Matthew 5:13

Matthew 5:13 is the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It is part of the Sermon on the Mount, the first of a series of metaphors often seen as adding to the Beatitudes.

The original Greek text is:

The translation of the King James Bible reads:

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

God's Word Translation uses the phrase "salt for the earth". For a collection of other versions see Bible Gateway.com: Matthew 5:13

The verse is paralleled in and Luke 14:34-35 has a version of this text similar to the one in Mark. There are a wide number of references to salt in the Old Testament. Leviticus 2:13, Numbers 18:19, and 2 Chronicles 13:5 all present salt as a sign of God's covenant. Exodus 30:35, Ezekiel 16:4, Ezekiel 43:24, and 2 Kings 2:21 all present salt as a purifying agent.

The exact meaning of the expression is disputed, in part because salt had a wide number of uses in the ancient world.

Salt was extremely important in the period, and ancient communities knew that salt was a requirement of life. It was most used as a preservative; this use was important enough that salt was sometimes even used as currency, from which the word salary originates. The most common interpretation of this verse as a reference to salt as a preservative, and to thus see the duty of the disciples as preserving the purity of the world.

Many fertilizers use salts in appropriate quantities. Gundry and others note that salt was a minor but essential ingredient in fertilizer, and Gundry suggests that "earth" (Greek: τῆς γῆς, tēs gēs), should be translated as soil, and the disciples are thus to help the world grow and prosper. Many scholars disagree with Gundry's translation of earth as soil: most see it as referring to the world and in Schweizer's words "the totality of mankind," even though the more common word used for this purpose is anthrópos and that gé is used extensively as "land" or as physical earth. George Shillington feels that the Greek word for salt here refers to the chemical agent used in ancient times to fertilize fields rather than the edible salt used to preserve meat or flavor foods, indicating that the disciples are to bring new life to the world. Alan Kreider expounds upon this idea and notes various sources which led him to share this interpretation. Willard Swartley states that by obeying the Golden Rule one becomes the fertilizing salt of the earth. Phil Schmidt also believes that the disciples are meant to stimulate growth and positively affect the world.

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