^7:24When⁸⁶ John’s messengers had gone, Jesus⁸⁷ began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness⁸⁸ to see? A reed shaken by the wind?⁸⁹^7:25What⁹⁰ did you go out to see? A man dressed in fancy⁹¹ clothes?⁹² Look, those who wear fancy clothes and live in luxury⁹³ are in kings’ courts!⁹⁴^7:26What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more⁹⁵ than a prophet. ^7:27This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,⁹⁶ who will prepare your way before you.’⁹⁷^7:28I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater⁹⁸ than John.⁹⁹ Yet the one who is least¹⁰⁰ in the kingdom of God¹⁰¹ is greater than he is.” ^7:29(Now¹⁰² all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors,¹⁰³ acknowledged¹⁰⁴ God’s justice, because they had been baptized¹⁰⁵ with John’s baptism. ^7:30However, the Pharisees¹⁰⁶ and the experts in religious law¹⁰⁷ rejected God’s purpose¹⁰⁸ for themselves, because they had not been baptized¹⁰⁹ by John.¹¹⁰)¹¹¹

^7:31“To what then should I compare the people¹¹² of this generation, and what are they like? ^7:32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another,¹¹³

‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance;¹¹⁴

we wailed in mourning,¹¹⁵ yet you did not weep.’

^7:33For John the Baptist has come¹¹⁶ eating no bread and drinking no wine,¹¹⁷ and you say, ‘He has a demon!’¹¹⁸^7:34The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him,¹¹⁹ a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’¹²⁰^7:35But wisdom is vindicated¹²¹ by all her children.”¹²²

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Footnotes

86 Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
87 Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
88 Or “desert.”
89 There is a debate as to whether one should read this figuratively (“to see someone who is easily blown over?”) or literally (Grk “to see the wilderness vegetation?… No, to see a prophet”). Either view makes good sense, but the following examples suggest the question should be read literally and understood to point to the fact that a prophet drew them to the desert.
90 Grk “But what.” Here ἀλλά (alla, a strong contrastive in Greek) produces a somewhat awkward sense in English, and has not been translated. The same situation occurs at the beginning of v. 26.
91 Or “soft”; see L&N 79.100.
92 The reference to fancy clothes makes the point that John was not rich or powerful, in that he did not come from the wealthy classes.
93 See L&N 88.253, “to revel, to carouse, to live a life of luxury.”
94 Or “palaces.”
95 John the Baptist is “more” because he introduces the one (Jesus) who brings the new era. The term is neuter, but may be understood as masculine in this context ( περισσότερος b.).
96 Grk “before your face” (an idiom).
97 The quotation is primarily from Mal 3:1 with pronouns from Exod 23:20. Here is the forerunner who points the way to the arrival of God’s salvation. His job is to prepare and guide the people, as the cloud did for Israel in the desert.
98 In the Greek text greater is at the beginning of the clause in the emphatic position. John the Baptist was the greatest man of the old era.
99 The earliest and best read simply Ἰωάννου (Iōannou, “John”) here (𝔓75 א B L W Ξ f1 579 ). Others turn this into “John the Baptist” (K 33 565 al it), “the prophet John the Baptist” (A [D] Θ f13 𝔐 lat), or “the prophet John” (Ψ 700 [892 1241] ). “It appears that προφήτης was inserted by pedantic copyists who wished thereby to exclude Christ from the comparison, while others added τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ, assimilating the text to Mt 11:11” ( ).
100 After John comes a shift of eras. The new era is so great that the lowest member of it (the one who is least in the kingdom of God) is greater than the greatest one of the previous era.
101 The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus’ proclamation. It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong. See Luke 6:20; 11:20; 17:20–21. It is not strictly future, though its full manifestation is yet to come. That is why membership in it starts right after John the Baptist.
102 Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the parenthetical nature of the comment by the author.
103 See the note on tax collectors in .
104 Or “vindicated God”; Grk “justified God.” This could be expanded to “vindicated and responded to God.” The point is that God’s goodness and grace as evidenced in the invitation to John was justified and responded to by the group one might least expect, tax collector and sinners. They had more spiritual sensitivity than others. The contrastive response is clear from v. 30.
105 The participle βαπτισθέντες (baptisthentes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
106 See the note on Pharisees in .
107 That is, the experts in the interpretation of the Mosaic law (see also Luke 5:17, although the Greek term is not identical there, and Luke 10:25, where it is the same).
108 Or “plan.”
109 The participle βαπτισθέντες (baptisthentes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle; it could also be translated as means (“for themselves, by not having been baptized”). This is similar to the translation found in the .
110 Grk “by him”; the referent (John the Baptist) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
111 Luke 7:29–30 forms something of an aside by the author. To indicate this, they have been placed in parentheses.
112 Grk “men,” but this is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos). The comparison that follows in vv. 32–34 describes “this generation,” not Jesus and John.
113 Grk “They are like children sitting … and calling out … who say.”
114 ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance …’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 33–34) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.
115 The verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (ethrēnēsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture.
116 The perfect tenses in both this verse and the next do more than mere aorists would. They not only summarize, but suggest the characteristics of each ministry were still in existence at the time of speaking.
117 Grk “neither eating bread nor drinking wine,” but this is somewhat awkward in contemporary English.
118 John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon.
119 Grk “Behold a man.”
120 Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.
121 Or “shown to be right.” This is the same verb translated “acknowledged … justice” in v. 29, with a similar sense—including the notion of response. Wisdom’s children are those who respond to God through John and Jesus.
122 Or “by all those who follow her” (cf. , ). Note that the parallel in Matt 11:19 reads “by her deeds.”