Deep Pencil - the musings of Morgan Bell

The expression is Biblical and comes from Matthew, 5:13. From the King James Bible of 1611: “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.”

Salt has always been one of the most prized commodities, essential both for life and for preserving food. Roman soldiers were paid an allowance to buy salt, the origin of our salary. A man worth his salt is efficient or capable. To eat salt with someone was to accept his hospitality and a person who did so was bound to look after his host’s interests. The Bible also speaks of a covenant of salt, one of holy and perpetual obligation. Newborn children were anciently rubbed with salt to protect them against evil forces.

To Jesus, therefore, salt of the earth was a great compliment. To understand his comment fully, though, you have to know a bit about where Jews of his time got their salt. Some came from saltpans on the margins of the Dead Sea, but much was obtained from Mount Sodom (Jebel Usdum in Arabic), a ridge of limestone and rock salt at the south-west corner of the Dead Sea (a pillar of salt here is said to have given rise to the legend of Lot’s wife). This rock salt was the literal salt of the earth. Because the deposit’s outer layer was exposed to the elements, it became contaminated and its salt content depleted by weathering, losing its taste and value, so becoming good for nothing.

if Jesus thought salt was a compliment and salt was a valued commodity, do you think there was any underlying symbolism in being turned into a pillar of salt?

St Ambrose says, “Because Lot’s wife looked behind she lost the gift of her [human] nature. Therefore flee from intemperance, by considering that he who turned not back to his old pursuits [Lot] escaped, and reached the [spiritual] mount. Whereas, she who looked back to what was left behind, could not even by the aid of her husband reach the spiritual mount. She remained fixed.

St Augustine says, “Lot’s wife represents those who in times of trouble look back and turn aside from hope of the divine promise. Hence, she was made a pillar of salt as a warning to those not to do likewise.

St Augustine says, “The person on the housetop represents those who have departed from carnal things and breathe the free air of the spiritual life. The vessels in the house represent the carnal senses, which many use to discover that truth which is only taken in by the intellect, and entirely miss spiritual truths. Let the spiritual beware, lest they again take pleasure in the carnal life which is fed by the bodily senses and descend to take it away in this world’s vessels.

In relation to salt itself, St Bede the Venerable says, “Salt is good. It is a good thing to season the secrets of the heart with the salt of spiritual wisdom. For salt in substance consists of water and air, having a slight mixture of earth, but it also dries up the fluent nature of corrupt bodies to preserve them from decay. Firstly Jesus compares his disciples to salt, inasmuch as they, after the manner of salt, change the corrupt life of men who live on the earth, and by their own virtuous lives delight and season their followers.”

In relation to ‘If the salt loses its savour, wherewith will it be seasoned?’ Bede adds, “If a man who has once been enlightened by the seasoning of truth, falls back into apostasy, by what other teacher shall he be corrected, since the sweetness of wisdom which he tasted, he has cast away, alarmed by troubles or allured by the attractions of the world? Hence it follows ‘It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill & etc.’ For salt, when it has ceased to be fit for seasoning food and drying flesh will be good for nothing. It is not even useful to the land it has been cast upon, for it hinders the land from bearing.”

but it also dries up the fluent nature of corrupt bodies to preserve them from decay

maybe being changed into a pillar of salt is a compassionate punishment, it protects from corruption and decay but it prevents you from moving on and stunts your (spiritual) growth . . . perhaps the equivalent of limbo on earth?