John 3:30

ἐκεῖνον δεῖ αὐξάνειν, ἐμὲ δὲ ἐλαττοῦσθαι. Paley translates, “it is for Him to go on growing and for me to be ever getting less,” and adds, “the language seems to be solar”. In the Church Calendar, no doubt, John the Baptist's day is Midsummer Day, while our Lord's “natalitia” is midwinter, but scarcely founded on solar considerations of the day's increase after Christmas and decrease after 24th June. Rather John is the morning star “fidelis Lucifer” whose light is eclipsed in that of the rising sun (cf. Bernard's “Lucet ergo Johannes, tanto verius quanto minus appetit lucere,” and Euthyrnius, ἐλαττοῦσθαι ὡς ἡλίου ἀνατείλαντος ἑωσφόρον). If the style of the following verses is any clue to their authorship we must ascribe them to the evangelist. Besides, some of the expressions are out of place in the Baptist's lips: e.g., τὴν μαρτυρίαν αὐτοῦ οὐδεὶς λαμβάνει could scarcely have been said at the very time when crowds were flocking to Him. The precise point in the Baptist's language to which the evangelist attaches this commentary or expansion [“theils erklärende, theils erweiternde Reflexion,” Lücke] is his affirmation of the Messiah's superiority to himself. To this John adds (John 3:31): He is superior not only to the Baptist but to all, ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν, the reason being that He comes from above, ἄνωθεν; which is the equivalent of ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ in the latter part of the verse. These expressions are contrasted with ἐκ τῆς γῆς, the ordinary earthly origin of men, and they refer Christ's origin to a higher and unique source: unique because the result of this origin is that He is supreme over all, ἐπάνω πάντων. His origin is superior to that of all, therefore His supremacy is universal (cf. John 3:13). The results of origin, whether earthly or heavenly, are traced out in a twofold direction: in the kind of life lived and in the words spoken. On the one hand ὁ ἐκ τῆς γῆς … ἐστι. The first ἐκ expresses origin: the second moral connection, as in John 18:37; John 15:19 : he whose origin is earthly is an earthly person, his life rises no higher than its source, his interests and associations are of earth. Another result is given in the words ἐκ τῆς γῆς λαλεῖ, from the earth his ideas and his utterance of them spring. A man's talk and teaching cannot rise above their source. So far as experimental knowledge goes he is circumscribed by his origin. In contrast to persons of earthly origin stands ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐρχόμενος; ἐρχ. is added that not only his origin but his transition to his present condition may be indicated. His origin in like manner determines both his moral relationships and his teaching. The one is given in ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστί. He lives in a higher region than all others and is not limited by earthly conditions.