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Matthew 5:13

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.

KJV

Ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς· ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας μωρανθῇ, ἐν τίνι ἁλισθήσεται; εἰς οὐδὲν ἰσχύει ἔτι εἰ μὴ βληθὲν ἔξω καταπατεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

Greek NT

Vos estis sal terræ. Quod si sal evanuerit, in quo salietur ? ad nihilum valet ultra, nisi ut mittatur foras, et conculcetur ab hominibus.

Vulgate

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.

ASV

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing anymore but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men.

Douay-Rheims

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In this verse

Symbols Salt

In the original Greek

22 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

βάλλω
ballo
verb · 125×
γῆ
ge
noun · 251×
δέ
de
conjunction · 2781×
εἰ
ei
conditional · 491×
εἰμί
eimi
verb · 2461×
εἰς
eis
preposition · 1769×
καταπατέω
katapateo
verb · 5×
μή
me
particle · 1033×
μωραίνω
moraino
verb · 4×
οὐδείς
oudeis
adjective · 235×
τίς
tis
interrogative_pronoun · 533×
ἁλίζω
alizo
verb · 2×
ἄνθρωπος
anthropos
noun · 549×
ἅλας
alas
noun · 8×
ἐάν
ean
conditional · 333×
ἐν
en
preposition · 2743×
ἔξω
exo
adverb · 62×
ἔτι
eti
adverb · 94×
ἰσχύω
ischuo
verb · 28×
o
article · 19778×
ὑμεῖς
umeis
pronoun · 1828×
ὑπό
upo
preposition · 221×

Textual variants

1 variant unit attested by manuscript witnesses and modern critical editions.

minor
SBLGNT: βληθὲν ἔξω | WH/Treg/NIV: βληθὲν ἔξω | RP: βληθῆναι ἔξω καὶ
  • βληθὲν ἔξωSBLGNT
  • βληθὲν ἔξωWestcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
  • βληθῆναι ἔξω καὶRobinson-Pierpont
source: sblgnt-apparatus

Historic Christian voices

10 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§782The People of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history: - It is the People of God: God is not the property of any one people. But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people: "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation."202 - One becomes a …
§2821This petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus which is present and effective in the Eucharist; it bears its fruit in new life in keeping with the Beatitudes.94
The threefold kind of man feigned by these heretics: good works needless for them, though necessary to others: their abandoned morals. 1. There being thus three kinds of substances, they declare of all that is material (which they also describe as being on the left hand) that it must of necessity perish, inasmuch as it is incapable of receiving any afflatus of incorruption. As …
We should not hastily impute as crimes to the men of old time those actions which the Scripture has not condemned, but should rather seek in them types of things to come: an example of this in the incest committed by Lot. 1. When recounting certain matters of this kind respecting them of old time, the presbyter [before mentioned] was in the habit of instructing us, and saying: …
Homilies on Matthew · 2 passages
2. Whence then does He begin? And what kind of foundations of His new polity does He lay for us? Let us hearken with strict attention unto what is said. For though it was spoken unto them, it was written for the sake also of all men afterwards. And accordingly on this account, though He had His disciples in His mind in His public preaching, yet unto them He limits not His sayin…
2. They thought that He, thus speaking, did so with a view to the abrogation of the ancient institutions. This suspicion therefore He heals; nor here only does He so, but elsewhere also again. Thus, since they accounted Him no less than an adversary of God, from this sort of reason, namely, His not keeping the sabbath; He, to heal such their suspicion, there also again sets for…
Ye are the salt of the earth. Christianity, true scriptural Christianity, has a double office — to preserve and to season. It preserves the world from total corruption, and it diffuses its own flavor throughout. But if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? A Christian who has lost his vital piety is the most useless of creatures.

Cross-references

  • 2Pet 2:20 — For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them
  • Col 4:6 — Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
  • Col 4:6 — Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
  • Eccl 10:1 — Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.
  • Ezek 16:6 — And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
  • Ezek 43:24 — And thou shalt offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
  • Heb 6:4 — For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
  • Heb 6:4 — For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
  • Lev 2:13 — And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou s
  • Lev 2:13 — And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou s
  • Luke 8:5 — A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
  • Luke 14:34 — Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
  • Luke 14:34 — Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
  • Mark 9:49 — For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
  • Mark 9:50 — Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.