What reward have you?: On the notion of rewards see verse 12. The question actually means “what reward can you expect?” (New English Bible, Barclay). But it is God from whom one expects to receive the reward, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch follows Good News Translation in making this explicit (“How can you expect a reward from God…”); Bible en français courant is similar.

The question if you love those who love you should give the idea of loving only those who love you: “If you love only the people who love you….”

This is a rhetorical question. Jesus is not asking what the reward is, but is rather pointing out forcefully that loving those who love you will not bring a reward. This may be expressed as a statement, as in “To love only those people who love you does not bring any reward,” “God isn’t going to reward you because you love people who love you also,” “You should not expect a reward for loving those people who love you,” or “God should not reward you for loving people who love you.” Another way is to use a rhetorical question like that in Good News Translation, “Why should God reward you…?”

Do not even the tax collectors do the same? translates a question form in Greek which expects a positive reply (note Jerusalem Bible “Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not?”). Several translations (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New English Bible, Bible en français courant, Bijbel in Gewone Taal) restructure by a statement, as does Good News Translation: “Even the tax collectors do that!”

The tax collectors referred to in the Gospels are probably the Jewish employees of the chief collectors. The Roman system for gathering taxes made for inequality and oppression, and that is one reason that in the Gospels tax collectors are quite often grouped together with sinners. To emphasize the derogatory connotation of the term, Barclay translates “the renegade tax collectors.”

Many translations have fairly literal renderings of tax collectors. They have, for example, “people who collect money for the government” or “people who make everyone pay money to the government.” Some say “to the Roman government” or “to the emperor (or, king) in Rome.” Other translations reflect the low esteem in which tax collectors were held by saying “those unpatriotic (or unscrupulous, or oppressive) tax collectors.”

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 .