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Mat 11:11. Οὐκ ἐγήγερται, there has not arisen) or there hath not been raised up as yet. The verb ἐγείρεσθαι, denotes an office conferred.-ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν, among them that are born of women) An expression of universal extent. Thus, ἐν γυναίξιν, among women, of the blessedness of Mary, Luk 1:28.-μείζων, a greater, sc. prophet) See Luk 7:28; Luk 1:15, even if he be compared with Enoch, Moses, and Elias.-τοῦ βαπτισοῦ, the Baptist) He was already then distinguished by this surname, on account of the novelty and magnitude of the matter, not merely afterwards to distinguish him from John the apostle.-ὁ δὲ μικρότερος, but the least) The comparative with the article has the force of a superlative. As far as John excels every one, even the greatest of the ancient prophets, so far is John himself excelled by every one, even the least, in the kingdom of heaven, whether he be a preacher of Christ, or merely a citizen thereof. John himself was not yet in the kingdom of heaven, but he preceded it [as a herald].[519] Jesus is not the least IN the kingdom of heaven, but is the King Himself; and He Himself is implied by the kingdom of heaven, which John announced.-See Mat 11:10; Mat 11:3, and ch. Mat 3:11. And the less and the greater are here spoken of as they are, not in the opinion of men, but in reality, in the knowledge of the revealed Christ.-See 1Pe 1:12. The idea of external appearance, in Mat 11:6, does not come in here. Jesus was despised and unknown amongst men, but He was not the least, as far as the kingdom of heaven was concerned; all the citizens of the kingdom of heaven already acknowledged Him as their King.-Cf. the phrase in ch. v. 19. He is never called less than John, nor least in the kingdom of heaven. The least in the kingdom of heaven, is the least of the citizens of the kingdom. In that THIRD point[520] in which John is greater than others, the least in the kingdom of heaven is less than the other citizens of the kingdom of heaven. John did not yet know all, which at present even catechumens know from the Apostles’ Creed. A noble climax-prophet, John, apostle or Christian. It is greater, in this kind of comparison of the Old and New Testament, to know things present than things future, however brief be the interval which separates them from the present;[521] but in another point of view, the knowledge of futurity is an especial distinction conferred by GOD.
[519] Even at that time the Apostles themselves already were superior to John in their baptizing and teaching, Joh 4:2; Mat 10:7, etc.-Harm., p. 299), at the end.
[520] Beng. seems to me to use Tertium here in the logical sense of the intermediate term, affording a point of comparison between the other two: as here John stands midway between the Old Test. covenant and its prophets, on the one hand, and the N. Test. kingdom, and its preachers and members, on the other.-ED.
[521] In the original, “scire præsentia quam futura, quamvis proxime futura;” lit. “to know present than future [things], although most closely future” i.e. “to know the things that are, than those that are to be hereafter, however close that hereafter may be to the present.”-(I. B.)