βIf it was Paul who revealed that Christ gave Himself a ransomΒ βfor allβ (1 Tim. 2:6) as opposed to the βmanyβ in Israel (Matt. 20:28),Β how do we explain John 1:29?β
ββ¦John seeth Jesusβ¦and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.β
John was a prophet (Luke 7:28), and the prophets didnβt always understand their own prophecies (1 Pet. 1:11), especially when it came to βthe sufferings of Christ.β God knew that this would probably trouble the prophets, so He comforted them by explaining that βnot unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the thingsβ that they prophesied (1 Pet. 1:12).
We know that no one who heard John make his statement understood that Christ would die for the sins of the world, for some of the 12 heard it, but didnβt understand it (Luke 18:31-34). Not even Satan understood it (1 Cor. 2:7,8), or else he wouldnβt have instigated Judas to betray the Lord (Luke 22:3,4).
So the ransom Christ made for all men might have been prophesied in John 1:29, but it wasnβt βtestifiedβ until the βdue timeβ came for Paul to be βordained a preacher and an apostleβ (1 Tim. 2:6,7). source
