30. The Baptist goes on to say that Jesus is that very Person of whom he had said on a previous occasion: *After me*, &c. Some take the reference here to be to the testimony of the preceding day, when the Baptist bore witnesses in verse 27; others think the reference is to the occasion spoken of in verse 15, and regard that testimony as distinct from the one recorded in verse 27. We prefer the latter view, and distinguish in all six testimonies of the Baptist recorded in the Gospels. The first, before Christ’s Baptism, as in Matt. iii. 11; Mark i. 7; Luke iii. 16; the second, as in John i. 15; the third, as in John i. 19‐27; the fourth, as in John i. 29‐34; the fifth, as in John i. 35‐36; and the sixth and last, as in John iii. 27‐36. 31. Et ego nesciebam eum, sed 31. And I knew him not, but ut manifestetur in Israel, that he may be made manifest propterea veni ego in aqua in Israel, therefore am I come baptizans. baptizing with water. 31. *And I knew him not*; _i.e._, _officially_, so as to be able to bear witness to Him publicly; or, better: I knew Him not personally; I was unacquainted with Him, so that my testimony in His favour then and now cannot be the result of prejudice or partiality towards Him. The Baptist was indeed a relative of our Lord (Luke i. 36), and must known what his father, Zachary, had declared, “Praeibis enim ante faciem Domini parare vias ejus” (Luke i. 76), that he himself was to herald the public coming of Jesus. Yet, as Jesus dwelt at Nazareth in Galilee during His private life; and John, reared in the hill country of Juda (Luke i. 39), spent the years before his public mission—perhaps from his very childhood (as Origen, Mald.) in the deserts (Luke i. 80), it is conceivable how he might not have known Christ’s appearance. “What wonder,” says St. Chrys., “if he who from his childhood spent his life in the desert, away from his father’s home, did not know Christ?” But as he had, while still in his mother’s womb, been divinely moved to recognise Christ (Luke i. 41, 44); so, immediately before the baptism of the latter, he was enabled to recognise Him (Matt. iii. 14).