John the Baptist question

[SouthernSister]

Luke 7:28, Jesus said, “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

He’s talking about John the Baptist. If this were taken literally, is Jesus not saying that John the Baptist is greater than Mary? After all, Mary would’ve been “among those born of women.”

Maybe I’m just misreading something here?

SouthernSister

 

[Kristina_P]

SouthernSister:

Luke 7:28, Jesus said, “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

He’s talking about John the Baptist. If this were taken literally, is Jesus not saying that John the Baptist is greater than Mary? After all, Mary would’ve been “among those born of women.”

Maybe I’m just misreading something here?

SouthernSister

If it were taken literally, John the Baptist would be greater than Jesus, since Jesus was born of a woman. This is my take on the whole sentence within the context. Jesus is contrasting “born of women” and “in the kingdom of God.” He is contrasting the old covenant with the new. John the Baptist was the last prophet of the old covenant, and he helped usher in the new covenant. Under the old covenant, no one was greater than John. But the new covenant trumps the old covenant, and “in the kingdom of God” the least will be greatest, the last will be first.

He is also purposefully speaking words that are difficult to understand, because many of those in His audience were hostile to John and hostile to Jesus. He both emphasized that John was great, which angered John’s detractors, and emphasized that the kingdom of God was separate from John’s baptism, i.e., John was not the Messiah. This would have been for the benefit of John’s followers, who had, of course, already been hearing this from John the Baptist himself.

I hope that makes sense to you. I’ve never really put a whole lot of thought into that passage, but what I’ve written here made sense as I wrote it. I’d be interested to see how a more mature Catholic would look at it.

 

[hurst]

Kristina P.:

If it were taken literally, John the Baptist would be greater than Jesus, since Jesus was born of a woman. This is my take on the whole sentence within the context. Jesus is contrasting “born of women” and “in the kingdom of God.” He is contrasting the old covenant with the new. John the Baptist was the last prophet of the old covenant, and he helped usher in the new covenant. Under the old covenant, no one was greater than John. But the new covenant trumps the old covenant, and “in the kingdom of God” the least will be greatest, the last will be first.

He is also purposefully speaking words that are difficult to understand, because many of those in His audience were hostile to John and hostile to Jesus. He both emphasized that John was great, which angered John’s detractors, and emphasized that the kingdom of God was separate from John’s baptism, i.e., John was not the Messiah. This would have been for the benefit of John’s followers, who had, of course, already been hearing this from John the Baptist himself.

I hope that makes sense to you. …

That was a great take on it! I don’t think I could have said it better.

hurst