Mark 9.43-50,
Matthew 5.13,
Luke 14.34-35.
If you’ve ever heard someone called “the salt of the earth,” usually they mean an ordinary but decent person. And no, that’s not what Jesus meant when he coined the phrase “salt of the earth”—or as I translated it, “the earth’s salt.” I’ve no idea how it evolved from a remarkable person to an unremarkable person. When Jesus uses it in
He means a flavor enhancer. Be the salt of the earth: Enhance it. Make it taste better.
Mark 9.49-50 KWL 49 “Everything for the fire will be salted.Lv 2.13 50 Salt is good—- when salt becomes saltless,
- in what way will it season anything?
- Have salt in yourselves:
- Have peace with one another.”
Matthew 5.13 KWL - “You’re the earth’s salt.
- When salt is tasteless,
- in what way will it salt things?
- It’s good for nothing—
- unless it’s thrown outside for people to walk on.”
Luke 14.34-35 KWL 34 “So salt is good—- when salt is also tasteless,
- in what way will it salt things?
35 It’s useful for neither the ground nor the dungheap.- They throw it outside.
- One who has an ear to hear: Hear me!”
A preservative, or a flavor?
The way this passage has historically been interpreted, from the ancient Christians to today, is to point out salt is a preservative. You put meat in salt ’cause it kills bacteria; it delays spoiling. You pickle things to make ’em last longer. Salt is meant to preserve the good things of the world… unless the “salt” you were using was just salt mixed with a lot of impurities, and water got into it and washed all the actual salt away, and now you just have chalky, ruined meat.
A lot of scholars today doubt this interpretation. Mainly because we’ve rediscovered
- Bekhorot 8b.14-15
KWL 14 The Athenians told him, “Tell us something nonsensical.”- R. Yehoshua told them, “A certain mule gave birth.
- A writing was hanging in the newborn’s stall:
- Its father’s house owes it 100,000 denarii.”
- They told him, “Can a mule give birth?”
- He told them, “This is something nonsensical!”
15 They said, “When salt spoils, with what does one salt it?”- R. Yehoshua told them, “With a mule’s afterbirth.”
- They said, “Does a mule’s afterbirth even exist?”
- He said, “And when does salt spoil?”
Now, this comes from the Babylonian Talmud, which was written about two centuries after Jesus, and this might be the Pharisees’ way of clapping back at Jesus’s teaching—“The Christians say ‘when salt loses its saltiness,’ but since when does that happen?” But we know it can happen. Like I said, if you’ve got salt mixed with impurities.
But there’s still a bone to pick with the ancient Christians’ interpretation of Jesus’s saying. They were thinking of salt as a preservative. In those pre-icehouse, pre-freezer, pre-canning days, salt was used to preserve food. Still is. Conservative Christians frequently use this verse to claim we Christians are likewise to preserve things. To preserve everything good in the world… more accurately the things we value, like customs and traditions, property and money. You know, stuff Jesus actually may be interested in getting rid of ’cause we’re clinging to our conservatism instead of him.
In Matthew and Luke, Jesus points out the difference between flavorful and tasteless salt. There are such things as flavorless salts, still used to preserve meat. Sodium nitrite is still really popular in bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and other pink deli meats. A little too popular, ’cause it’s toxic. But Jesus is speaking about salt we can taste. He’s talking about seasoning and flavor. He means sodium chloride, table salt.
When Jesus talks about throwing this
So we’re to be that salt. The preserving kind has its uses, but Jesus wants flavor. The ice-melting kind melts ice; the fertilizing kind grows plants; the smell-neutralizing kind kills odors. But Jesus wants flavor. Be flavorful.
Preserving it? Meh; this world is passing away.
Losing one’s salvation?
Another inaccurate interpretation of this passage comes from the annoying Christian habit of trying to turn every last one of
This is not at all what Jesus means. But you’ll find it’s the knee-jerk reaction of too many Christians. Especially since Mark brings up fire—which Christians presume is a reference to hell. And it’s not. It’s a reference to ritual sacrifice. As the L
Leviticus 2.13 NRSVue - “All your grain offerings you shall season with salt; you shall not omit from your grain offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
When part of the Hebrews’ worship of God was to give him something—something he doesn’t require, demand, or obligate anyone to give him; they were giving it to him because they love him—he told ’em to put salt on it. Whenever the ancients had guests over, they seasoned their food…. unless they didn’t like those guests, and wanted to insult them, so they served them something bland. Same concept here. If you’re giving the L
When Jesus talks in Mark about everything in the fire getting salted, he’s likewise talking about gift offerings. In this case, rather extreme, hardcore gift offerings:
Mark 9.43-49 NRSVue 43 “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.”
Yep. Better to give up your bodyparts to God than sin. Better to literally cut them off and sacrifice them to him. Not that God wants us to literally cut them off, but still—don’t sin!
Now yeah, most bibles translate
Since lopping off bodyparts is not a command, it’s sort of a ritual sacrifice. We’ll sacrifice our bodies, our comforts, our wholeness, just to follow God wholeheartedly. To remain at peace with him and one another.
Yep, it’s a different idea than the one Jesus teaches in Matthew and Luke. It’s similar, but not the same. When we’re insistent it is the same, we’re gonna miss it.
The Pharisees regularly used salt as a metaphor for peace. As did Paul.
Colossians 4.5-6 KWL 5 Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.
Where salt means peace, we work on getting along with one another. And with everyone else; keeping relations with the difficult, self-focused, sin-screwed world around us. When we have “salt” in ourselves, we keep the peace. When we don’t, we’re still tripping up. And tripping others up, who can’t get past our obnoxiousness.
As you’ve seen in
How do we get sympathy? Be sympathetic. How do we get kindness?
So make peace, as much as you can, with everyone you can. Make sure you’re not bothering the neighbors with your noise. Be kind and generous to strangers. Be courteous. When someone tries to pick a fight, talk ’em down. Stop picking your own fights! Quit slamming your political opponents just to bug their supporters. Stop acting like other people’s children, and act like God’s children.
Be the earth’s salt—in all the ways Jesus wants us to.
