“For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” — Matthew 9:13
The Textus Receptus ends with to repentance. The critical text stops after “sinners.” Luke 5:32 contains the full phrase, so the case against Matthew’s longer reading is direct: a scribe may have completed the saying from Luke.
Jesus is eating with publicans and sinners when the Pharisees object. He answers with a physician, Hosea’s call for mercy, and his own mission. “To repentance” names the purpose of the call. He does not join sinners to bless their disease; he calls them out of it.
The shorter form still implies change. A physician comes to heal, and call in this setting is not an invitation to remain as one is. No modern critical text turns Christ into a patron of unrepentance.
Yet implication is not a reason to remove explicit words. The received phrase has broad Greek, versional, and patristic support. It fits Matthew’s first proclamation—“Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—and the moral contrast in the scene.
The exact Lukan parallel makes harmonization possible. It also gives independent apostolic witness that Jesus framed his mission in these words. Synoptic agreement cannot be treated as a fault by default.
A short ending can arise when a copyist stops at the neat contrast “not righteous, but sinners.” The phrase already sounds complete. “To repentance” may then be lost without leaving a grammatical wound.
The saying does not imply that some people are truly righteous and need no Christ. The Pharisees think themselves whole. Jesus answers according to that claim and exposes it. Those who know their sickness hear the Physician’s call.
The full received form keeps grace and change together. Christ comes for sinners as sinners, not after they heal themselves; he calls them to repentance, not to a renamed captivity. Luke’s agreement strengthens that gospel logic even where it complicates the manuscript judgment.
The physician image guards the order. Sick people do not become well enough to deserve a doctor before he comes. His coming aims at healing, not at declaring disease harmless. In the same way repentance is the fruit and direction of Christ’s call, never the price that induces him to call.
Matthew’s own conversion stands behind the meal. Jesus says “Follow me,” and the tax collector rises. The table that follows is not a pause before discipleship; it is part of the new allegiance, where mercy brings other sinners near the Physician. “To repentance” names what the narrative has just shown.
The phrase’s possible origin from Luke must still be weighed honestly. True theology does not make every occurrence original. Here the broad transmission, Matthean setting, and easy stop after “sinners” favor retention. The parallel is best heard as a second witness to the Lord’s full saying.
Sources and further reading
- Hosea 6:6; Matthew 3:1–2; 9:9–13; Luke 5:27–32.
- Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, note on Matthew 9:13.
- Westminster Confession of Faith 15.