John 14:28

14:28 You heard me say to you, ¹  ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad ²  that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. ³ 

Exodus 18:11

18:11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.” ⁴ 

Psalms 145:3

145:3 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise!

No one can fathom his greatness! ⁵ 

Daniel 4:3

4:3 “How great are his signs!

How mighty are his wonders!

His kingdom will last forever, ⁶ 

and his authority continues from one generation to the next.”

Malachi 1:14

1:14 “There will be harsh condemnation for the hypocrite who has a valuable male animal in his flock but vows and sacrifices something inferior to the Lord. For I am a great king,” ⁷  says the Lord who rules over all, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”

[14:28]  ¹ tn Or “You have heard that I said to you.”

[14:28]  ² tn Or “you would rejoice.”

[14:28]  ³ sn Jesus’ statement the Father is greater than I am has caused much christological and trinitarian debate. Although the Arians appealed to this text to justify their subordinationist Christology, it seems evident that by the fact Jesus compares himself to the Father, his divine nature is taken for granted. There have been two orthodox interpretations: (1) The Son is eternally generated while the Father is not: Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilary, etc. (2) As man the incarnate Son was less than the Father: Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose, Augustine. In the context of the Fourth Gospel the second explanation seems more plausible. But why should the disciples have rejoiced? Because Jesus was on the way to the Father who would glorify him (cf. 17:4-5); his departure now signifies that the work the Father has given him is completed (cf. 19:30). Now Jesus will be glorified with that glory that he had with the Father before the world was (cf. 17:5). This should be a cause of rejoicing to the disciples because when Jesus is glorified he will glorify his disciples as well (17:22).

[18:11]  ⁴ tn The end of this sentence seems not to have been finished, or it is very elliptical. In the present translation the phrase “he has destroyed them” is supplied. Others take the last prepositional phrase to be the completion and supply only a verb: “[he was] above them.” U. Cassuto (Exodus, 216) takes the word “gods” to be the subject of the verb “act proudly,” giving the sense of “precisely (כִּי, ki) in respect of these things of which the gods of Egypt boasted – He is greater than they (עֲלֵיהֶם, ‘alehem).” He suggests rendering the clause, “excelling them in the very things to which they laid claim.”

[145:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and concerning his greatness there is no searching.”

[4:3]  ⁶ tn Aram “his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.”

[1:14]  ⁷ sn The epithet great king was used to describe the Hittite rulers on their covenant documents and so, in the covenant ideology of Malachi, is an apt description of the Lord.