Matthew 12:6

12:6 I ¹  tell you that something greater than the temple is here.

Matthew 12:42

12:42 The queen of the South ²  will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, ³  something greater than Solomon is here!

John 3:31

3:31 The one who comes from above is superior to all. ⁴  The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. ⁵  The one who comes from heaven ⁶  is superior to all. ⁷ 

John 4:12

4:12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor ⁸  Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.” ⁹ 

John 8:53-58

8:53 You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? ¹⁰  And the prophets died too! Who do you claim to be?” 8:54 Jesus replied, ¹¹  “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. ¹²  The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people ¹³  say, ‘He is our God.’ 8:55 Yet ¹⁴  you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, ¹⁵  I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey ¹⁶  his teaching. ¹⁷  8:56 Your father Abraham was overjoyed ¹⁸  to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” ¹⁹ 

8:57 Then the Judeans ²⁰  replied, ²¹  “You are not yet fifty years old! ²²  Have ²³  you seen Abraham?” 8:58 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ²⁴  before Abraham came into existence, ²⁵  I am!” ²⁶ 

Hebrews 3:5-6

3:5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s ²⁷  house ²⁸  as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken. 3:6 But Christ ²⁹  is faithful as a son over God’s ³⁰  house. We are of his house, ³¹  if in fact we hold firmly ³²  to our confidence and the hope we take pride in. ³³ 

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² sn On the queen of the South see 1 Kgs 10:1-3 and 2 Chr 9:1-12, as well as Josephus, Ant. 8.6.5-6 (8.165-175). The South most likely refers to modern southwest Arabia, possibly the eastern part of modern Yemen, although there is an ancient tradition reflected in Josephus which identifies this geo-political entity as Ethiopia.

³ tn Grk “behold.”

⁴ tn Or “is above all.”

⁵ tn Grk “speaks from the earth.”

⁶ sn The one who comes from heaven refers to Christ. As in John 1:1, the Word’s preexistence is indicated here.

⁷ tc Ì⁷⁵ א* D ˹ 565 as well as several versions and fathers lack the phrase “is superior to all” (ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν, epanw pantwn estin). This effectively joins the last sentence of v. 31 with v. 32: “The one who comes from heaven testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.” On the other side, the phrase may have been deleted because of perceived redundancy, since it duplicates what is said earlier in the verse. The witnesses that include ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν in both places are weighty and widespread (Ì^36vid,66 א² A B L W^s Θ Ψ 083 086 ˹³ 33 Ï lat sy^s,p,h bo). On balance, the longer reading should probably be considered authentic.

⁸ tn Or “our forefather”; Grk “our father.”

⁹ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end. In this instance all of v. 12 is one question. It has been broken into two sentences for the sake of English style (instead of “for he” the Greek reads “who”).

¹⁰ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are you?”).

¹¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered.”

¹² tn Grk “is nothing.”

¹³ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in English to clarify the plural Greek pronoun and verb.

¹⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

¹⁵ tn Grk “If I say, ‘I do not know him.’”

¹⁶ tn Grk “I keep.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “his word.”

¹⁸ tn Or “rejoiced greatly.”

¹⁹ tn What is the meaning of Jesus’ statement that the patriarch Abraham “saw” his day and rejoiced? The use of past tenses would seem to refer to something that occurred during the patriarch’s lifetime. Genesis Rabbah 44:25ff, (cf. 59:6) states that Rabbi Akiba, in a debate with Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, held that Abraham had been shown not this world only but the world to come (this would include the days of the Messiah). More realistically, it is likely that Gen 22:13-15 lies behind Jesus’ words. This passage, known to rabbis as the Akedah (“Binding”), tells of Abraham finding the ram which will replace his son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice – an occasion of certain rejoicing.

²⁰ tn Grk “Then the Jews.” See the note on this term in v. 31. Here, as in vv. 31, 48, and 52, the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem (“Judeans”; cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e) who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts (8:20) and had initially believed his claim to be the Messiah (cf. 8:31). They have now become completely hostile, as John 8:59 clearly shows.

²¹ tn Grk “said to him.”

²² tn Grk ‘You do not yet have fifty years” (an idiom).

²³ tn Grk “And have.”

²⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

²⁵ tn Grk “before Abraham was.”

²⁶ sn I am! is an explicit claim to deity. Although each occurrence of the phrase “I am” in the Fourth Gospel needs to be examined individually in context to see if an association with Exod 3:14 is present, it seems clear that this is the case here (as the response of the Jewish authorities in the following verse shows).

²⁷ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

²⁸ sn A quotation from Num 12:7.

²⁹ sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.

³⁰ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

³¹ tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.

³² tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì^13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of mss (א A C D Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï latt) add μέχρι τέλους βεβαίαν (mecri telou" bebaian, “secure until the end”). The external evidence for the omission, though minimal, has excellent credentials. Considering the internal factors, B. M. Metzger (TCGNT 595) finds it surprising that the feminine adjective βεβαίαν should modify the neuter noun καύχημα (kauchma, here translated “we take pride”), a fact that suggests that even the form of the word was borrowed from another place. Since the same phrase occurs at Heb 3:14, it is likely that later scribes added it here at Heb 3:6 in anticipation of Heb 3:14. While these words belong at 3:14, they seem foreign to 3:6.

³³ tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”