And if you salute only your brethren: it is important to note that in the Jewish context the salutation is more than a gesture or greeting; it expresses a desire for the peace and welfare of the one greeted. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders the sentence dynamically: “And what is so special if you are friendly only with your brothers?” For most English speakers salute refers to a formal military greeting; the meaning is “greet” or “speak … to” (Good News Translation). An American Translation has “And if you are polite to.” Some have said “greet politely” or “show courtesy by greeting.”
It is fairly well agreed among the commentators that brethren, as used here, means “fellow members of a religious community.” Moffatt, Barclay, together with Good News Translation, translate the noun as “friends.” Phillips translates the clause, “And if you exchange greetings only with your own circle….” A common way to translate this has been to say “people of your own group.” See also comments on verse 22.
What more are you doing than others? assumes the answer “Nothing more!” It is possible to shift to a declaration, “you are not doing anything more than what people ordinarily do.” Modern translations represent the question in many different ways: “what is there remarkable in that?” (An American Translation), “what is special about that?” (Moffatt), “what is so praiseworthy about that?” (New American Bible), and “are you doing anything exceptional?” (New Jerusalem Bible).
This question can also be expressed as a statement, as we have suggested. Other examples are “you are only doing the same as everyone else” or “you have not done anything more than other people do.”
Gentiles is rendered “pagans” by New International Version, Moffatt, New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Phillips; “the heathen” is the translation of Anchor Bible, New English Bible, Barclay (An American Translation “the very heathen”). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders: “Those who do not know God.” Etymologically the Greek word meant “national,” then “foreign” or “Gentile,” when used in contrast to Jews. However, in many occurrences of Gentiles in the New Testament it is the religious rather than the racial contrast which is intended, and for this reason such a rendering as Gentiles is inadequate. Elsewhere in the New Testament the word is used in Matthew 6.7; 18.17 (Good News Bible “pagans”) and in 3 John 7 (Good News Translation “unbelievers”). Some later manuscripts of the New Testament substitute “tax collectors” for Gentiles. But TC-GNT indicates that this was merely an attempt “to bring the statement into closer parallelism with the preceding sentence,” as with the final sentence of verse 46.
The translation of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, “those who do not know God” for Gentiles, has often been a useful model. A similar expression is “those who do not believe in God.” However, a problem can arise in cultures where it is accepted that everyone knows and believes in God, but Gentiles are those who either “don’t know him as he really is” or “don’t know him to worship him.”
Do not even the Gentiles do the same? expects a “yes” answer, and so may be represented by a statement: “Even the pagans do that!” (Good News Translation).
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 .