What Does Matthew 5:13 Mean in the King James?
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek verb translated “lost his savour” can also mean “become foolish,” linking lost flavor with lost sense.
THE MEANING
You are placed in the world as a presence with a distinctive quality that gives it savor. When that quality goes flat, the verse pictures you cast out and trampled underfoot. The warning speaks to your usefulness now: it depends on what makes you salt.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that mere presence is enough: the verse ties your usefulness to the quality that gives you saltiness.
THE ROOT
μωρανθῇ
mōranthē
GROWS FROM
μωρ-
to become insipid or foolish
“lost his savour” in this verse is mōranthē. English gives only the taste sense, but the Greek word belongs to a family that also speaks of folly. The wording can link flavorlessness with a loss of sense while keeping the salt image intact.
ALSO GROWS
mōros: foolish, dull
μωρός
This related word shows how the same Greek word-family can describe a loss of discernment as well as a loss of savor.
mōria: folly
μωρία
The shared root lets the verse’s image of tastelessness echo the idea of folly.
ἅλας
halas
GROWS FROM
ἁλ-
salt
The Greek word names salt as a quality that seasons what it touches. The verse turns on whether that quality remains active in the world around you.
ALSO GROWS
halizō: to salt or season with salt
ἁλίζω
This verb makes explicit what salt does: it gives its quality to something else.
halykos: salty
ἁλυκός
This related adjective describes water by the quality that distinguishes it, echoing the verse’s concern with salt retaining its character.
THE PATTERN
A distinctive quality serves others when it remains present in what it touches.
And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.THE THREAD
Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.Mark uses the same Greek word for salt, then brings the image inward: “Have salt in yourselves.” The line that follows places this inner quality in relationship, beside peace with one another.
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