Who was the greatest: Solomon, John the Baptist or Jesus?

The three sayings measure different things. God’s promise to Solomon is about the gift he had asked for: “an understanding heart to judge thy people” (1 Kings 3:9). God gave him “a wise and an understanding heart”, and riches and honour besides, “so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days” (3:12–13). The next chapter shows the field of comparison: his wisdom excelled that of “all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt” and of the famous wise men of his day (4:30–31). It is the highest praise of a king’s wisdom, not a claim that Solomon was the best man who ever lived. The same book tells how, in old age, “his wives turned away his heart after other gods” (11:4).

Jesus’ words about John measure something else: his place among the prophets. Luke gives the saying as “there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28). John was “more than a prophet” because he was the messenger sent to prepare the Lord’s way (Matthew 11:9–10), and he pointed to the Messiah in person. Jesus at once adds that “he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (11:11). Gill and Barnes both take this as a comparison of privilege and light, not of personal worth: those who saw the gospel fulfilled knew more than John could. So Solomon can be the wisest of kings and John the greatest of the prophets without any clash.

Jesus is not one more name on either list. “A greater than Solomon is here” comes straight after “a greater than Jonas is here” (Matthew 12:41–42): he is greater than prophet and king alike. John himself said, “he that cometh after me is mightier than I” (Matthew 3:11), and Paul says that in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). God’s words to Solomon compare him with other men. They do not set him above the Son of God, and Gill notes on 1 Kings 3:12 that Christ excels Solomon in every kind of knowledge.

‘Born of women’

Some note that ‘born of women’ is a Hebrew way of saying ‘ordinary human beings’ (as in Job 14:1, “Man that is born of a woman”). On this reading Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit, is simply outside the comparison in Matthew 11:11.

Christians differ over who ‘the least in the kingdom’ are. Gill thinks of the apostles, who saw the gospel fulfilled; others think of every believer since Pentecost, or of the kingdom when it comes in full. On each view the saying is about privilege, and it does not rank John below Solomon or above Jesus.