There's A Reason For The Season

The Bible Said it First’: in this series Rosemary Dawson looks at everyday expressions that originated in the Bible. This week: ‘The salt of the earth’

Imagine chips without salt. Unsalted crisps. Bland, tasteless food. Ugh!

We may be urged to ration our intake of salt as part of a healthy lifestyle, but this simple ingredient has been an essential part of daily life for centuries. It is used as an antiseptic, and - before the age of freezers - was a valuable means of preserving food, especially fish and meat.

Cakes of salt were once used as money. Officers and men in the Roman Army received a salt allowance, called a salarium. It’s the origin of our word ‘salary’. In the Middle Ages, the salt cellar was a token of separation. At a banquet, noblemen sat ‘above the salt’ while lesser mortals sat below it.

One of the highest compliments you can give someone is to call them ‘the salt of the earth’. It means they are good, totally trustworthy and reliable.

So who said it first? Perhaps surprisingly, it was Jesus. Talking to his followers in what is called the Sermon on the Mount, he said: ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot’ (Matthew 5:13 New International Version).

This is one of many common phrases we use every day, without necessarily realising that they come from the Bible. In this series, we will be looking at the story or background behind some of them.

Jesus used the qualities found in salt to illustrate the kind of influence he wanted his followers to have in society. For example, he wanted them to bring a zest and flavour to life. He wanted their goodness to encourage others and to help cleanse a corrupt and degraded world. He expected them to preserve high standards of morality.

But, as Jesus also pointed out, salt is totally worthless if it loses its flavour. It is sometimes said of people who don’t measure up to the expected standard that they are not worth their salt.

How do we measure up?

UK & Ireland War Cry 26 April 2014