εἶπον, (eipon) in John 1:15: Verb First Person Singular Second Aorist Active Indicative

Verb: the form names an action or state, and here it is the word for speaking in a completed past statement.

Second Aorist: commonly views the action as a whole event. It should not be treated as automatically punctiliar or automatically past in every context.

Active: presents the subject as doing or carrying the action.

Indicative: presents the verbal idea as an assertion or statement in the clause.

First person: the speaker or speakers are grammatically involved in the verbal form.

Not applicable: this verb form is not using noun case to mark its sentence role.

Singular: the form is marked for a single speaker, matching the first-person voice in the quoted claim.

Not applicable: this verb form does not use grammatical gender to make its point.

It belongs to the quoted speech introduced by λέγων and continues the testimony of John.

The clause is governed by the surrounding quotation frame, so the form functions as direct speech within John's witness.

It carries the first-person reported statement, giving the speaker's own past saying in the flow of testimony.

It does not by itself identify the subject matter of the saying, and it does not add a new grammatical subject to the verse.

Moderate: The verb marks John's prior saying within the testimony about the one coming after him.

First-person second aorist active indicative speech verb. reports John's own earlier saying. Attached to John's quoted testimony. Governed by the direct-speech frame in John 1:15. The speech verb introduces the claim; the quoted content carries the theological weight.

Whose saying is being recalled? John recalls his own saying about the one coming after him.

Direct: The first-person aorist directly supports English wording such as "I said."

The form reports a saying; the meaning must be read from the quoted testimony, not the speech verb alone.

Aorist speech verb gives the quotation special once-for-all force: The aorist reports the saying as a whole event; the quote supplies the claim.

The received text reads εἶπον in John 1:15, within the witness frame that says John testified and cried out.

The lemma is λέγω, a common verb for saying or speaking, so the form contributes speech, not a different lexical sense.

The aorist indicative presents the saying as a bounded past utterance, fitting a witness statement that recalls what was said.

In context, the form supports John's remembered declaration about the one coming after him, without making the tense alone carry the whole point.

The form fits the Gospel's pattern of testimony and reported speech, where words are used to bear witness about Jesus.

For readers, the form signals a direct, concrete claim in a testimony setting, helping the sentence sound like quoted memory rather than ongoing speech.

Do not derive special doctrine, timing precision beyond the narrated utterance, or a new theological claim from the verbal form alone.