This is a very familiar phrase. There are different explanations as to exactly what Jesus meant. In our culture, the two main things people associate salt with are flavoring food and preserving food. But salt can be used for many purposes. An article by Reader's Digest lists 60 different ways salt can be used. Among 1st-century Jewish people, salt was used to treat wounds and ailments as a fertilizer or destroy farming land, extract blood from meat, and was applied to all animal sacrifices. Newborn babies were covered with salt.
The most common explanation of what the phrase means is that since salt is used for preserving and flavoring food, believers are to "preserve life" and "flavor" the lives of others. But, is that what it meant to the 1st-century Jewish disciples (Apostles) Jesus spoke to on the mountain, away from the crowds? Whenever you read the words of Jesus, you must remember that everything he said has a Jewish context from a Jewish background. So much misunderstanding and false teaching come from putting our modern-day cultural meaning on the words read in English translations.
In most "sermons," you will often find the practice of the speaker only quoting one verse on any given topic and basing the entire context of the talk on the supposed meaning of the one verse. That is not how Scripture should be presented. There is not one single verse in Scripture that "stands alone" or can be isolated as the only "proof" of what is being taught. Comparing one verse with other verses is crucial to get the correct context. This is not the only place in the gospels where Jesus speaks of salt.
Mat 5:13 You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? (How is it possible for the salt to regain its flavor) It is thus good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under men's feet.
Mk 9:50 Salt is good. But if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you restore it?...
Lk 14:34-35 Salt is good, but how can it be seasoned if the salt loses its savour? It is neither fit for the land nor the dunghill (manure). Men will then cast it out...
You can scratch off the list any idea about "preserving" life. Israel was blessed because salt was a plentiful mineral and easily accessible to all Jews. Countries and empires that had to import salt paid a steep price for salt. In many military campaigns, the goal was to capture and control a region that produced salt. There were different grades of salt.
All Jewish families, regardless of the occupations of the family members, grew some of their food. So, all Jews were familiar with growing crops, usually vegetables, perhaps grapes, olive trees, fruit trees, or herbs. As I mentioned earlier, salt was used as a fertilizer. In the right amounts, salt will help the soil retain moisture, helping the plants grow, as natural salt absorbs water.
These verses are problematic. First of all, in English, the word "savor" or "savour" is mainly understood to mean "to enjoy how something tastes or smells. Or enjoy a certain flavor. It doesn't mean quality or degree. None of the Greek words translated into "savour" in the N.T. mean flavor. The Greek word translated into "savour" in Mat and Luke is moraion which means: to be foolish, to act foolish. This word comes from the Greek moros, where we get our English word "moron" from.
Jesus spoke Hebrew. In Scripture are many Hebrew word puns. Not puns as humor, but a play on words. I believe the Greek translation couldn't correctly translate what Jesus spoke. There are a couple of different meanings included in Jesus's words.
Jesus used the word salt, as it is used in the Scripture, to represent purity, honesty, and steadfastness. When Jesus told the disciples, they were salt. He meant they represented the truth of Scripture and would be the examples by which the believers could observe and emulate, as they would be the leaders of the New Covenant to the new believers. Salt, as a fertilizer, would produce an environment where plants could grow and thrive. Fertile soil provides the nutrients and minerals necessary for plants to grow and mature.
But then Jesus said if the salt lost its "savour," moraion, to act foolishly, "if the salt stopped acting foolishly," what good is it? Salt that no longer was usable as salt was spread out on roads and steps to provide stability; it was "cast out to be trodden on by men." Meaning it could no longer be used for the purpose it was originally intended. Why would Jesus tell the disciples to keep acting foolishly? He didn't. It is easy to believe what others say Mat 5:13 means or to read it in English and figure out what it means based on the English words. But, instead of "follow the money," when studying Scripture, it is "follow the words," researching and defining the original words, not trusting that the English words in any translation are the exact equivalent of the actual words. In the New Testament, Hebrew words are translated into Greek and then Greek into English. Things get lost in translation. In many cases, translators phrased things to fit a personal bias or belief rather than give a correct translation. This is obvious here by using the word "savour" for "to act foolishly."
In Strong's Greek Dictionary, the next word after moraion is "moria." This word means "foolishness." Where do we find this word used?
1Cor 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
1Cor 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world, by human wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1Cor 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.
1Cor 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
In other words, Jesus instructed the Apostles to stay true and preach the true faith, the true gospel, which the unsaved will see as foolishness. If they strayed from the faithful preaching of Scripture alone and "added" some ungodly human element to their "preaching," they would no longer appear foolish to the unsaved.
This can be hard to comprehend because we have to adapt to the Jewish meaning, the Hebrew way of thinking and speaking, which is highly unfamiliar to English speakers. Jewish thought works differently than Western thought. The Jewish people use words in a different way than us. The exact words can have very different meanings in the two languages.
I mentioned in my last post that this instruction was for the Apostles only, not all believers. The biggest reason for this erroneous belief is the way Mat 5:13 is phrased, "You are the salt of the earth." The Greek word "earth" is ge, which is often translated by the word "earth." Here is how Thayer's Greek Lexicon defines the word:
One arable land
Two the ground, the earth as a standing place
Three the mainland as opposed to sea or water
Four the earth as a whole
a. the earth as opposed to heaven
b. the inhabited earth
Five a country, territory, or region.
Based on Lk 14:34-35, the context of "earth" is soil, not the inhabited planet. And since the "explanations" for salt used in church buildings today do not match the Scripture meaning of salt, as Jesus used it, it cannot possibly mean that believers today are "commanded" to "preserve" life and "bring flavor" into other people's lives. You will not find "Salt of the earth" anywhere in the O.T., meaning it is some designation for a believer. It was not a well-known, common phrase used by the 1st-century Jewish people anywhere in the world at that time. Paul never uses the phrase in his epistles. And you can rest assured that if this phrase applied to believers, Paul would have used it several times. I will strengthen this more in my next post.
The most common explanation of what the phrase means is that since salt is used for preserving and flavoring food, believers are to "preserve life" and "flavor" the lives of others. But, is that what it meant to the 1st-century Jewish disciples (Apostles) Jesus spoke to on the mountain, away from the crowds? Whenever you read the words of Jesus, you must remember that everything he said has a Jewish context from a Jewish background. So much misunderstanding and false teaching come from putting our modern-day cultural meaning on the words read in English translations.
In most "sermons," you will often find the practice of the speaker only quoting one verse on any given topic and basing the entire context of the talk on the supposed meaning of the one verse. That is not how Scripture should be presented. There is not one single verse in Scripture that "stands alone" or can be isolated as the only "proof" of what is being taught. Comparing one verse with other verses is crucial to get the correct context. This is not the only place in the gospels where Jesus speaks of salt.
Mat 5:13 You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? (How is it possible for the salt to regain its flavor) It is thus good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under men's feet.
Mk 9:50 Salt is good. But if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you restore it?...
Lk 14:34-35 Salt is good, but how can it be seasoned if the salt loses its savour? It is neither fit for the land nor the dunghill (manure). Men will then cast it out...
You can scratch off the list any idea about "preserving" life. Israel was blessed because salt was a plentiful mineral and easily accessible to all Jews. Countries and empires that had to import salt paid a steep price for salt. In many military campaigns, the goal was to capture and control a region that produced salt. There were different grades of salt.
All Jewish families, regardless of the occupations of the family members, grew some of their food. So, all Jews were familiar with growing crops, usually vegetables, perhaps grapes, olive trees, fruit trees, or herbs. As I mentioned earlier, salt was used as a fertilizer. In the right amounts, salt will help the soil retain moisture, helping the plants grow, as natural salt absorbs water.
These verses are problematic. First of all, in English, the word "savor" or "savour" is mainly understood to mean "to enjoy how something tastes or smells. Or enjoy a certain flavor. It doesn't mean quality or degree. None of the Greek words translated into "savour" in the N.T. mean flavor. The Greek word translated into "savour" in Mat and Luke is moraion which means: to be foolish, to act foolish. This word comes from the Greek moros, where we get our English word "moron" from.
Jesus spoke Hebrew. In Scripture are many Hebrew word puns. Not puns as humor, but a play on words. I believe the Greek translation couldn't correctly translate what Jesus spoke. There are a couple of different meanings included in Jesus's words.
Jesus used the word salt, as it is used in the Scripture, to represent purity, honesty, and steadfastness. When Jesus told the disciples, they were salt. He meant they represented the truth of Scripture and would be the examples by which the believers could observe and emulate, as they would be the leaders of the New Covenant to the new believers. Salt, as a fertilizer, would produce an environment where plants could grow and thrive. Fertile soil provides the nutrients and minerals necessary for plants to grow and mature.
But then Jesus said if the salt lost its "savour," moraion, to act foolishly, "if the salt stopped acting foolishly," what good is it? Salt that no longer was usable as salt was spread out on roads and steps to provide stability; it was "cast out to be trodden on by men." Meaning it could no longer be used for the purpose it was originally intended. Why would Jesus tell the disciples to keep acting foolishly? He didn't. It is easy to believe what others say Mat 5:13 means or to read it in English and figure out what it means based on the English words. But, instead of "follow the money," when studying Scripture, it is "follow the words," researching and defining the original words, not trusting that the English words in any translation are the exact equivalent of the actual words. In the New Testament, Hebrew words are translated into Greek and then Greek into English. Things get lost in translation. In many cases, translators phrased things to fit a personal bias or belief rather than give a correct translation. This is obvious here by using the word "savour" for "to act foolishly."
In Strong's Greek Dictionary, the next word after moraion is "moria." This word means "foolishness." Where do we find this word used?
1Cor 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
1Cor 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world, by human wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1Cor 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.
1Cor 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
In other words, Jesus instructed the Apostles to stay true and preach the true faith, the true gospel, which the unsaved will see as foolishness. If they strayed from the faithful preaching of Scripture alone and "added" some ungodly human element to their "preaching," they would no longer appear foolish to the unsaved.
This can be hard to comprehend because we have to adapt to the Jewish meaning, the Hebrew way of thinking and speaking, which is highly unfamiliar to English speakers. Jewish thought works differently than Western thought. The Jewish people use words in a different way than us. The exact words can have very different meanings in the two languages.
I mentioned in my last post that this instruction was for the Apostles only, not all believers. The biggest reason for this erroneous belief is the way Mat 5:13 is phrased, "You are the salt of the earth." The Greek word "earth" is ge, which is often translated by the word "earth." Here is how Thayer's Greek Lexicon defines the word:
One arable land
Two the ground, the earth as a standing place
Three the mainland as opposed to sea or water
Four the earth as a whole
a. the earth as opposed to heaven
b. the inhabited earth
Five a country, territory, or region.
Based on Lk 14:34-35, the context of "earth" is soil, not the inhabited planet. And since the "explanations" for salt used in church buildings today do not match the Scripture meaning of salt, as Jesus used it, it cannot possibly mean that believers today are "commanded" to "preserve" life and "bring flavor" into other people's lives. You will not find "Salt of the earth" anywhere in the O.T., meaning it is some designation for a believer. It was not a well-known, common phrase used by the 1st-century Jewish people anywhere in the world at that time. Paul never uses the phrase in his epistles. And you can rest assured that if this phrase applied to believers, Paul would have used it several times. I will strengthen this more in my next post.
