What Does Matthew 5:47 Mean in the King James?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The “more” is love’s surplus: welcome becomes extraordinary when it crosses the boundary of who counts as your own.
THE MEANING
The reach of your greeting reveals whether welcome ends with shared identity or extends beyond it. Familiarity and reciprocity produce ordinary warmth; the verse asks what exceeds that familiar exchange. Even tax collectors greet their own.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that warmth toward your own circle is already extraordinary love dissolves here: the measure is whether welcome reaches beyond that circle.
THE ROOT
περισσὸν
perisson
GROWS FROM
περισσός
perissos
Beyond the ordinary; surplus or exceeding.
The Greek word for “more” belongs to the same word family as “exceed” in Matthew 5:20. The question is about the surplus that appears when love reaches beyond ordinary reciprocity.
ALSO GROWS
perisseuō: Abound, overflow, or exceed.
περισσεύω
This related verb makes the shared idea of going beyond the ordinary explicit.
perissoteron: More abundantly or to a greater degree.
περισσότερον
This comparative form shows the same word family describing an increase beyond what is usual.
ἀσπάσησθε
aspasēsthe
GROWS FROM
ἀσπάζομαι
aspazomai
To greet or welcome; in some uses, to embrace.
“Salute” can sound like a formal gesture, while this Greek word also carries the sense of welcoming someone. The verse turns that welcome into a measure of how far your regard reaches.
ALSO GROWS
aspasmos: A greeting or salutation.
ἀσπασμός
The related noun names the greeting itself, the everyday act whose reach the verse tests.
aspazomai: To greet or welcome.
ἀσπάζομαι
The verb’s range keeps the action personal: the issue is whom you receive with welcome.
ἀδελφούς
adelphous
GROWS FROM
δελφύς
delphys
Womb; ἀδελφός (adelphos) is traditionally understood as one born from the same womb.
“Your brethren” names the circle in which greeting feels natural. The word’s image of shared birth makes that circle a bond of common origin, even as the verse asks whether welcome stops there.
ALSO GROWS
adelphē: Sister.
ἀδελφή
The feminine form shares the same word family of sibling kinship.
adelphotēs: Brotherhood or kinship among siblings.
ἀδελφότης
This related noun extends the family bond from an individual brother to a community.
THE PATTERN
Love crosses the reciprocity line when it gives care beyond its own circle of kinship or return.
If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.THE THREAD
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.“More” here, περισσὸν (perisson, beyond the ordinary), shares its word family with “exceed” in this verse. That echo links surpassing alignment with welcome that reaches beyond ordinary reciprocity.
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