Matthew 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ¹  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ²  how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

Matthew 5:29

5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell. ³ 

Matthew 7:22

7:22 On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do ⁴  many powerful deeds?’

Matthew 8:32

8:32 And he said, ⁵  “Go!” So ⁶  they came out and went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake and drowned in the water.

Matthew 11:7

11:7 While they were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness ⁷  to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸ 

Matthew 12:11

12:11 He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out?

Matthew 13:52

13:52 Then he said to them, “Therefore every expert in the law ⁹  who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and old.”

Matthew 15:22

15:22 A ¹⁰  Canaanite woman from that area came ¹¹  and cried out, ¹²  “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!”

Matthew 18:9

18:9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have ¹³  two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell. ¹⁴ 

Matthew 21:12

Cleansing the Temple

21:12 Then ¹⁵  Jesus entered the temple area ¹⁶  and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple courts, ¹⁷  and turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.

Matthew 24:26

24:26 So then, if someone ¹⁸  says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ ¹⁹  do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him.

[5:13]  ¹ sn Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer (BDAG 41 s.v. ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.

[5:13]  ² sn The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its flavor since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested that the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens; under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja (ca. a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be that both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.

[5:29]  ³ sn On this word here and in the following verse, see the note on the word hell in 5:22.

[7:22]  ⁵ tn Grk “and in your name do.” This phrase was not repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:32]  ⁷ tn Grk “And he said to them.”

[8:32]  ⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate a conclusion and transition in the narrative.

[11:7]  ⁹ tn Or “desert.”

[11:7]  ¹⁰ tn There is a debate as to whether one should read this figuratively (“to see someone who is easily blown over?”) or literally (Grk “to see the wilderness vegetation?… No, to see a prophet”). Either view makes good sense, but the following examples suggest the question should be read literally and understood to point to the fact that a prophet drew them to the desert.

[13:52]  ¹¹ tn Or “every scribe.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4. It is possible that the term translated “expert in the law” (traditionally, “scribe”) here is a self-description used by the author, Matthew, to represent his role in conveying the traditions about Jesus to his intended audience. See David E. Orton, The Understanding Scribe [JSNTSup].

[15:22]  ¹³ tn Grk “And behold a Canaanite.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[15:22]  ¹⁴ tn Grk The participle ἐξελθοῦσα (exelqousa) is here translated as a finite verb. The emphasis is upon her crying out to Jesus.

[15:22]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “cried out, saying.” The participle λέγουσα (legousa) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[18:9]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “than having.”

[18:9]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the Gehenna of fire.”

[21:12]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[21:12]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the temple.”

[21:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the temple.”

[24:26]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).

[24:26]  ²⁰ tn Or “in the desert.”