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 6:26

6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: ³  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ⁴  them. Aren’t you more valuable ⁵  than they are?

Matthew 7:11

7:11 If you then, although you are evil, ⁶  know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts ⁷  to those who ask him!

Matthew 15:5

15:5 But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,” ⁸ 

Matthew 21:32

21:32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe. Although ⁹  you saw this, you did not later change your minds ¹⁰  and believe him.

Matthew 23:13

23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law ¹¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! ¹²  You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! ¹³  For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.

Matthew 26:31

The Prediction of Peter’s Denial

26:31 Then Jesus said to them, “This night you will all fall away because of me, for it is written:

‘I will strike the shepherd,

and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ¹⁴ 

Matthew 27:24

Jesus is Condemned and Mocked

27:24 When ¹⁵  Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” ¹⁶ 

[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.

[6:26]  ³ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[6:26]  ⁴ tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[6:26]  ⁵ tn Grk “of more value.”

[7:11]  ⁵ tn The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated concessively.

[7:11]  ⁶ sn The provision of the good gifts is probably a reference to the wisdom and guidance supplied in response to repeated requests. The teaching as a whole stresses not that we get everything we want, but that God gives the good that we need.

[15:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “is a gift,” that is, something dedicated to God.

[21:32]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[21:32]  ¹⁰ sn The word translated change your minds is the same verb used in v. 29 (there translated had a change of heart). Jesus is making an obvious comparison here, in which the religious leaders are viewed as the disobedient son.

[23:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:13]  ¹² tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).

[23:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”

[26:31]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Zech 13:7.

[27:24]  ¹⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:24]  ¹⁶ sn You take care of it yourselves! Compare the response of the chief priests and elders to Judas in 27:4. The expression is identical except that in 27:4 it is singular and here it is plural.