John 1:15

15. John bare witness of him Our Evangelist adduces the Baptist’s testimony not to prove (as he will in John 1:19-34) that Jesus, and not himself, was the Messiah; but to prove what he is just now saying, that the Messiah was truly of this exalted nature. And cried The great truth was maintained with a cry; a lofty voice that made the wilderness ring.

Cometh after me… preferred before me Put in the form of a paradox; my successor is my predecessor. He is my successor in time, my predecessor in a previous eternity. This was indeed crying up the divine Comer to his true divine height.

For he was before me Literally, he was my First. Not merely my former, but my absolute FIRST: first in the train of all my predecessors; therefore at the eternal beginning. The quotation of the Baptist’s words embraces but this verse, and then follows the Evangelist in continuance.