Charles Ellicott Commentary John 1:30

"This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is become before me: for he was before me." — John 1:30 (ASV)

This is he.—These words meet us here for the third time. They come in John 1:15, and in part in John 1:27. Here, as before, they are a quotation of an earlier and unrecorded statement of the Baptist, uttered in proverbial form, and to be understood in their fulfilment. (Compare to John 3:30.)