John 1:15
NT Gospels
John 1:1515John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, “This is He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’”
JW Usage
JWs read "he existed before me" as a reference to Jesus' prehuman life as a spirit creature in heaven, which fits their teaching that he was created before all other things and later born as a human.
Protestant Usage
John the Baptist was born before Jesus, yet he says of the Word who became flesh, "he existed before me." The statement only works if the one born after John was already alive before John, which means the Word of verse 14 is a person with a past, not an attribute or a plan that took shape in the man Jesus. The Baptist repeats the same words about Jesus in verse 30, tying the Word of the prologue directly to the man standing in front of him. Compare , .