Thread:User talk:ServoHawk/Beaglebone Black (Debian)... is there a GNU Octave package later than 3.6.2 (2012) for that platform?/reply

Newer versions of Octave are available in testing and experimental versions of Debian, see https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=octave

You could use apt pinning to track a package from a Debian release other than what you're running, see: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianExperimental#APT_pinning