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John 1:29-31
New Catholic Bible
John 1:29-31
New Catholic Bible
29 Behold, the Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World.[a] The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world.
30 This is the one of whom I said,
‘After me is coming one
who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’
31 I myself did not know him,[b]
but the reason I came to baptize with water
was so that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Footnotes
- John 1:29 John knows that he acts as a prophet gripped by the mission of God. And at the threshold of the Gospel, he presents the image of the lamb who will be evoked again at the end of the Passion. It is connected with the Jewish Passover and symbolizes the deliverance from Egypt (Ex 12:1-28); it also fits in with the portrait of the mysterious Servant of God, foretold by a prophet as an innocent victim led like a lamb to the slaughter, who was not only to atone for the sins of humanity but also to justify sinners (Isa 53:7, 11-12). It further recalls the great apocalyptic Lamb who would destroy evil in the world (Rev 5–7; 17:14).
- John 1:31 I myself did not know him: this may refer to the fact that John lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel (see Lk 1:80) and thus did not know Jesus very well. It may also indicate that John did not know that Jesus was the Messiah until he saw the sign mentioned in vv. 32-33.
