You are the salt of the earth
A declaration in metaphor
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. (NKJV)
You are the salt of the earth. Now if the salt has become stupid, with what will the earth be salted? It can do nothing any longer except be thrown outside to be trampled by humanity. (My translation)
I love salt.
I love its textures, its colors, its effect on the food I eat, and the variety of ways it can be introduced to that food. One of my favorites is the salt block on my grill. I throw any food on it (salmon and hamburgers are go to’s) and not only does the food cook beautifully but the salt subtly infuses during grilling—veggies work great too.
I also need salt.
Salt is essential to life. Salt (an “electrolyte”) helps to regulate fluids in the cells of the body. Without salt, life in our form does not exist.
Salt also is an antiseptic used for healing (think gargling with salt water or irrigating a wound with saline solution).
All of these uses were well-known in the ancient world. The ancient medical writers specifically referred to these uses of salt and the Bible and other Jewish literature also allude to them.
When Jesus spoke the words, “You are the salt of the earth,” we might naturally ask how can we be salt?
Questions
So one question for this passage is whether Jesus wants us to think about salt itself.
But there are other questions.
Though commentators tend to run over Matthew 5:13 with only a few words and almost with the implied attitude that the verse is self-evident in its meaning, this verse is anything but self-evident.
As you can see from the translations above, my translation is somewhat different than the NKJV, which is very consistent with other translations. I have translated as literally as possible to highlight some issues that need more clarity. The closer we look at what Jesus said, the more issues arise. Here are a few:
The Salt of the Earth
There is not much of a problem with this phrase, except that there is.
Almost all commentators (and I agree) see the salt of the earth as a metaphor for Jesus’s follower’s. Most will list how the characteristics of salt can be compared to his followers. Is that all though? And why does Jesus use “the,” which implies an exclusiveness to his followers? What does it mean to be “the salt of the earth?” Finally, what does “of the earth” mean? Is it the earth and all in it or is it equivalent to the world of humanity? How does the earth relate to the salt (I will show options in the observations on the Greek text section)?
Flavorless Salt?
All of the translations say something similar to the NKJV. But the verb does not mean “lose its flavor.” Instead the verb mōrainō has the sense of to be foolish, stupid, or crazy. The question here is why did Jesus use this term?
What is salted?
The Greek text of the next phrase literally translated is “with what will it be salted?" The issue revolves around the implied subject “it.” Is “it” the salt? Does the salt salt itself or make itself salty again? Or does “it” refer to “the earth.” There is no way to know the gender of the subject (M, N, or F), so the subject could refer to either the salt or the world. What are the strengths and weaknesses of both, and which makes more sense?
Trampled by humanity
Once again this phrase is usually taken as referring to physical salt, but Jesus is talking about his followers as “the salt of the earth.” What do Jesus’s words imply about believers in the world?
You are the salt of the earth
When Jesus said “you are the salt of the earth,” he expressed a metaphor about his followers.
He called them salt, but actual salt is only the image, not the substance of what he says.
The metaphor is perplexing, but Jesus spoke it intentionally in this place in the Sermon.
Jesus wanted his listeners to think about salt, then to think about “You” in the context of the Sermon thus far—that would be the Beatitudes.
A close look at this verse shows clear connections to what has come before.
In my previous post (Opting out of the World’s Game), I highlighted Jesus’s change to “You” as the address.
Here the “You” is emphasized even more as the explicit subject because the word for “you” (hymeis) is actually stated, not just implied in the verb.
YOU are the salt of the earth.
Moreover, “you are” is used in a metaphor only twice in the entire New Testament, here and the next verse. In saying “You are the salt of the earth” and then “You are the light of the world” at this place in the Sermon, Jesus wanted to connect the distinct images of salt and light to the saying on insults, persecution, and evil speech prior to it (“Blessed are you when they insult you, persecute you, and speak all evil against your for my sake”).
Could it be that Jesus naming his followers “the salt of the earth” is the reason for the response of the world?
The answer comes in deeply considering the metaphor itself and the followup in the rest of the verse.
First, the metaphor is not “You are salt,” but “You are the salt of the earth.” The definite article “the” specifies the vast and singular importance of Jesus’s followers for the world. Whatever Jesus meant by salt, he says that those who follow him are that to the world and no other group.
What is the salt though? I listed several features of physical salt such as flavor, health, and healing, and Jesus might have wanted his listeners to keep these in mind. Jesus did regard his followers as the life-giving flavor and health of God-actualized salt for a hopeless world full of insipid banality and spiritual sickness.
But the characteristics of this salt are the ones he has listed in the Beatitudes:
Poverty of spirit—Mourning—Humility—Hunger and thirst for the righteous character of God—Mercy—Single-minded devotion for God (pure in heart)—Shalom-making—Taking on persecution for Jesus’s sake
These are the salty attributes of Jesus’s followers.
These upsidedown-opposite-of-the-world qualities are the salt of the earth and are to be found only in those transformed by God.
Some may try to imitate these qualities, but they cannot be humanly manufactured, only given and gifted by God (just like physical salt).
Stupid salt
If Jesus had just stated the metaphor and moved to the next one (You are the light of the world), we would have been left with something relatively easy to understand and digest.
But no.
What Jesus follows up with has to be one of those so-called “hard sayings of the Bible.” How can salt not be salty? For physical salt that is impossible, but Jesus speaks about the spiritual saltiness of the Beatitudes.
Once again, the translations, while “correct” miss the point. Jesus does not use the adjective for “unsalty” (Greek: analon), but the verb for become stupid or foolish (mōrainō). The translators surmise that mōrainō must be taken figuratively for “loses its taste.”
All of the English translations have some version of this.
My question is why this verb and not the explicit phrase “become unsalted” that is in Mark 9:50.
Jesus employed mōrainō here because he wanted his listeners to think about themselves, not salt. The TLB moves in the right direction by its translation: “If you lose your flavor.” But Jesus literally says, “Yet if the salt has becomes stupid (or foolish).”
Jesus wanted them to immediately think of themselves as the salt and whether they were acting salty or not (notice that he repeats “the”—the salt, his followers). Actual salt remains salt, but a person can be salty or foolish, useful for the kingdom or useless.
Without the people of God wisely (the opposite of stupidly) doing what God has put them in the world for, how will the world know the truth and how will it return to God—“with what will it (the earth) be salted?”
It
Now we get into some weeds. What gets salted?
Does the salt salt itself to make itself salty? Though some translations suggest this, the very notion is absurd.
The metaphor “the salt of the earth” implies that the earth is what gets salted (or not in this case).
Jesus came to “salt” the earth through his followers, to infuse the world with the life-giving message of the gospel through the attributes in the Beatitudes. If his followers do not act out their calling as “the salt,” then God’s chosen way is thwarted.
When followers of Jesus do not embody the characteristics of saltiness (the Beatitudes), their influence on the world is nullified.
Trampled salt
The final sentence in the passage is very difficult to translate. I have gone around and around with various possibilities, but in the end basically agree with the translations (I’ll speak more in the Greek observations): It can do nothing any longer except be thrown outside to be trampled by humanity.
Stupid salt leads to uselessness.
Apart from Jesus’s followers following the way of Jesus in the Beatitudes (which may or will result in persecution), they are good for nothing as envoys of God’s plan of redemption. They are not fulfilling what they were transformed to do. They have no power to be the agents of God’s work on the earth.
But the situation is more dire than simply a lack of effectiveness.
To not be acting or living the characteristics of the Beatitudes is to opt back into the world’s game by default. Apart from God’s work and power in our lives, we have no ability to opt out of that game.
We are there whether we like it or not.
And what happens in that game? Humanity tramples itself. People destroy each other.
For the Christian, persecution may come from opting out of the world’s game, but that is preferable to being trampled in the world’s game.
Nothing good comes from that scenario.
“You are the salt of the earth” is Jesus’s declaration that his followers are something that the world desperately needs but does not have, but that “salt” must remain pure to do its job.
Observations on the Greek Text
Ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς· ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας μωρανθῇ, ἐν τίνι ἁλισθήσεται; εἰς οὐδὲν ἰσχύει °ἔτι εἰ μὴ ⸂βληθὲν ἔξω⸃ καταπατεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
1. “The salt of the earth” is in the form article + noun + genitive article + genitive noun. There are a number of possible translations—I have selected the normal and most likely one, though even that one is ambiguous. Here are several possibilities:
You are the salty earth. You are the earthy salt. You are the salt from the earth. You are the salt among other minerals in the earth. You are the preeminent salt of the earth.
There are others, but you can see from this list, however strange some may seem, that the genitive case needs to be assessed carefully every time it appears. So also in English, every time we use the preposition “of” before a noun, we must automatically use our context to make the proper sense (consider the phrase “a piece of pizza” for instance” or “a thing of beauty”).
2. ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας μωρανθῇ, ἐν τίνι ἁλισθήσεται; is an example of a third class or general condition with the structure ἐὰν + subjunctive (μωρανθῇ), and a then clause of any form (here with a future indicative question). The condition with ἐὰν may or may not be met, but if it is, the the apodosis (then) clause becomes true. Jesus presents the possibility of followers becoming stupid salt, but not the reality: it is their choice.
3. The final sentence is significant from a discourse analysis perspective. There are three verbs: ἰσχύει, βληθὲν, and καταπατεῖσθαι. The most important is the indicative verb (ἰσχύει), the next is the infinitive καταπατεῖσθαι which completes the action of ἰσχύει (“is able to be trampled”). The participle βληθὲν simple adds circumstantial detail to the sentence, but is not important for the essential meaning.