Last we met, we were wrapping up a broad-aperture study of paganism as context for the life of Jesus Christ. Today, we're going to start immediately with our gospel reading. The next few verses require more digestion than many of the ones that have preceded them, so we're going to take them very slowly and with special focus.
Let's get started, shall we?
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Matthew 5:13
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
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Matthew 5:13 through Matthew 5:16 are known collectively as "The Similes of Salt and Light." Whereas the preceding Beatitudes were relatively easy to interpret and extract moral data from, these similes are marginally more cryptic. Here in 5:13, we read the Simile of Salt, which is entirely encapsulated within one verse.
Jesus tells his disciples, who are still listening to him by the Mount of Beatitudes, that they are the "salt of the earth." He then poses an odd question regarding the value of salt which has lost its flavor. "If salt goes bad, what can you fix it with?" he asks. He immediately answers himself by saying "you can't fix salt that's gone bad. If it goes bad, it's only worth throwing on the ground and walking on."*
Traditional interpretations of this verse are somewhat dependent on the immediately subsequent verses. As you will see over the next few weeks, the Similes of Salt and Light are most easily interpreted as instruction regarding the relative place of the disciples in the world at large.
If the Similes of Salt and Light are the answer, then the question would have been something like "Jesus: should your teachings and our adherence to them be secret, or public?" In 5:13, Jesus responds to the hypothetical question by saying "you who follow my teaching are the most valuable commodity around! The whole world needs to hear you! But if you stop following my teachings, you'll return to a state of near valuelessness."
According to traditional interpretation, with which I agree, Jesus is telling his followers that they are necessary and welcome in the world as long as they are living by his teaching.
Interesting to note here is that Jesus seems to describe something that cannot actually happen. Salt requires nothing to flavor it, and it cannot be washed of its saltiness. It tastes salty even in its purest form. If salt didn't taste like salt, it would no longer be salt. Some scholars believe that Jesus understood salt as such, and meant to tell his followers that, just as salt cannot be washed of saltiness, his followers would not be able to be washed of their spiritual gifts.
We should note, too, that here in Matt 5:13 Jesus is coining a phrase that still has meaning in today's modern world. The use of the phrase "salt of the earth" to describe character attributes of humans originates with Jesus' words in the Gospel of Matthew. Today, "salt of the earth" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a very good and honest person or group of people." Next time you hear someone use the phrase, you can let them know that they're using a Jesus Christ original.
So, "why is salt the chosen metaphor?" you might ask. The answer is fairly obvious when one takes a look at the value of salt in the ancient world, which we will do now.
In the ancient world, salt was an absolute necessity for many people. The primary tool of food preservation in ancient times was salt. For those cultures that depended on being able to stockpile meat for consumption at a later date (read: most ancient cultures), salt was as important as the nourishing meat itself. Butchered meat would commonly be dehydrated with salt, which eliminated the potential growth of microbes that cause food spoilage. Once properly dried by the salt, meat could be stored for consumption months later.
Salt was also highly valued in the ancient world for its flavoring properties. Before we had access to monosodium glutamate, Frank's Red Hot, and genetically modified super-peppers, humanity wanted badly for ways to make food more palatable. Salt filled that void. Whether for curing meat or for flavoring it, salt would have been a staple in any kitchen "worth its salt."
Speaking of things being "worth their salt," we can further highlight the importance of salt in the ancient world by tracing the term "worth one's salt" back to its origins. In ancient times, Roman legionaries would often be paid a special stipend, along with their regular pay, which was explicitly for the purchase of salt. Remember: salt was critical for the preservation of meat, and the preservation of meat was critical for ancient travel. And just what were the legionaries constantly doing? That's right. Travelling. The salt stipend was known as the "salarium," from which we get the English word "salary." To be "worth one's salt," then, means to be worth one's wages, or to be an effective worker.**
Another common and important use for salt in ancient times, and one Jesus surely would have been keenly aware of, was its use in religious practice. Most of the pagan world appears to have utilized salt in various rituals, especially during sacrifice. Salt was so valuable that, in some cases, the mineral itself could be offered up to the gods as a sacrifice.
During his travels in Egypt in the fifth century BC, Herodotus of Halicarnassus noted the following ritual use of salt during the celebration of the Feast of Lamps in the city of Sais:
At Sais, when the assembly takes place for the sacrifices, there is one night on which the inhabitants all burn a multitude of lights in the open air round their houses. They use lamps in the shape of flat saucers filled with a mixture of oil and salt, on the top of which the wick floats. These burn the whole night, and give to the festival the name of the Feast of Lamps.The addition of salt to the lamp oil likely made the flame brighter. Other sources tell us that salt would be caked onto lamp wicks in the ancient world, also to increase brightness.
We would be remiss if we didn't look at the utility of salt specifically in ancient Judaism. In Leviticus Chapter 2, we learn about Moses' laws on "grain offerings." Chapter 2 says that, in addition to meat, a Jew could offer grain as sacrifice. The text then proceeds to describe exactly how grain might be offered. It says that the person offering the grain is to spread oil and frankincense on it before giving it to the priests at the Temple. The priests are to then burn a handful of the grain on the altar; the burnt handful is God's portion. The rest of the offering becomes the property of the priests.***
Chapter 2 of Leviticus goes on to say the following:
13 You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your grain offering. On every offering you shall offer salt.Even today, in many Jewish homes, the bread shared during the Shabbat dinner will be sprinkled with salt, or dipped in salt, before it is consumed. This tradition comes directly from Leviticus Chapter 2.
For the ancient Jews, salt was also necessary for the preparation of a blood sacrifice. Our old friend Josephus tells us about this in his Antiquities of the Jews, Book 3. He says:
226 Suppose a private man offer a burnt offering, he must slay either a bull, a lamb, or a kid of the goats, and the two latter of the first year, though of bulls he is permitted to sacrifice those of a greater age; but all burnt offerings are to be of males. When they are killed, the priests sprinkle the blood around the altar; (227) they then cleanse the bodies, and divide them into parts, and salt them with salt, and lay them upon the altar...Whether the offering was of grain or flesh, it is clear that salt was an important component in any Jewish ritual sacrifice.
To reiterate our original point, it is clear that salt had nearly unlimited value in the whole of the ancient world, and that Jesus thought of his followers as valuable in a similar way. Jesus called his followers the "salt of the earth" rather than the "frankincense of the earth," or the "cedar wood of the earth," or anything else, because salt was more universally important than almost any other commonly traded commodity of the time. Jesus chose salt as his metaphor because it was universally valuable, and specifically valuable to the Jews, who constituted all of Jesus' early followers.
There is some ambiguity built into this verse. Ultimately, its meaning is subjective and will continue to be interpreted subjectively. What we can say for sure is this: in Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are of great importance. "The salt of the earth."
That's enough of this saltiness. Next time, we'll have more similes to unpack. Until then, please share this writing. Thank you for reading.
Love.
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* If the part about being "trampled underfoot" confuses you, think about the modern use of salt on slick surfaces to increase foot traction. Ancients used salt in the exact same way, on occasion.
** The phrase "worth one's salt" is not actually recorded anywhere until the around the 19th century AD.
*** Seems kinda like a scam....
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