What Does Matthew 5:13 Mean?
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has gone dull, with what shall it be salted? It has no strength left for anything, except to be thrown outside and trampled underfoot by humankind.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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
“gone dull” 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 drawing near of your gift you season with salt; you do not cause the salt of the covenant of your God to cease from your gift. On all your drawing near you bring salt near.Let your word always be in favor, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you must answer each one.Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Neither can a spring yield both salt and sweet water.THE THREAD
Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have wholeness with one 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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