John 1:30

30. This is he See note on John 1:15.

I knew him not See note on Matthew 3:14. But how was it possible that John should be the cousin of Jesus and he personally unacquainted with him. Must they not have met at some of the Passovers in Jerusalem? We might reply that John, according to Luke 1:80, was required by a special dispensation to dwell in the wilderness. He may, by a divine speciality, never have attended any Passover; or at least any at which Jesus was present. But if even he had seen Jesus, and had known from human information his whole history, he yet had no right according to the divine order to him given, officially to know and proclaim him as Messiah. As it was the Apostles’ office to be eye-witnesses and not reporters from hearsay, so it was John’s office to be not a second-hand, but an immediate witness from the Holy Spirit himself. He could therefore know the Messiah only as God revealed him.