Matthew 5:25,26

There is much more reason for regarding this passage as an interpolation. It is connected only externally (by the references to courts of law) with what goes before, and it is out of keeping with the general drift of the teaching on the hill. It occurs in a different connection in Luke 12:58, there as a solemn warning to the Jewish people, on its way to judgment, to repent. Meyer pleads that the logion might be repeated. It might, but only on suitable occasions, and the teaching on the hill does not seem to offer such an occasion. Kuinoel, Bleek, Holtzmann, Weiss and others regard the words as foreign to the connection. Referring to the exposition in Luke, I offer here only a few verbal notes mainly on points in which Matthew differs from Luke. ἴσθι εὐνοῶν, be in a conciliatory mood, ready to come to terms with your opponent in a legal process (ἀντίδικος). It is a case of debt, and the two, creditor and debtor, are on the way to the court where they must appear together (Deuteronomy 21:18; Deuteronomy 25:1). Matthew's expression implies willingness to come to terms amicably on the creditor's part, and the debtor is exhorted to meet him half way. Luke's δὸς ἐργασίαν throws the willingness on the other side, or at least implies that the debtor will need to make an effort to bring the creditor to terms. παραδῷ, a much milder word than Luke's κατασύρῃ, which points to rough, rude handling, dragging an unwilling debtor along whither he would rather not go. ὑπηρέτῃ, the officer of the court whose business it was to collect the debt and generally to carry out the decision of the judge; in Luke πράκτωρ. κοδράντην = quadrans, less than a farthing. Luke has λεπτὸν, half the value of a κοδ., thereby strengthening the statement that the imprisoned debtor will not escape till he has paid all he owes.