“In a word, when John points out Christ, it is man pointing out God, the Saviour…”

In a word, when John points out Christ, it is man pointing out God, the Saviour incorporeal, the voice pointing out the Word.

Origen · Commentary on the Gospel of John · ANF IX, Commentary on John, Book II §26

Origen’s reading of the relation between John the Baptist and Christ, and the figure the Greek fathers after him kept: a voice can be made without meaning and a meaning can be held without voice, so the forerunner is the sound and the one he announces is the sense. It is why John is born first, why his father is struck dumb until he is born, and why the two must not be confused.