Matthew 11:11
He calls greater than John the believer reborn through the washing — a state he names “kingdom of heaven,” (Matthew 11:11) since the kingdom of heaven is given to the faithful, which the Baptist had not yet attained. Even the one only baptized, if he does not yet have a virtuous life, is above John. So the saying is praise of holy baptism.
Greek
137 Μείζονα λέγει Ἰωάννου τὸν πιστὸν τὸν διὰ τοῦ λουτροῦ ἀναγεννη θέντα, ἣν κατάστασιν καλεῖ βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ὡς τοῖς πιστοῖς διδομένης βασιλείας οὐρανῶν, ἧς οὔπω ἦν τυχὼν ὁ βαπτιστής. ὁ δὲ μόνον βαπτισθεὶς εἰ καὶ μήπω ἔσχεν ἐνάρετον βίον ὑπὲρ τὸν Ἰωάννην ἐστίν. ὁ οὖν λόγος ἔπαινον ἔχει τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος.
About this text
Catena fragments on Matthew (CPG 5206). Contents follow Matthew chapter and verse. Edition fragment numbers stay in About this text and under each passage.
English follows the named copy-text (Aegean/khazarzar Migne PG 72 extract). Other prints were checked as noted; no silent merge of recensions.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 72 Commentarii in Matthaeum (Aegean Digital Patrologia / khazarzar) (Greek · CPG 5206 catena fragments (290 parsed heads))
- Checked print matia.gr mirror of same Aegean extract (Greek · Byte-identical PDF; integrity check only)
- Checked print Internet Archive PG 72 volume OCR (bim … 1859_72) (Greek (OCR damaged) · Locus confirmation only; not used as reading text)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.