The Golden Rule in translation

We have called the first [Jesus Sutra] The Sutra of the Teachings of the World-Honored One…. It tells us that it was translated into Chinese in 641…[and] the translators were experimenting with concepts for which the Chinese language did not quite have the right vocabulary…. [T]he Golden Rule is so badly translated as to be almost unintelligible without knowing the original: “So always treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12). The translation actually reads “be good, for others like good people, who are good to them, who make goodness back to those who are good to them.” (p. 52)

From The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity by Martin Palmer