Some Greek manuscripts begin chapter 6 with the conjunction “But,” which some scholars interpret as a scribal attempt to balance the preceding demand for absolute righteousness with the warnings that accompany the discussion of that righteousness. In any case, the use of the conjunction in translation will depend entirely upon the requirements of the receptor language.

The chapter is a continuation of the discourse begun in chapter 5, so it may not need any particular transition or introduction. But there are translators who have found it useful to say something like “Jesus continued by saying” or “Jesus continued to speak to the crowds.”

Beware of (so also Phillips) represents the translation of an imperative (Good News Translation “Make certain”) plus a negative (“not”). English translations represent the verb in a variety of ways: “Be careful” (New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version), “Take care” (Barclay, An American Translation, Moffatt), and “Be on guard” (New American Bible). Elsewhere in Matthew this verb is used in 7.15; 10.17; 16.6, 11, 12. This imperative may be expressed as “Be sure that you don’t,” “Don’t ever,” or “You must never.”

Piety (Good News Translation “religious duties”) translates the noun earlier rendered “righteousness”; see 3.15; 5.6, 10, 20. Here it serves as a summary term for almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, which were for Judaism the three most important expressions of one’s religious duties. Accordingly, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates “practice of your religion.” New English Bible translates the first sentence “Be careful not to make a show of your religion before men”; New American Bible has “Be on guard against performing religious acts for people to see.” Other translations tend to utilize more general terms for the noun: “good deeds” (An American Translation, Phillips, Jerusalem Bible), “righteous deeds” (Anchor Bible), and “acts of righteousness” (New International Version). In the Greek manuscript followed by King James Version, the word “alms” appears in place of “righteousness”; however, this wording is so poorly attested that it does not even appear as an alternative possibility in the UBS Greek text. Moreover, this would make “alms” in verse 2 almost redundant.

Practicing your piety has proved quite difficult for many translators, primarily because many languages do not have a convenient word for “religion” or “religious.” A common way to handle “religion” has been “way of worshiping God,” so that practicing your piety can be expressed as “doing the things you must as part of your worshiping God” or “doing the things that you have to do because your way of worshiping God requires them.”

Before men in order to be seen by them is presented somewhat more dynamically by Good News Translation: “in public so that people will see what you do.” Bible en français courant has “for all the world to notice you”; and Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition reads “to be admired by people.” Other ways to say it are “in front of people so they can see that you do these things” or “in front of people so they will notice what you are doing.” The first part of this sentence can be “Don’t make a public show of doing the things you must because of your way of worshiping God” or “It is wrong to perform the things that are a part of your worship of God in public just so people can see you.”

For then (New English Bible “If you do”) translates a series of four Greek particles, which Good News Translation fills out as “If you do these things publicly.” Translations employ a wide variety of literary devices, all of them designed to relate the second half of the verse to the first half.

Reward was first used in 5.12. Elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel it is found in 5.46; 6.2, 5, 16; 10.41, 42; 20.8.

Father who is in heaven: see comments on 5.16.

Ways of expressing the last part of the verse include “If you do that, God your Father in heaven will have no great gift to give you,” “If you do, God your heavenly Father will not give you any reward (or, valuable gift),” and “Because then you will be unable to receive a great gift from God your heavenly Father.”

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 .

In Greek this verse reads Judge not, that you be not judged. In English the verb Judge generally requires an object, and for that reason Good News Translation has supplied the object “others.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bijbel in Gewone Taal, and Bible en français courant have done the same thing, as has Barclay.

Most translators avoid rendering Judge as “criticize.” Some use a word that means to examine the facts about someone and make a decision, very much as a judge might make a decision. More often, however, translators have felt the context indicates here that the idea is more “declare guilty” or “condemn.” Thus, possible translations are “Don’t pass judgment on people,” “Don’t decide other people are guilty,” or “Don’t condemn people.”

The Greek passive that you be not judged is assumed by the majority of scholars to be a reference to God as judge. Most translations maintain the passive form and so are ambiguous. Jerusalem Bible retains the passive, but with a footnote indicating the meaning: “Do not judge others if you do not wish to be judged by God.” Several translations switch to the active, with God as the explicit subject (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant, Bijbel in Gewone Taal). Phillips obviously takes it as human judgment: “Don’t criticize people, and you will not be criticized.” In the solemn context of the Sermon on the Mount, it seems extremely doubtful that Jesus would be warning against the danger of reciprocal criticism from one’s fellowman. The situation demands that God be the subject of the passive verb.

Failure to make “God” explicit in the second part almost invariably leads people to believe the verse is saying “Don’t judge other people so they won’t judge you.” For this reason it is advisable to say “so God won’t judge you,” as in Good News Translation and other dynamic translations, or “so God won’t condemn you.” Jewish writers used the passive to avoid pronouncing God’s name, but the hearers understood that God was the agent. Few cultures today share this taboo, and there is no reason to maintain it, especially if the passive would not be correctly understood.

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 .

And he said to him: for stylistic reasons Good News Translation identifies he as Jesus and transfers “Jesus said” to the end of the verse, though it comes first in the Greek sentence. However, in many languages (for example, most languages in Africa) it will be more natural to keep “Jesus said to him” at the beginning of the sentence.

The pronoun I is emphatic in Greek. The original Greek manuscripts did not have any punctuation, and it is possible to take I will come and heal him as a question: “Am I to come and cure him?” (New English Bible alternative rendering). Although a question is possible, most translations prefer a statement and do not even include a question as a possible alternative. Whether one translates as a statement or as a question, the main point of Jesus’ response is that he is willing to associate with a Gentile.

Whether to use come or “go” will depend on the language. There may also be need for a destination, as in “I will come to your house” or “I will go there.” Also possible is “I will go with you.”

Heal can also be “cure” or “make well.”

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 .

For which is easier…?: the Jews of the New Testament period believed that the healing of a person’s body was evidence that God had forgiven him, and so Jesus bases his remarks on that presupposition. He is not in any way intimating that the forgiveness of sin was less difficult for him than the healing of the man’s body.

Languages will demonstrate quite a variety in the way they handle this question. Some translations will have “Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘Get up and walk’?” Others will structure the verse like this: “I can say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ and I can also say ‘Get up and walk.’ Which is easier?” Since the question can imply that Jesus was suggesting the one was easier than the other, another way to render the verse is “Isn’t it just as easy (or, It’s just as easy) to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ as it is to say ‘Get up and walk’?” Some translators will have to use indirect speech, as in “Isn’t it just as easy to tell this man his sins are forgiven as it is to tell him to get up and walk?”

Your sins are forgiven is discussed in Matthew 9.2. See comments there.

Rise (Good News Translation “Get up”) and walk is a fairly literal rendering of the Greek text. The translation should not imply that Jesus told the man to “walk away” or “walk off.” Translators can perhaps say “Get up and walk about.”

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 .

Then translates a particle which may mean either “at that time” or “next in sequence.” Matthew employs it rather frequently (90 times).

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few is probably a proverbial saying. The plentiful harvest can be “rich” or “huge.” In some languages one cannot speak of the harvest being big, but rather one must say “the crops that are ready to be harvested are abundant.”

Laborers can be “workers” or “people who work in the fields.” Good News Translation uses an infinitive phrase to specify the work of the laborers: “workers to gather it in.” The basis for the inclusion of this information is found in the Greek text of verse 38 (“laborers into his harvest”). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch provides the same information, though in a different way: “Here is a rich harvest to gather in, but there are not enough workers.” Instead of saying they are few, it is possible to say “but there are only a few people to gather it in” or “but there are not enough people to bring it in.”

The harvest is a figure for people who are ready to be persuaded to trust in God, and there are translators who have said “These people are like crops in the field that are abundant and ready to be harvested. But there are only a few workers who can lead them to trust in God.”

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 .

Fear not (Good News Translation “So do not be afraid”) is without an object in Greek. New American Bible supplies an object (“So do not be afraid of anything”); it may even be better to translate “So do not be afraid of people” or “So do not be afraid of what people may do to you.” The text stresses that one need fear only God, for in the final analysis it is he alone who determines the destiny of all people.

You are of more value than many sparrows is translated by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as “You are worth more to God than an entire flock of sparrows.” Similar renderings are “God considers you much more valuable than many sparrows” and “As far as God is concerned, you are worth much more than even many sparrows.”

Since the expression with many sparrows could be misunderstood to mean you are more important than many but not all sparrows, a rendering such as “an entire flock” is often better.

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 .

But I tell you (Good News Translation “I assure you”) functions to make emphatic the statement which follows. New English Bible has the same rendering as Revised Standard Version; Phillips “Yet I tell you this”; An American Translation “But I tell you.” Elsewhere in the Gospel this formula is used only in verse 24 and in 26.64; it is equivalent in emphasis to “Truly, I say to you” (see comments at 5.18). Translators are referred to 10.15, where the language is almost exactly the same. But I tell you in this verse can be rendered the same as “Truly, I say to you” in 10.15, with the sole difference being the But. This marks a slight contrast, and most translators do retain it, either with a word or with some construction.

Good News Translation restructures the impersonal passive construction of the Greek (it shall be more tolerable) as an active formation with God as the subject: “God will show more mercy to.” Bible en français courant has “the punishment will be less for … than for you,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “the people of … will fare better than you.” It shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment is the same as in 10.15. Here it is Tyre and Sidon, there “the land of Sodom and Gomorrah.” A good rendering is “the people of (the towns of) Tyre and Sidon.”

The contrast in 10.15 is “than for that town”; here the punishment will be easier than for you. Keeping these differences in mind, translators will be able to render this verse very much as they did in 10.15.

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 .

The Pharisees are frequently mentioned as the arch opponents of Jesus. According to this verse they continue in that role, and their accusation made here is similar to that of 9.34. In fact, the charge which they now make against Jesus is practically identical with that of 9.34, with the exception that here the prince of demons is mentioned by name. For further comments on Pharisees, see 3.7.

There can be uncertainty as to what the it that the Pharisees heard refers to. Most translators have it refer back to the healing of the man in verse 22. A sentence like “But when the Pharisees heard about Jesus healing the man who had the evil spirit” would make this very explicit. On the other hand, translators who thought it refers to people wondering whether perhaps Jesus was the promised Son of David could have “… heard what the people were saying.” There is no reason why the translation could not refer to either or both.

For prince of demons see comments on 9.34; Beelzebul is discussed at 10.25. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch deletes the proper name: “He can drive out evil spirits only because the chief of all evil spirits gives him the power to do it!”

For casts out demons, see comments on 7.22 and 8.16, and for demons, see comments on 4.1.

As Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch shows, by Beelzebul means that Beelzebul gives him power to throw out evil spirits. A slightly different rendering of the sentence is “It is only because Beelzebul, who is the chief of evil spirits, gives him power that this man can throw evil spirits out of people.”

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 .