John said, "I need to be baptized by you" (3:14). Did John know who Jesus was?

Matthew tells it this way. John says, "he who comes after me is mightier than I" (3:11), without naming him. Then Jesus comes to be baptized (3:13), and "John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”" (3:14). Matthew doesn't say what John knew, or why he said it. In John's Gospel, John says of Jesus, "I didn’t know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water, that he would be revealed to Israel" (John 1:31), and "I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending and remaining on him is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’" (John 1:33). Later in Matthew, when John "heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples" (11:2), and the question is, "Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?" (11:3). The accounts are set side by side here. These notes don't explain how they fit together, and don't say what John knew or thought beyond what each verse says.