Matt 5:42 διδου

A few early witnesses (ℵ B D W f13 892 pc; Cl) have the aorist imperative δος instead of the present imperative διδου of most witnesses (including E G K L M S U V Δ Θ Π Σ f1 33 1006 1342 1506). While some, as Meyer (111), argue that most manuscripts were corrupted from the parallel of Luke 6:30, which has διδου, such a judgment unjustly discounts other internal considerations, such as: (1) the manuscripts that have δος are largely related, lessening the impact of their testimony; (2) Matthew uses διδωμι with an imperfective kind of action elsewhere (7:11; 13:8; 24:45); (3) the aorist δος may reflect assimilation to the tense of the nearby aorist imperatives στρεψον (5:39) and αφες (5:40); (4) in the NT δος (15 times) is used far more than διδου (2 times), making the latter more likely to be altered into the former than vice versa; and (5) the presence of δος in the famous nearby passage of the Lord's model prayer (6:11) may have influenced some to use it here. For these reasons it would seem imprudent to reject the reading διδου that appears in most witnesses.