The final comparison varies. The Textus Receptus says publicans; the critical text says Gentiles. A second, less noticed difference concerns the people greeted: most texts read brethren, while a substantial Byzantine line reads friends.
“And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” — Matthew 5:47
No form permits narrow love. Christ asks what his disciples do beyond ordinary social return.
Publicans or Gentiles
Verse 46 has already named publicans: if disciples love those who love them, they have no greater reward than tax collectors. Repeating publicans in verse 47 creates a tight pair. Critics prefer Gentiles because a copyist could repeat the nearby noun and flatten two examples into one.
The repetition can be deliberate. Loving and greeting are related acts, and the same despised group supplies an obvious measure for both. A scribe seeking variety might replace the second publicans with Gentiles, another familiar outsider in Jewish speech.
The received form also keeps the paragraph’s rebuke local and concrete. Publicans were visible neighbors whose compromised work and social circles made them objects of contempt. Jesus asks his hearers to look at conduct they already judged insufficient.
The Textus Receptus reads “your brethren,” as do major early witnesses and the critical text. The Byzantine majority’s “friends” probably explains the sense: those within one’s chosen circle. It is a useful gloss, but it narrows the family word Matthew wrote.
Greeting brethren only can include religious, ethnic, and household boundaries. Christ’s disciples must not let the holiness of the community become an excuse for coldness toward those outside it.
The variant also corrects another shortcut. The Textus Receptus is not simply identical to whatever reading wins a Byzantine count. At “brethren” it stands with early critical witnesses against “friends”; at “publicans” it differs from the critical choice.
The received sentence has the stronger joined shape. Brethren names the favored circle; publicans repeat the comparison that carries the paragraph. Christ’s question remains uncomfortable: if grace has reached us, where is the love that grace alone can explain?
“Salute” also means more than saying hello in a hallway. A greeting in that world acknowledged relationship, peace, and social welcome. Refusing it could mark a boundary of contempt. Christ asks whether his disciples merely circulate honor inside the group that will return it.
The publicans comparison is therefore not permission to despise tax collectors. Matthew himself will be called from the receipt of custom and welcomed at Christ’s table. The men used as a moral baseline in chapter 5 become visible trophies of mercy in chapter 9. Enemy-love creates new brethren.
The textual choice keeps that narrative echo available. Gentiles would make sound sense and a true comparison. Publicans, however, stand close to Matthew’s own story and repeat the social category Jesus is about to cross. The received noun is not simply the smoother option; it has a Gospel-wide resonance.
Sources and further reading
- Matthew 5:43–48; 9:9–13; Luke 6:32–36.
- Frederick H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version.
- Robinson–Pierpont, The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform, Matthew 5:47.