As RSV’s footnote indicates (see also Good News Translation), this verse is not found in the earliest and best Greek manuscripts. TC-GNT concludes that it was obviously borrowed from Luke 19.10, most likely with the intention of providing a connection between verse 10 and verses 12-14.

The phrase Son of man is first used in 8.20; see comments there.

To save the lost may need to be rendered “to save lost people.”

Some translators have found they have to make the relationship indicated by For quite explicit, as in “For the reason the Son of Man came is to save the lost” or “For the work of the Son of Man is to save….”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .