Matthew 5:47
Encyclopedia
Matthew 5:47 is the forty-seventh verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew
in the New Testament
and is part of the Sermon on the Mount
. This is the third verse of the final antithesis
, that on love. Jesus here gives another example of why one most love one's enemies.
In the King James Version of the Bible
the text reads:
The World English Bible
translates the passage as:
For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 5:47
This verse has the same basic structure and argument as the previous one. Here Jesus is stating that even the wicked greet their friends, so if you only greet your friends you are no better than they are in this regard.
The Greek text uses the word brothers but this is more accurately interpreted as a reference to friends or to members of the same religious community. There are two different versions of this verse. The one both the WEB and KJV use has the word for tax collector, the same as the previous verse. Other ancient manuscripts have the word for gentile
or heathen in this verse. Many scholars believe this second version is correct, and the double reference to tax collectors was a copying error that occurred at some point.
The act of greeting or saluting was an important one in Jewish culture of this period. It is far more than a simple greeting, and would generally involve an embrace and an exchange of pleasantries. The individual with greater prestige was expected to initiate the exchange. A greeting implied more than simple acknowledgement, also expressing goodwill and warmth.
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
and is part of the Sermon on the Mount
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew...
. This is the third verse of the final antithesis
Antithesis
Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition...
, that on love. Jesus here gives another example of why one most love one's enemies.
In the King James Version of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
the text reads:
- And if ye salute your brethren
- only, what do ye more than others?
- do not even the publicans so?
The World English Bible
World English Bible
The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...
translates the passage as:
- If you only greet your friends,
- what more do you do than others? Don’t
- even the tax collectors do the same?
For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 5:47
This verse has the same basic structure and argument as the previous one. Here Jesus is stating that even the wicked greet their friends, so if you only greet your friends you are no better than they are in this regard.
The Greek text uses the word brothers but this is more accurately interpreted as a reference to friends or to members of the same religious community. There are two different versions of this verse. The one both the WEB and KJV use has the word for tax collector, the same as the previous verse. Other ancient manuscripts have the word for gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
or heathen in this verse. Many scholars believe this second version is correct, and the double reference to tax collectors was a copying error that occurred at some point.
The act of greeting or saluting was an important one in Jewish culture of this period. It is far more than a simple greeting, and would generally involve an embrace and an exchange of pleasantries. The individual with greater prestige was expected to initiate the exchange. A greeting implied more than simple acknowledgement, also expressing goodwill and warmth.