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In Matthew and Luke, Jesus says no one born of women is greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the kingdom is greater. The Gospel of Thomas has a later form of the saying that starts the count at Adam and puts whoever becomes a child above John.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 11:11
New Testament
10 This is the one about whom it is written: “‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11 “I tell you the truth, among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is! 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it.
Luke 7:28
New Testament
27 This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 28 I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he is.” 29 (Now all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s justice because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.
Gospel of Thomas 1:46
Nag Hammadi
45 Jesus said, “Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs gathered from thistles; for they do not produce fruit. Good people bring forth good from their treasure; bad people bring forth evil from their evil treasure in their heart and say evil things. For out of the abundance of the heart they bring forth evil.” 46 Jesus said, “From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women, no one is greater than John the Baptist so that his eyes should not be averted. Yet I have said that whoever among you will become a child will know the kingdom and will become greater than John.” 47 Jesus said, “It is impossible for a man to mount two horses or to stretch two bows; and it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters, for he will honor the one and treat the other contemptuously. No person drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine. New wine is not put into old wineskins, or they might burst; and old wine is not put into a new wineskin, or it might spoil. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because it would tear.”
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Notes and References
“... There is one saying about the Baptist in the second-century Gospel of Thomas, logion 46: “Jesus says, ‘From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of a woman there is no one who surpasses John the Baptist, so that his (i.e. John’s) eyes need not be downcast. But I have (also) said, Whoever among you becomes little will know the kingdom and will surpass John’” (trans., with punctuation slightly altered, from Uwe-Karsten Plisch, The Gospel of Thomas: Original Text with Commentary [Freiburg, Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2008], 121–22.) As Plisch argues, this seems to be a secondary version of Matt. 11:11//Luke 7:28, though it preserves the essential intention of its source, especially in the second sentence. ...”
Marcus, Joel
John the Baptist in History and Theology
(p. 162) The University of South Carolina Press, 2018
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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