Introduction
John witnesses concerning Him, and he cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I was saying, ‘The One coming after me has precedence over me, because He was before me.'”
John 1:15
Trinitarians and Arians often take John’s statement here to mean that Jesus was existing before John. Some translations even translate the passage this way. NASB: “He who is coming after me has proved to be my superior, because He existed before me” (CSB, HCSB, LSB, CEV, GNT, ISV, NAB, NLT, and NET all read similarly).
John makes a very similar statement later.
John 1:30: “This is He concerning whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who has precedence over me, because He was before me.'”
It is “a man” that was before John
Note that John says it is a man that was before him in this passage. Trinitarians and Arians take this to mean that the person was before John, not necessarily as a man. However, this is a common theme of John’s gospel. In John 6, Jesus talks about the bread that comes down from heaven. Typically, Trinitarians and Arians believe that this is Jesus coming down from heaven to “become flesh.” He came down from heaven to become man. Yet, in verse 51, Jesus says that the bread that came down from heaven is his flesh. Do Trinitarians and Arians believe that Jesus’ flesh came down from heaven? Or rather, do they believe that someone came down from heaven to become flesh? Verse 53 says that the Son of man gives the flesh and blood. It is the flesh and blood of the son of man that gives life to the world. Did Jesus’ flesh come down from heaven? In John 6:62, Jesus says, “what if you see the son of man ascending to where he was before?” Where was the son of man before that he would ascend back to? In the same line, John 3:13 says, “no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the son of man.” Did the Son of Man descend from heaven? Or did someone descend from heaven to incarnate and become the son of man? (For more information on these passages, see the article titled, (“How Jesus ascended and descended from heaven“)
John’s theme is that it is a man, Son of man, a human being of flesh and blood, that comes down from heaven. John’s statement here is in the same context. It is “a man” that was before him, and that was before him.
“Before” John, “the first” of John
The big debate on this passage is what it means to be “before” John. Most translations leave it ambiguous. “He was before me.” Some translations as noted above insist that it is about Jesus’ existing before John. “He existed before me.” Other translations will note that this being before is about a rank. The Aramaic Bible in Plain English translates this: “This was he of whom I spoke: ‘He that comes after me is preferred in honor before me, for he had priority over me.'”
The word in question is the word for “before,” πρῶτος (prótos). This word can mean first in time or first in principle.
Mark 12:18-23: And Sadducees, who say there is not a resurrection, come to Him. And they began questioning Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, that if anyone’s brother should die and leave behind a wife and not leave children, that his brother should take the wife and raise up seed for his brother. There were seven brothers; and the first (prótos) took a wife, and dying, left no seed. And the second took her, and died, not having left seed. And the third likewise. And the seven left no seed. Last of all, the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise,c of which of them will she be wife? For the seven had her as wife.”
In the context, we can clearly see that prótos clearly refers to someone being first in time, for there was a second and third after him, until the seventh.
Mark 12:28: And one of the scribes having come up, having heard them reasoning together, having seen that He answered them well, questioned Him, “Which commandment is the first (prótos) of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear this O Israel: The Lord our God is One Lord.'”
Jesus quotes the shema of Deuteronomy 6:4. This is far from the first commandment God ever gave man or even the nation of Israel. The scribe is asking Jesus which commandment is the greatest, as it is typically translated.
This word is used to refer to either first in time or first in rank. Take, for example, Colossians 1:15. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” This word “firstborn” is literally prototokos. “Proto” and “tikto,” first and bring forth. Does this passage refer to Jesus as the first in time or the first in rank in this passage? Trinitarians often like to say that this refers to Jesus as the first in rank, “firstborn over all creation.” Arians and JWs like to say this is the firstborn in time. The first thing God created. Yet both camps say that John 1:15 must refer to first in time. Jesus was “first of John” in time, meaning prior to John in time.
From Luke’s account of John’s mother and father and Mary when she receives the promise from Gabriel, we know that John the Baptist was about 6 months older than Jesus. So, for John to write that Jesus was “before,” John created the problem of the passage. In what way was Jesus before John? Trinitarians and Arians assume this means that Jesus was older than John and before John in time because Jesus had a preexistence. John says something that illuminates his meaning here.
He must increase and I must decrease
John 3:26-31: And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold He baptizes, and all are coming to Him.” John answered, “A man cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.”
First, we notice that when John says, “a man can receive nothing unless it is given him from heaven,” he is responding to the statement his audience just made. Notice that it says “John answered them” by saying these words. This “man” who received from above is Jesus. John is talking about a man, Jesus, who received what he has from above.
Second, John says, “he must increase, and I must decrease.” This is a summation of what John said in John 1:15 and 30. “He who comes after me is ahead of me because he was first of me.” John is talking about the increase of Jesus. He is talking about the superiority of Jesus to himself and how Jesus will surpass him. Listen again to the statement John is responding to.
Third, John says that he who comes from above is “above all.” We could say, “before all.” John is talking about Jesus’ rank being above all because Jesus is above all.
John is consistently talking about Jesus’ rank in this passage and how Jesus is ahead of himself, increasing because Jesus is before John. In our verses in John 1:15 and 30, John is talking about the same thing. Jesus is before John in his superiority, not in time.
John 3:31, “He who is from above”*
Many will argue that this statement of John, “he who comes from heaven is above all,” must mean that Jesus descended from heaven in his preexistence. John makes no mention of a preexistence at all. And he’s just said that everything a man receives has come down from heaven. This parallels James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” The good gifts we receive do not have preexistence literally in heaven and float down to earth. Note that John contrasts he who is “from above” to he who is “from the earth.” Even in Trinitarian and Arian theology, the “man” Jesus is from the earth literally. When John uses the phrase “from above,” it is the word ἄνωθεν, the same word Jesus just used in John 3:3 and 5 about being “born from above,” or born again. The word can mean both. This is why Nicodemus replies to Jesus by saying, “How can a man be born a second time when he is old? Must he enter again and be born from his mother’s womb?” He takes Jesus’ words here to be “born again” but fails to see Jesus’ meaning on being born “from above.” John (the Baptist) uses this same term just following because John (the gospel writer) is making a point about the same topic. Jesus himself is born again from above, and this is how we received that which is from above. John saw Jesus receiving his gifts from above.
John 1:32-34: And John bore witness saying, “I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and it remained upon Him. And I did not know Him; but the One having sent me to baptize with water, He said to me, ‘Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, He is the One baptizing with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
A man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from heaven. Jesus is “a man” who received God’s Spirit from heaven. Recall John’s statements in Matthew 3:11: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but after me is coming He who is mightier than I, of whom I am not worthy to carry the sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” He must increase, baptize with Spirit, and I must decrease, baptize with water. That is not to say water baptism has dissolved and become obsolete, but that Spirit baptism will surpass him. Jesus is ahead of John. He is before John. Jesus is from above because he is born from above. This isn’t about preexistence. It’s a commission we have as well. “You must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.” If you believe we enter God’s kingdom, then you must believe that we can be born from above. Not from below. Jesus says, “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:16). He who is from above is above all. Matthew 11:11, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he!” He who is born from above is above he who is of the earth. John being “born of women” refers to John’s birth from the earth. John the Baptist was not born again. No one before Jesus’ death was because the Spirit by which we are born was not yet given (John 7:39). John 3:31 has nothing to do with a preexience or John testifying that Jesus descended from heaven before his birth. Jesus descended from heaven when he was born from heaven above, born again, when he received the Spirit, which descended on him from heaven (John 1:32, 51).
Jesus “was” superior to John
Can you see John’s point? Jesus is before John because he is superior to John. Not because he existed before John. Jesus having existed before John, being older than John, would not make him “ahead” of John or greater than John. A common theme of the OT is that the younger child is given the larger inheritance. See Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, and even his sons and the sons of Judah. Being before John in time would not make Jesus superior to John. Jesus is coming ahead of John because he is first in rank of John. The REV translates this verse: “John testified about him, and called out, saying, “This was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was superior to me’” (this verse is currently being worked on during the time this article is being written, 6-12-23, and may be subject to change in an updated version).
John says that the one coming after him was superior to him. Does this not still denote preexistence given that Jesus “was” superior to John? No. We need to first look at how John viewed himself. When the Pharisees sent priests and Levites to John and asked him who he was, notice what he said. John 1:22-23: “Therefore they said to him, “Who are you, that we might give an answer to those having sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He was saying, “I am a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” John saw himself as the voice in the wilderness. John saw himself as the servant who makes way for the king to enter. Servants would have to clean and clear roadways before kings made their arrival. Ancient roads were not as maintained as ours today. John saw Jesus as the one who would bring in the Lord and fulfill this prophecy (for more information on this passage, see the article on this here). Jesus was superior to John even before Jesus or John had been born because Jesus is the greater of this prophecy. Jesus’ superiority was noted in the many OT prophecies about what the Messiah would do. And John noted Jesus’ superiority even in the womb (Luke 1:44).
“This was he of whom I was saying: ‘the one coming after me [in time], has precedence over me, because he was superior [in rank] than me.”
“After me comes a man [human being] who has precedence over me, because he was superior [in rank] than me.”
“A man [Jesus] can receive nothing unless it is given him from heaven… He must increase and I must decrease.”