Patristic A.D. 407
“(Hom. vi. [v.] in Joh. c. 1) Not because the light wanted the testimony, but for the reason which John himself gives, viz. that all might believe on Him. For as He put on flesh to save all men from death; so He sent before Him a human preacher, that the sound of a voice like their own, might the readier draw men to Him.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of John, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on John 1:6-8
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1845) ↗