Homilies on the Gospel of John

“This is He of whom I said, He that comes after me is preferred before me.”

2. Do you see here also how he interprets the word “before”? For having called Him “Lamb,” and that He “takes away the sin of the world,” then he says that “He is preferred before me, for He was before me”; declaring that this is the “before,” the taking upon Him the sins of the world, “and the baptizing with the Holy Ghost.” “For my coming had no farther object than to proclaim the common Benefactor of the world, and to afford the baptism of water; but His was to cleanse all men, and to give them the power of the Comforter.” “He is preferred before me,” that is to say, has appeared brighter than I, because “He was before me.” Let those who have admitted the madness of Paul of Samosata be ashamed when they withstand so manifest a truth.