An example of a passage where the meaning can be
misinterpreted without knowing its cultural connotation is found in Matthew
5:13: “You are the sale of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltness, how
can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be
thrown out and trampled by men” (NIV). This passage has perplexed me for years.
What does it mean by “if the salt loses its saltness?” As a geologist and
mineralogist, I know that halite (common table salt) cannot lose its salty
flavor. Also, it is not clear what “trodden under foot of men” (KJV) has to do
with salt. What I didn’t understand about this passage is that in Jesus’s time
and locality, salt was minded mostly from the nearby Dead Sea, and even today
this salt is not always pure halite but is naturally intermixed with gypsum
(calcium sulfate) and other minerals. IF the halite (salty) fraction is removed
from this mixture, then what is left is tasteless gypsum, which has no value in
seasoning food or in preserving meat. Therefore, in Jesus’s time, the gypsum
fraction would be thrown out and used in making , which would be “trodden under
foot of men.” The real meaning of this passage, then, from the cultural
perspective of this time and place, is that we should remain pure and not be
contaminated, lest we be trodden under by the outside world. (Carol Hill, A
Worldview Approach to Science and Scripture [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel
Academic, 2019], 4)
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