John the Baptist’s Witness to Christ

These verses begin the historical part of John's gospel. In the prologue (vv. 1-18) John has spoken of the deep and weighty truth of Christ's personal deity and incarnation. Now we come to the narration of Christ's earthly ministry. We note that John does not include anything of the first 30 years of our Lord's life but begins at once with "the record" or witness of John the Baptist. (The only details of Jesus' first 30 years are given in Matthew 1 and Matthew 2 and Luke 1 and Luke 2.) And that...