For I tell you is an emphatic transitional which serves to tie this verse with the preceding and to draw attention to the words that follow. Good News Translation inverts the order of the final two clauses in Greek, thus avoiding the more difficult “unless…” structure (see Revised Standard Version). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has adopted the same order as Good News Bible.
You is plural here, and in some translations appears as “you people” or “you all.”
Unless your righteousness exceeds appears in Good News Translation as “only if you are more faithful … in doing what God requires,” and in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “If you do not fulfil his will more perfectly than do the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees.” Full discussion has already been given to the word righteousness (see comments on 3.15; 5.6, 10). A proper understanding of this righteousness is extremely important: it does not mean they are to adopt a greater number of commandments and prohibitions—Matthew in fact reduces all the commandments to one, the double commandment to love God and one’s fellow man. Jesus means that people must think in terms of a new and far more comprehensive righteousness. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “If you do not fulfil his will more perfectly than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees.” In general the other translations follow along the same lines that they did in the earlier verses where “righteousness” was used. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, in its footnote on this verse, points out that the meaning is the same here as in 5.6, 10; it is the faithfulness of the disciples to the Law of God, a new faithfulness rendered possible and urgent by the authoritative interpretation which Jesus gives to that Law (7.29).
Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch provide useful models for the phrase unless your righteousness exceeds. Similar sentences are “unless you make a greater effort in doing God’s will” or “unless you are more careful to do what God requires.”
Scribes (Good News Translation “teachers of the Law”) were first mentioned in 2.4. The word is here used in conjunction with Pharisees, and it should be kept in mind: Scribes and Pharisees are overlapping but not identical groups. Among the scribes or experts in the law were found both Pharisees and Sadducees, and only a small proportion of the Pharisaic party was composed of scribes. Elsewhere they are mentioned together in 12.38; 15.1; 23.2, 13, 14, 15. See 2.4 for a discussion of scribes, and 3.7 for Pharisees.
It is very important that enter the kingdom of heaven not be understood or translated as “go to heaven.” Of course, if “kingdom of heaven” is being translated as “rule (or, reign) of God,” the misunderstanding is not likely to arise. But on the other hand, it may be difficult to speak of “entering the rule.” Translators can say “will be one of those over whom God rules,” “will be one of the people under God’s reign,” or “God will not be able to make them part of his reign.” Another approach is to see the expression as meaning to become a part of the community of people over whom God rules: “become one of the people under God’s rule.”
As we pointed out above, Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have restructured the verse to avoid what would be a rather complex sentence if “unless” were used. Every language is different, and translators must restructure in ways that are natural. Some other examples may include “For I tell you all, that you will never be among those under God’s reign if you are not more careful to fulfil God’s will than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are” or “There’s no way you can be some of those people who are ruled over by God if you are not more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires.”
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 .