Mateus 11

11 Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptizer; but he who is least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he.*Evidently, as forerunner of the Kingdom John was not part of it—the Kingdom was rejected at that time; both forerunner and King were killed—those who participate in the actual future Kingdom will be more privileged. "Born of women" excludes Adam. Men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Daniel would be of equal standing, just not "greater". But those who live during the Messianic Kingdom (Millennium) will be more privileged than all except Adam, because the earth will return to conditions similar to Eden. 12 But from the days of John the Baptizer until now the kingdom of the heavens is being aggressive and aggressive people are seizing upon it.*Note that Jesus is referring to a period of about two years. With the King physically present and giving a living demonstration of the Kingdom, the Kingdom was being more aggressive in this world than it had been since the time of Moses. In the present tense of a Greek verb a single form serves for both the middle and passive voices—the verb βιαζεται has usually been translated as passive in our versions, ‘suffers violence’, but I think it makes much better sense to translate it as middle, as I have done. Given the hostility of the religious leaders, it would take someone with plenty of backbone to openly side with Jesus.