{He that is but little} (ho mikroteros). The Authorized
Version here has it better, "he that is least." The article with
the comparative is a growing idiom in the vernacular _Koin(825f) for
the superlative as in the modern Greek it is the only idiom for
the superlative (Robertson, _Grammar of the Greek N.T._, p. 668).
The papyri and inscriptions show the same construction. The
paradox of Jesus has puzzled many. He surely means that John is
greater (meiz(936e)) than all others in character, but that the
least in the kingdom of heaven surpasses him in privilege. John
is the end of one age, "until John" ( 11:14 ), and the beginning
of the new era. All those that come after John stand upon his
shoulders. John is the mountain peak between the old and the new.