The Complete Sayings of Jesus
Doubters Seek a Sign — "A Greater than Solomon is Here" — Parable: The Backslider.
A.D. 28. Age 31 Capernaum.
Matthew 12, 38-45.
CERTAIN of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered Jesus, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
But he said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no
sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in
the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The
men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at
the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. 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. When the
unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then
he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it
empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than
himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the
first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.1
Footnotes:
1Thus Matthew (12, 43-45). In Part 19 of this book the same saying is phrased somewhat differently in the
narrative by Luke (11, 24-26).