Luke 7:1-35
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Summary[edit]
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Discussion[edit]
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- Luke 7:17: Shewed. Here shewed is used differently than we use it today. A more recent translation may be helpful. Here are two: from The New International Version: "John's disciples told him about all these things;" from the English Standard Version "The disciples of John reported all these things to him."
- Luke 7:28: The least in the kingdom og God is greater than John. What should we make of Jesus' comment that he who is least in the kingdom of God is better than John--who is greatest of those born among women? The claim tells us that the greatest person is lower than the lowest one in "the kingdom of God." But who are those in the kingdom of God? And what is this statement doing in the middle of Jesus's discussion of John. It seems a distraction from his point.
- The phrase "the kingdom of God" is much used in Luke and in several different contexts. To preach the gospel is to preach the kingdom of God (Luke 9:2), God's mysteries are "the mysteries of the kingdom of God" (Luke 8:10). The kingdom of God is something we must recieve (Luke 18:17), something that can be within us (Luke 17:21) and something that we can (or not) enter into (Luke 18:24).
- Some have interpreted being in the kingdom of God to mean something like being a follower of Jesus Christ (see note on Matthew Henry's interpretation in related links below). But in all of the uses of this phrase in Luke, there is no indication that anyone of us are "in the kingdom of God" today. If John wasn't "in the kingdom of God" surely no one else Jesus was speaking to at the time was either. Such an interpretation doesn't make much sense of why Jesus was making this remark at the time, since it would have applied to no one he was speaking to. Further this interpretation is suspect as it is self-aggrandizing.
- If we interpret those in the kingdom of God to mean something like (in our language) those in the Celestial Kingdom, then this means that the least person in the Celestial Kingdom is greater than John was in his life. In that case the point still is a distraction from Jesus's discussion of John, but it has a clear purpose. At the same time Jesus tells the people that John was the greatest (leading up to the importance of not rejecting his message) he reminds them not to fall into the trap of caring about being greatest. In this interpretation the point is that it matters little who is greatest--we need not seek to be it. We all have the chance to be in the Celestial Kingdom which is really what matters.
- Matthew Henry suggests in his commentary on the Bible that when Jesus says that he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist (who himself was greatest of those born among women), it means that all those who follow/serve Christ are better than the greatest of those who came before Christ.
Unanswered questions[edit]
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Prompts for life application[edit]
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Prompts for further study[edit]
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Resources[edit]
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Notes[edit]
Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.
