Matthew 18:1

ἐν ἐκ. τ. ὥρᾳ, in that hour; the expression connects what follows very closely with the tax incident, and shows that the two things were intimately associated in the mind of the evangelist. τίς ἄρα μείζων : who then is greater, etc.? The ἄρα may be taken as pointing back to the tax incident as suggesting the question, but not to it alone, rather to it as the last of a series of circumstances tending to force the question to the front: address to Peter at Caesarea Philippi; three disciples selected to be with the Master on the Hill of Transfiguration. From Mk. we learn that they had been discussing it on the way home. ἐν τ. βασ. τ. οὐρ., in the Kingdom of Heaven; this is wanting in Mk., where the question is a purely personal one; who is the greater (among us, now, in your esteem)? In Mk. the question, though referring to the present, who is, etc., points to the future, and presents a more general aspect, but though it wears an abstract look it too is personal in reality = which of us now is the greater for you, and shall therefore have the higher place in the kingdom when it comes? It is not necessary to conceive every one of the Twelve fancying it possible he might be the first man. The question for the majority may have been one as to the respective claims of the more prominent men, Peter, James, John, each of whom may have had his partisans in the little band.