at least six months after the birth of Elizabeth's child, John the Baptist.

Luke also dates the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry as follows:

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. - Luke 3:1,2

This information establishes the date of John's calling around 29 A.D.  This means that Jesus' baptism by John may have occurred within a year of the start of The Baptist's ministry in the desert.  Now sometime between the beginning of John's ministry and the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the would-be Apostles, John and Andrew, became disciples of John the Baptist.

 

Throughout John's gospel the writer either refers to himself as "the Disciple that Jesus loved," or simply mentions the presence of someone who remains unidentified.  Mark applies this same humility in his gospel when he refers to himself as the "certain young man" in the garden of Gethsemane who shed his outer garment and ran away naked.  John is "the other" "one of the two" in the following citation from John 1:35-40:

 

Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples.  And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"  The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.  Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?"  They said to Him, "Rabbi”"(which is to say, when translated, Teacher), "where are You staying?"  He said to them, "Come and see."  They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).  One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

 

Now John and his brother James were the sons of Zebedee and Salome.  The Zebedee family and the family of Andrew and Peter lived in Bethsaida and were both engaged in the fishing business.  The gospels provide other information about John which should promt intriguing questions, such as: How did a these two sons in the fishing industry from Galilee of the Gentiles become so interested in piety that they sought the tutelage of the desert prophet?  And, why were the religious leaders of Jerusalem so well acquainted with the Apostle John that he was welcomed into the courtyard of the high priest on the night of Jesus' betrayal?

 

These questions might not be decisively resolved, but the answers might be found in the family relationships noted in scriptures, and by reasonable assumptions that are not directly stated in the gospels.

 

First of all, we are told that Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was the wife of a priest who served in the Temple.  And Elizabeth was the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

 

The second relationship is inferred, and is presented concisely by missionary and Christian publisher, Jay Rogers, and may be located online at the link below.  Jay has color-coded the key elements of his argument.

[1. In the Gospel of Matthew, James and John are identified as the sons of Zebedee.
“And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father” (Matthew 4:21).

2. Standing among the women near the cross with Jesus’ mother Mary was the mother of Zebedee’s children as identified by the Gospel of Matthew.   “Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children (Matthew 27:56).

3. Standing among the women near the cross with Jesus’ mother Mary was Salome as identified by the Gospel of Mark.  “There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome“ (Mark 15:40).

4. Salome was Jesus’ mother’s sister as the apostle John himself states, about his own mother. Mark’s Gospel account refers to her by name. John’s Gospel account refers to her by her relationship to Mary.    “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:25).

From Matthew’s account we know that James and John were the sons of Zebedee. By comparing Matthew and Mark we discover that Salome was the name of wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John. From John we see that Salome was Mary’s sister.] - http://www.forerunner.com/blog/jesus-cousins-were-the-apostles-james-and-john

 

If we accept that Salome was the sister of Mary, and combine this with the fact that Elizabeth was Mary's cousin, we can easily see how Zechariah might have influenced the young man John in spiritual matters.  And how Zechariah could have introduced John to the family of the high priest in Jerusalem.  John then, with a heart inclined toward seeking God, could well have encouraged his fishing buddy, Andrew, to accompany him into the desert to hear yet another relative, John the Baptist, as he thundered his call to repentance from across the Jordan.
 

Jesus said that no Old Testament prophet was greater than John the Baptist.  And now we can perhaps understand why John the Apostle might have esteemed the words and the dignity of the Prophet by giving him such a prominent place in the introduce to his gospel.

 

"This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'"    John was truly God's prophet.  He had knowledge which was imparted to him directly from God that he would be the forerunner of the Christ.  John realized, and fully accepted, that the One who would begin His human ministry after Him was John's own hope and salvation.  John never intended that his ministry of repentance and water baptism would outshine the glory of Jesus' ministry as "the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world."

 

And The Baptist also knew that the Son of God, who had come into the world after him, was the "I AM" who's days are without beginning or end.