The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon [is] here.
42. The queen of the south ] So correctly and not a queen of the South as some translate. The absence of the definite article in the original is due to the influence of the Hebrew idiom. The queen of Sheba, Southern Arabia, 1Ki 10:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mat 12:42
The Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment.
The Queen of the South, or the earnest inquirer
I. Let us commend her for her inquiring spirit.
1. She was a queen.
2. Her royal court was doubtless already stored with wisdom.
3. She came from a very great distance.
4. She was a foreigner to Solomon and had a religion already.
5. She made a journey which cost her very much expense.
6. She received no invitation.
7. The object she journeyed after was vastly inferior to that which is proposed to our inquiry.
II. How she conducted the inquiry.
1. In person.
2. She went first of all to Solomon.
3. She told him all that was in her heart.
4. She proposed to Solomon her hard questions.
5. She listened carefully to what Solomon told her.
6. She saw the house that he had built.
7. She observed the meat on his table.
8. She looked to the sitting of the servants.
III. The result of her inquiry.
1. A confession of faith.
2. A confession of her unbelief-Howbeit I believed not the words until I came, etc.
3. Her anticipations were exceeded.
4. She blessed Solomons God.
5. She gave to Solomon of her treasures.
6. Solomon made her a present of his royal bounty.
7. She went home to her nation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christian put to shame by the heathen.
Wilt thou not be sore confounded, Christian, when-born, as thou art, in the bosom of the Church, in the midst of so many oracles of Scriptures, so many examples of saints-thou shalt yet see many heathens outstripping thee in goodness; so that, excepting only thy faith, which being without works shall only serve to increase thy shame, instead of adding to thy glory, thou shalt find thyself placed below an Aristides in justice, below a Zeleucus in rectitude, below a Palemon in chastity, below an Antigonus in meekness, below a Socrates in patience, below an Epaminondas in disinterestedness; men who were all of them born in the deep gloom of heathenism, never favoured (as thou hast been) with any knowledge of life eternal, with any gospel, with any sacraments-men who had never seen a God dying for them, as thou hast seen. (Segneri.)
I. She went, notwithstanding the distance of her residence. The gospel is brought to our door.
II. She went, notwithstanding all the anxieties of her public station. The claims of business must not be allowed to clash with the claims of religion,
III. She went, though uninvited. We have been invited-how often!
IV. She went to hear the wisdom of a mortal, at best fallible, and who, after all, was guilty of sad and criminal defection. We are invited to hear One greater than Solomon. Let us beware lest the Queen of the South, by her treatment of the less, become a swift witness against us on account of our treatment of the greater. (Brooks.)
Christ and Solomon
I. The comparison. Solomon a type of Christ. As the Son of David; as an eminent favourite of God; as to the extent, prosperity, peacefulness, and wisdom of His government; as the builder of the temple; and as a teacher of wisdom.
II. The superiority.
1. Christ was a Divine as well as a human character, etc.
2. Christ was the antitype, and so greater than the type. (Anon.)
Christ greater than Solomon
I. Solomon was a great querist, but Christ, the great Evangelist, answers the queries of the great Ecclesiastes.
II. Solomons teaching is mainly negative, Jesus was as mainly positive.
III. Solomon s speech was regal, but the Saviours was Divine. So great is this Prince of prophets that the least in His kingdom is greater than Solomon. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 42. The queen of the south] In 1Kg 10:1, this queen is said to be of Saba, which was a city and province of Arabia Felix, to the south, or south-east, of Judea.
Uttermost parts of the earth] – a form of speech which merely signifies, a great distance. See De 28:49.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We have the history to which this relates 1Ki 10:1, &c. She is here called the queen of the south; in the Book of Kings, and 2Ch 9:1, the queen of Sheba. Whether this Sheba, or Saba, was in Arabia or Ethiopia, is not much material; certain it is, it was southward of Judea, and a place at a great distance. Yet, saith our Saviour, though she was a great queen, though she lived at so great a distance from Jerusalem, though she had only heard of the fame and wisdom of Solomon; yet she came in person to hear his wise discourses, either about things natural or supernatural. These wretched Jews are not put to it to take a journey, I am come amongst them, I who am greater than Solomon, who am the Eternal Wisdom, and come to discourse of heavenly wisdom to them; I am come to their doors, theirs to whom the notion of a Messiah is no new thing, they have heard of me; they are no heathens, but bred up to the knowledge of God. I have done many miracles before them, yet they will not hear nor believe me. The queen of Sheba in the day of judgment shall rise up as a witness against them, when God shall condemn them for their unbelief. The more light, and means, and obligations men have upon them to faith and holiness, the greater will their judgment and condemnation be.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
42. The queen of the south shallrise up in the judgment with this generation, &c.The queenof Sheba (a tract in Arabia, near the shores of the Red Sea) camefrom a remote country, “south” of Judea, to hear the wisdomof a mere man, though a gifted one, and was transported with wonderat what she saw and heard (1Ki10:1-9). They, when a Greater than Solomon had come to them,despised and rejected, slighted and slandered Him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The queen of the south,…. Called the queen of Sheba,
1Ki 10:1. Sheba was one of the sons of Joktan, a grandchild of Arphaxad, who settled in the southern parts of Arabia: hence this queen is called the queen of the south. Sheba is by the Targumist p called Zemargad: and this queen the queen of Zemargad: she goes by different names. According to some, her name was Maqueda q, and, as others say, Balkis r: a Jewish chronologer s tells us, that the queen of Sheba, who is called Nicolaa, of the kingdom of Jaman, or the south, came to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, and gave him much riches: and Josephus t calls her Nicaulis, queen of Egypt and Ethiopia; of whom it is here said, that she
shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: the meaning is, as before; that she shall rise from the dead, and stand as a witness against that generation at the day of judgment, and, by her example and practices, which will then be produced, condemn them, or aggravate their condemnation:
for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth; an hyperbolical expression, meaning a great way off from a far country, a very distant part of the world from Jerusalem, , “to hear the wisdom of Solomon”; the very phrase used by the above Jewish u writer.
And behold, a greater than Solomon is here; one that was infinitely greater than Solomon was, in everything; so particularly in that, in which he excelled others, and on the account of which the queen of the south came unto him, namely, wisdom: for he is the wisdom of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Jews themselves w own, that the king, meaning the Messiah, that shall be raised up of the seed of David, , “shall be a greater master of wisdom”, or “wiser than Solomon”. Now what an aggravation of the condemnation of the Jews will this be another day, that a Gentile woman, living in a foreign and distant land, should, upon the fame of the wisdom of Solomon, leave her own kingdom and country, and come to Jerusalem, to hear his wise discourses about things natural, civil, and moral; and yet the Jews, who had a greater than Solomon in the midst of them, and had no need to take much pains to come to the sight and hearing of him, yet rejected him as the Messiah, blasphemed his miracles, and despised his ministry; though it was concerned about things of a spiritual and evangelic nature, and the eternal welfare of immortal souls.
p In 1 Chron. i. 9. & 2 Chron. ix. 1. q Ludolph. Hist. Aethiop. 1. 2. c. 3. & not. in Claud. Confess. sect. 1. r Pocock. Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 59. s Juchasin, fol. 136. 1. t Antiqu. 1. 8. c. 2. u Juchasin, fol. 136. 1. w Maimon. Hilchot. Teshuba, c. 9. sect. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “The queen of the south,” (basilissa notou) “The queen of the south,” or queen of Sheba, to the south of Israel, said by some to be Abyssiania or Ethiopia, and believed by others to be, Saba, chief city of Yemen in Arabia, 1Ki 2:2; 2Ch 9:1-31
2) “Shall rise up in the judgment,” (egerthesetai en keisei) “Will be raised in the judgment,” or will arise of here own accord, voluntarily, after having been raised of the Lord, seems to be the more definitive idea, Rom 8:11.
3) “With this generation, and shall condemn it:” (meta es geneas toutes kai katakrinei auten) “With this (wicked and adulterous) generation, and she will condemn it,” Mat 16:4.
4) “For she came from the uttermost parts of the earth,” (hoti elthen ek ton peraton tes ges) “Because she came out of the limits of the earth,” as far as inhabitants were then known, where she had traveled abroad, Luk 11:31.
5) “To hear the wisdom of Solomon;” (akousai ten sophian Solomonos) “To give heed to the wisdom of Solomon,” regarding a quest for the best for man under the sun, 2Ch 9:1-12.
6) “And, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” (kai idou pleion Solomonos hode) “And behold a greater thing than the wisdom and testimony and works of Solomon is here,” here confronting you Scribes and Pharisees; This one is greater in wisdom, descent, kingly power, etc. Luk 1:31-33; 1Co 15:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
42. The queen of the south. As Ethiopia lies in a southerly direction from Judea, I willingly concur with Josephus and other writers, who assert that she was the queen of Ethiopia. In sacred history she is called the queen of Sheba, (2Ch 9:1.) We must not suppose this Sheba to be the country of Saba, which rather lay toward the east, but a town situated in Meroe, an island on the Nile, which was the metropolis of the kingdom. Here, too, we must attend to the points of contrast. A woman who had not been at all educated in the school of God, was induced, by the desire of instruction, to come from a distant region to Solomon, an earthly king; while the Jews, who had been instructed in the divine law, reject their highest and only teacher, the Prince of all the prophets. The word condemn relates not to the persons, but to the fact itself, and the example which it yields.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(42) The queen of the south.Literally, a queen of the south, as before, men of Nineveh, the Greek having no article. Rhetorically, the absence of the article is in this case more emphatic than its presence.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
42. Queen of the south Of Sheba. Alford says: “Josephus calls her ‘queen of Egypt and Ethiopia,’ that is, Meroe, whose queens were usually called Candace. Abyssinian tradition, agreeing with this account, calls her Maqueda, and supposes her to have embraced the Jewish religion in Jerusalem. The Arabians, on the other hand, also claim her, calling her Balkis, which latter is probably nearer the truth, as Sheba is a tract in Arabia Felix, near the Red Sea, near the present Aden, abounding in spice, and gold, and precious stones.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“ The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.”
The same applies to the queen of the south. She too will rise up (egeiro) in the judgment, either along with this generation, or possibly in opposition to it, and she will condemn it. For while they have Jesus on their very doorstep, she took a long journey so as to hear the wisdom of Solomon (as the Canaanite woman will to some extent later – Mat 15:22). And yet now a greater than Solomon is here, something that they can judge for themselves by comparing His teaching with Solomon’s. Solomon provided pithy wisdom, Jesus brings life-giving truth. Note that resurrection is inherent in the passage although nowhere emphasised. It is the fact that the Son of Man must die that is stressed. But the implication of His resurrection is undoubted, both in what happened to Jonah, and in what will occur at the resurrection of the Ninevites and the queen of the south.
For ‘from the ends of the earth’ compare 1Ki 10:24. Both were Jewish idioms thinking in terms of the world of their day. See also Psa 59:13.
It cannot be accidental that Jesus selects two Gentile responses as His examples. In Mat 11:20-24 He had condemned the towns of Israel, in Mat 12:17-21 He had made clear the Servant’s interest in ‘the nations’. Now He commends the Gentiles who had in the past responded to God. In contrast with unbelieving Israel, they will be confessed before His Father (Mat 10:32-33). He is preparing His way for His Gentile ministry (as He had from the beginning – Luk 4:24-27).
It will be noted that in Luk 11:29-32, in an apparently later context, Luke reports sayings similar to this, but they are so differently presented that they must clearly be seen as Jesus’ summary of what He said here repeated to the crowds. His repetition to the crowds (who no doubt would also have loved signs) indicates how unreasonable He saw the attitude of the Scribes and Pharisees to be. See also Mat 16:1-4.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Ver. 42. The queen of the south, &c. ] The Ethiopian chronicles call her Mackeda, and further tell us that she had a son by Solomon, whom she named David. Sure it is that she came from a far country to hear Solomon, and was so taken with his wisdom that she could have been content to have changed her throne for his footstool. Now our Saviour took it ill (and well he might) that men came not as far, and set not as high a price upon him and his doctrine as she did upon Solomon and his wisdom, how much more that these hard-hearted Jews esteemed it not, though brought home to their doors!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
42. ] Josephus, Antt. viii. 6. 5, calls her , i.e. of Meroe (whose queens were usually called Candace. Plin. Hist. vi. 29). Abyssinian tradition agrees with this account, calls her Maqueda, and supposes her to have embraced the Jewish religion in Jerusalem. The Arabians on the other hand also claim her, calling her Balkis (Koran, c. xxvii., cited by Winer), which latter view is probably nearer the truth, Sheba being a tract in Arabia Felix, near the shores of the Red Sea, near the present Aden (see Plin. vi. 23), abounding in spice and gold and precious stones.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 12:42 . is next pressed into the service of putting unbelievers to shame. The form was condemned by Phryn., but Elsner cites instances from Demosthenes and other good writers. J. Alberti also (Observ. Philol.) cites an instance from Athenus, lib. xiii. 595: . The reference is to the story in 1Ki 10 and 2Ch 9 concerning the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. . Elsner quotes in illustration the exhortation of Isocrates not to grudge to go a long way to hear those who profess to teach anything useful. ., again a claim of superiority for the present over the great persons and things of the past. On the apparent egotism of these comparisons, vide my Apologetics , p. 367; and remember that Jesus claimed superiority not merely for Himself and His work, but even for the least in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat 11:11 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Matthew
‘A GREATER THAN SOLOMON’
Mat 12:42
It is condescension in Him to compare Himself with any; yet if any might have been selected, it is that great name. To the Jews Solomon is an ideal figure, who appealed so strongly to popular imagination as to become the centre of endless legends; whose dominion was the very apex of national glory, in recounting whose splendours the historical books seem to be scarce able to restrain their triumph and pride.
I. The Man.
The completeness of Christ’s Humanity transcends all other men, even the most various, and transcends all gathered together. Every type of excellence is in Him. We cannot say that His character is any one thing in special, it falls under no classification. It is a pure white light in which all rays are blended. This all-comprehensiveness and symmetry of character are remarkably shown in four brief records.
But we have to take into account the dark shadows that fell on Solomon’s later years. He clearly fell away from his early consecration and noble ideals, and let his sensuous appetites gain power. He countenanced, if he did not himself practise, idolatry. As a king he became an arbitrary tyrant, and his love of building led him to oppress his subjects, and so laid the foundation for the revolt under Jeroboam which rent the kingdom. So his history is another illustration of the possible shipwreck of a great character. It is one more instance of the fall of a ‘son of the morning.’ We need not elaborate the contrast with Christ’s character. In Him is no falling from a high ideal, no fading of morning glory into a cloudy noon or a lurid evening. There is no black streak in that flawless white marble. Jesus draws the perfect circle, like Giotto’s O, while all other lives show some faltering of hand, and consequent irregularity of outline. Greater than Solomon, with his over-clouded glories and his character worsened by self-indulgence, is Jesus, ‘the Sun of righteousness,’ the perfect round of whose lustrous light is broken by no spots on the surface, no indentations in the circumference, nor obscured by any clouds over its face.
II. The Teacher.
If we take these two books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes into account, as popularly attributed to him, they suggest points of comparison and contrast with Jesus as a teacher, which we may briefly point out. Now, Proverbs falls into two very distinct portions, the former part being a connected fatherly admonition to the pursuit of wisdom, and the latter a collection of prudential maxims, in which it is rare for any two contiguous verses to have anything to do with each other. In the former part Wisdom is set forth as man’s chief good, and the Wisdom which is so set forth is mainly moral wisdom, the right disposition of will and heart, and almost identical with what the Old Testament elsewhere calls righteousness. But it is invested, as the writer proceeds, with more and more august and queenly attributes, and at last stands forth as being, if not a divine person, at least a personification of a divine attribute.
Bring that ancient teaching and set it side by side with Jesus, and what can we say but that He is what the old writer, be he Solomon or another, dimly saw? He is the ‘wisdom’ which was traditionally called the ‘wisdom of Solomon,’ and which the Queen came from far to hear. Jesus is greater, as the light is more than the eye, or as the theme is more than the speaker. ‘The power of God and the wisdom of God’ is greater than the sage or seer who celebrates it. What is true of Solomon or whoever wrote that praise of Wisdom, is true of all teachers and wise men, they are ‘not that light,’ they are ‘sent to bear witness of that light.’ Jesus is Wisdom, other men are wise. Jesus is the greatest teacher, for He teaches us Himself. He is lesson as well as teacher. Unless He was a great deal more than Teacher, He could not be the perfect Teacher for whom the world groans.
The second half of Proverbs is, as I have said, mostly a collection of prudential and moral maxims, with very little reference to God or high ideals of duty in them. They may represent to us the impotence of wise saws to get themselves practised. A guide-post is not a guide. It stretches out its gaunt wooden arms towards the city, but it cannot bend them to help a lame man lying at its foot. Men do not go wrong for lack of knowing the road, nearly so often as for lack of inclination to walk in it. We have abundant voices to tell us what we ought to do. But what we want is the swaying of inclination to do it, and the gift of power to do it. And it is precisely because Jesus gives us both these that He is what no collection of the wisest sayings can ever be, the efficient teacher of all righteousness, and of the true wisdom which is ‘the principal thing.’
As for Ecclesiastes, though not his, it represents not untruly the tone which we may suppose to have characterised his later days in its dwelling on the vanity of life. The sadness of it may be contrasted with the light thrown by the Gospel on the darkest problems. Solomon cries, ‘All is vanity’-Jesus teaches His scholars to sing, ‘All things work together for good.’
III. The Temple builder.
IV. The peaceful King.
Contrast with that merely external and sadly imperfect peacefulness, the deep, inward peace of spirit which Jesus breathes into every man who trusts and obeys Him, and with the peace among men which the acceptance of His rule brings, and will one day bring perfectly, to a regenerated humanity dwelling on a renewed earth. He is King of righteousness, and after that also King of peace.
Surely from all these contrasts it is plain that ‘a greater than Solomon is here.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
The queen = A queen.
rise up. In resurrection. Not the same word as “rise” in Mat 12:41.
she came. See 1Ki 10:1, &c.
from = Out of
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
42. ] Josephus, Antt. viii. 6. 5, calls her , i.e. of Meroe (whose queens were usually called Candace. Plin. Hist. vi. 29). Abyssinian tradition agrees with this account, calls her Maqueda, and supposes her to have embraced the Jewish religion in Jerusalem. The Arabians on the other hand also claim her, calling her Balkis (Koran, c. xxvii., cited by Winer), which latter view is probably nearer the truth, Sheba being a tract in Arabia Felix, near the shores of the Red Sea, near the present Aden (see Plin. vi. 23), abounding in spice and gold and precious stones.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 12:42. , of the south) from Arabia-Felix.- , Something Greater than Solomon) Solomon was wise, but here is Wisdom itself.-See Luk 11:49.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
queen: 1Ki 10:1-13, 2Ch 9:1-12, Luk 11:31, Luk 11:32, Act 8:27, Act 8:28
hear: 1Ki 3:9, 1Ki 3:12, 1Ki 3:28, 1Ki 4:29, 1Ki 4:34, 1Ki 5:12, 1Ki 10:4, 1Ki 10:7, 1Ki 10:24
behold: Mat 3:17, Mat 17:5, Isa 7:14, Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7, Joh 1:14, Joh 1:18, Phi 2:6, Phi 2:7, Heb 1:2-4
Reciprocal: Deu 30:13 – go over the sea 1Ki 4:31 – wiser 1Ki 8:41 – cometh out 2Ch 6:32 – is come 2Ch 9:22 – passed all the kings Job 36:3 – fetch Son 3:11 – behold Isa 30:6 – beasts Eze 3:6 – of a strange speech and of an hard language Eze 16:51 – justified Mat 11:21 – for Mat 12:6 – General Mat 12:27 – they Mat 12:41 – rise Mar 13:27 – from Luk 1:32 – shall be great Luk 2:15 – Let Luk 11:19 – shall Joh 4:12 – General Joh 8:53 – thou greater Rom 2:27 – judge Heb 11:7 – he condemned
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2:42
The lesson of responsibility based upon opportunity is that in the preceding verse and is the same in this. If as notable a person as a queen would come so far to hear the wisdom of a man, surely the people should show greater interest in the wisdom of such a person as Jesus. This woman is called the queen of the south because the country of Sheba was a great distance from Judea and was south as to direction and in such a trip signified that a great territory was represented.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 12:42. The queen of the south. The queen of Sheba (1Ki 10:1), supposed to be Saba, in the southern part of Arabia. Josephus represents her as a queen of Ethiopia, and the Abyssinians claim her as the ancestress of their kings.
From the ends of the earth. A common Greek expression for a great distance. A stronger case than the last (Mat 12:41). The Ninevites repented under personal preaching; but the queen of Sheba was attracted from a great distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
More than. A superior Person, a more important message, and greater wisdom. Yet the Jews were not attracted, did not even give heed.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 12:42. The queen of the south, &c. Of this queen, see note on 1Ki 10:1. She came from the uttermost parts of the earth That part of Arabia from which she came was the uttermost part of the earth that way, being bounded by the sea. A greater than Solomon is here Our Lord speaks of himself in this sublime language with the utmost reason, and with perfect modesty and decorum. The humble form of his appearance, and his necessary reserve in declaring himself the Messiah in so many words, made it yet more expedient, that by such phrases as these he should sometimes intimate it: and indeed his saying he was greater than Solomon, that most illustrious of all the descendants of David, was as plain an intimation as could well be given. Doddridge.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 42
Queen of the south; the queen of Sheba. (1 Kings 10:1.)
Matthew 12:43-45. The sentiment is, that guilt and sin may be suspended from action for a time, in the human heart, while they are not destroyed. And then, after a temporary respite, the disease returns with greater violence than ever. The application of the sentiment, in this conversation, is not obvious.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
12:42 The queen of the {g} south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the {h} uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon [is] here.
(g) He means the Queen of Sheba: whose country is south in respect to the land of Israel; 1Ki 10:1-13 .
(h) For Sheba is situated in the farthest coast of Arabia at the mouth of the Arabian Sea.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
By referring to Jonah the same way He referred to the Queen of the South, Jesus strongly supported the view that Jonah was a historical person. The Queen of the South was the Queen of Sheba (1Ki 10:1-13). She came from the Arabian Peninsula that for the Jews was the end of the earth (cf. Jer 6:20; Joe 3:8). She visited Jerusalem because of reports about Solomon’s great wisdom that had reached her ears. The something greater than Solomon was Messiah, the embodiment of divine wisdom. The queen would join the Ninevites in condemning the unbelievers of Jesus’ day because they failed to acknowledge one with greater wisdom than Solomon, as well as one with a greater message than Jonah. Jesus was greater than Solomon in His wisdom, wealth, and works.
In both of Jesus’ comparisons Gentiles responded, and Jews did not. Such had been the case in Jesus’ ministry so far, and this would continue. The proud scribes and Pharisees undoubtedly resented Jesus comparing them unfavorably with Gentiles.
"It is a tragic feature in the history of Israel that the nation rejected their deliverers the first time, but accepted them the second time. This was true with Joseph, Moses, David, the prophets (Mat 23:29), and Jesus Christ." [Note: Ibid., 1:44.]
"Temple and priesthood, prophet, king, and wise man-something greater is now here." [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 493.]