is an account of the hero's being beaten and slashed until he was
supposed to be dead from loss of blood, and his other injuries. Then a
slave-girl, named El-Meleehah, the "salt-bearer," came and stuffed salt
into his gaping wounds, after which his supposed corpse was thrown into
a subterranean vault among the dead. Yet by means of this application
of salt he was saved to life, and regained his pristine vigor.[97]
[97] Lane's _Thousand and One Nights_, I, 365.
The references of Jesus to salt would seem to have fuller meaning, if
"salt" be understood as equivalent to "life." Where he says to his
disciples: "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,"[98] he
would seem to remind them that they are the life of the world, if,
indeed, they retain life in themselves. And where he says, "Have salt
in yourselves, and be at peace one with another,"[99] he would call
them to have life in themselves, and to join with others who have it,
in making their life to be felt among their fellows.
[98] Matt. 5 : 13; Luke 14 : 34.
[99] Mark 9 : 50.
A supposed utterance of Jesus, which has been a puzzle to critics and
commentators, possibly has light thrown on it in this view of salt
as corresponding with life. Discoursing on life, and the wisdom of
striving to attain or to enter into life, even at a loss of much that
man might value here on earth, Jesus, according to some manuscripts,
said, "For every one shall be salted with fire."[100] This sentence is
disputed by some, not being found in all the more ancient MSS., and
its meaning does not seem to be clear to any.[101] It is obvious that
whatever else "salted" here means, it does not mean "salted." To salt
is to mingle, or to accompany, with salt. Clearly, fire does not do
that. The Greek is as vague, or as ambiguous, as the English. There
must be a conventional or popular, a figurative or symbolical, meaning
in which "salt" is here used. What can this be?
[100] Mark 9 : 49. Comp. A. V. and R. V.
[101] See notes and references in Nicoll's _Expositors' Greek
Testament_; Lange's _Commentary_; Meyer's _Commentary_, in loco, etc.
"Fire" is here spoken of as the synonym, or equivalent, or parallel, of
"salt." In this figure, _fire_ is to accomplish what _salt_ performs;
the work of _salt_ is to be done by _fire_. In what sense can this
be true? Fire does consume and destroy the perishable;[102] it does
bring out and refine that which is permanent and precious;[103] it
does try and test and reveal the measure of real value in that which
is submitted to it.[104] In the testing time, "each man's work shall
be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed
in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man's work, of what sort
it is. If any man's work shall abide which he built thereon [on the
one Foundation], he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be
burned he shall suffer loss: but he himself [who has builded] shall be
saved; yet as through fire."[105]
[102] Gen. 19 : 24, 25; Exod. 9 : 23, 24; Lev. 10 : 2; 13: 52-57;
Matt. 3 : 12; 7: 19; Luke 3 : 17; John 15 : 6.
[103] Mal. 3 : 2, 3.
[104] 1 Pet. 1 : 7.
[105] 1 Cor. 3 : 13-15.
The whole context of the passage in Mark's Gospel indicates that
Jesus is speaking of _life_. He is showing the way to attain to life.
He points to the final testing of life by fire. As salt is shown to
correspond with life, and as this seems to have been understood by
his hearers, would they not have seen that Jesus was pointing out that
the measure of life, or salt, the reminder of God's covenant with his
people, in every one of them, would be revealed in the testing of fire?
It is, indeed, because salt represents life, that salt was to accompany
every sacrifice under the Jewish dispensation. Not death, but life, was
an acceptable offering to God, according to the teachings of the Bible,
both in the Old Testament and the New.[106] God wants "not yours, but
you."[107] This was emphasized by priest and prophet in the history
of the Jewish people, earlier and later. Paul re-echoed this primal
thought when he appealed to Christians: "I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [yourselves] a
_living_ sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service."[108] Without salt, without the symbol of life, no sacrifice
was to be counted a fitting or acceptable offering at God's altar.
[106] See _Blood Covenant_, passim.
[107] 2 Cor. 12 : 14.
[108] Rom. 12 : 1.
Salt is taken, in the world's thought, as an equivalent of wit, or
lively wisdom, in speech. Thus Paul counsels the Colossian Christians:
"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may
know how ye ought to answer each one."[109] Because the Athenians were
noted for their life and wit in speech, "Attic salt" was a synonym of
truest life in conversation. Cicero says of Scipio: "_Scipio omnes sale
superbat_" ("Scipio surpassed all in salt," or "wit").
[109] Col. 4 : 6.
Pliny after describing the properties and uses of salt, says: "We may
conclude then, by Hercules! that the higher enjoyments of life could
not exist without the use of salt: indeed, so highly necessary is this
substance to mankind, that the pleasures of the mind, even, can be
expressed by no better term than the word 'salt,' such being the name
given to all effusions of wit. All the amenities, in fact, of life,
supreme liberty, and relaxation from toil [in a word, 'life,'] can find
no word in our language to characterize them better than this."[110]
[110] _Hist. Nat._, XXXI., 41.
Pliny also calls attention to the fact that "salarium," from which we
derive our word "salary," was the "salt money," bestowed as a reward or
honorarium on successful generals and military tribunes.[111] The idea
of a "living," or a support of life, is in the word "salary." And so
when we say that a man is "not worth his salt," we mean that he is not
worth his living.
[111] _Ibid._
Salt has been employed as money at various times and in various lands,
and thus has been the means of supporting life. It has been so in
Tibet and in India, and in the heart of Africa along from the sixth to
the nineteenth centuries of our era. Thus even in lands where gold is
abundant but less valued than salt.[112]
[112] Marco Polo's _Travels_, Col. Yule's translation, II., 29, 35, 36,
37, and notes to Chap. 47.
It is said of the people of a province in Tibet, that, while they
reckon the value of gold by weight, the nearest approach to coined
money which they have is in molded and stamped cakes of salt. "On this
money ... the Prince's mark is printed; and no one is allowed to make
it except the royal officers.... Merchants take this currency and go
to those tribes that dwell among the mountains; ... and there they
get a _saggio_ of gold for sixty, or fifty, or forty pieces of this
salt money; ... for in such positions they cannot dispose at pleasure
of their gold and other things, such as musk and the like; ... and so
they give them cheap." "This exchange of salt-cakes for gold, forms a
curious parallel to the like exchange in the heart of Africa, narrated
by Cosmas in the sixth century, and by Aloisio Cadamosto in the
fifteenth."[113]
[113] _Ibid._
Victor Hehn calls attention to the fact that "the German copper-coin
heller (haller or häller), the smallest coin still in use in Austria,
referred to in the German saying, 'to have not a red heller,'
derives its name from the salt (_hal_), and the place where it was
obtained."[114]
[114] Victor Hehn's _Das Salz_, p. 72.
Pythagoras, speaking as usual in figurative terms, described salt as a
preserver of all things, as continuing life and as staying corruption,
or death. He directed the keeping of a vessel of salt on every table,
as a reminder of its essential qualities.[115]
[115] See Dacier's _Life of Pythagoras_ (Eng. trans.), pp. 60, 105.
Pliny says, moreover, that there are mountains of salt in different
countries in India, from which great blocks are cut as from a quarry;
and that from this source a larger revenue is secured by the rulers
than from all their gold and pearls.[116]
[116] _Hist. Nat._, XXXI., 39.
In many countries of the world salt is a matter of government control,
its manufacture and disposition being guarded as if life and death were
involved in it. It is a common saying in Italy that a man must not dip
up a bucket of water from the Mediterranean Sea; for he might make salt
from the water, and so defraud the government.
VII
SALT AND SUN, LIFE AND LIGHT
In Oriental and primitive thought Salt and Sun are closely connected,
even if they are not considered as identical. They stand together as
Life and Light. Their mention side by side in various places tends to
confirm this view of their remarkable correspondence. The similarity
of their forms accords with the Oriental delight in a play upon words,
even apart from the question of any similarity in their meanings.
Pliny, who, while not an original thinker, was a faithful and
industrious collater of the sayings and doings of his contemporaries,
and those who had gone before him, especially in the realm of material
things, summed up the popular beliefs as to salt and its uses in the
declaration that there is nothing better for the human body, in health
or in sickness, than salt and sun, "_sale et sole_."[117]
[117] _Hist. Nat._, XXXI., 45.
Not only in the English and the Latin, but in the Greek, the Kymric,
and the Keltic, this similarity in the form of the words for salt and
sun is to be observed. The Greek _hals_ and _helios_, the Welsh _hal_
and _haul_, the Irish _sal_ and _sul_, illustrate this so far as the
form is concerned.[118] As to the signification of the words, it has
already been shown that "salt" represents "life" in primitive thought
and speech. Similarly the sun was considered "as the life-giver, the
emblem of procreation." In consequence, "son" and "sun" are from the
same root.[119] In view of this it is not strange that salt and sun, as
life and light, were considered in primitive and popular thought as the
means of health and hope for mankind.
[118] In the Old Irish and the Old Welsh _s_ and _h_ interchange, as
they do in the Zend. See Table of Grimm, in Sayce's _Introduction to
the Science of Language_, I., 305.
[119] Skeat's _Etymological Dictionary_, at words "Salt," "Son,"
"Solar," "Sun;" also Kluge's _Etymological Dictionary_, s. v. "_Sonne_."
"The root of the word for salt is unknown. The name of the sun is
apparently a derivation from the root _su_ (or _s[=a]v_) 1. To generate.
2. To impel, to set in motion, to bring about."[120] If the same be not
the root of the word "salt," there is at least reason for thinking that
the meaning of the two words "salt" and "sun" are similar,--one gives
life, the other represents life.
[120] According to Prof. Dr. Hermann Collitz, of Bryn Mawr. Compare
Joh. Schmidt in Kuhn's "Zeitschrift," XXVI., 9; and O. Schrader,
_Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, p. 414. Trans. by F. B.
Jevons.
To the primitive mind it certainly would seem natural to ascribe the
creation of salt to the action or power of the sun. Peculiarly would
this be the case with dwellers by the ocean or sea, or inland salt
lakes. As the sun shines upon the water drawn from the sea or lake, the
water is evaporated and the salt remains. This is the ordinary process
of salt-making with all its benefits in various countries to the
present day. What thought is more natural, in view of this recognized
fact, than that the sun is the generator, or the begetter, of salt
which is life? If the sun is supposed to bring life, in what way does
it more directly accomplish this than by this salt creation?
This would seem to give added significance and force to the words of
Jesus as to salt and light. If in the days of Jesus it was held, as
Pliny says, that there was nothing that could help the life of humanity
like salt and sun, life and light, the disciples of Jesus must have
recognized a peculiar meaning in the teachings of the Great Physician
as he sent them out into the world to heal the sick, and raise the
dead, and cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons,[121] when he
suggested that it was what they were, rather than what they did, that
was to be the help of humanity. In the same teaching he said, "Ye are
the salt of the earth," "Ye are the light of the world."[122]
[121] Matt. 10 : 8.
[122] Matt. 5 : 13, 14.
The recognized meaning of these words in the days of Jesus intensified
their importance at every use of them, as when it was said that "in
Him was life; and the life was the light of men."[123] Salt was blood;
blood was life; salt was life; life was light; blood and salt and light
were life.
[123] John 1 : 4.
Among folk-lore customs on both sides of the ocean, salt and a candle
are carried across the threshold on moving to a new house, as if
representing life and light as needs in a new home. Sometimes the Bible
also is included, as if in recognition of the true basis of all sacred
covenanting. There are other folk-lore customs connecting salt and
light.[124]
[124] See Chap. X., _infra_.
According to Professor Dr. Hilprecht, in the old Assyrian language,
_[t.]âbtu_, "salt," and _[t.]âbtu_, "blessing," have the same ideogram,
and are written exactly alike. "This suggests the inquiry whether
they are not derived from the same root, _[t.]âbu_, 'to be good,' and
whether _[t.]âbtu_, 'salt,' was not so called by the Assyrians as the
great blessing given to man, as needed more than aught else for the
preparation of food and the preservation of life."
VIII
SIGNIFICANCE OF BREAD
Bread is the basis of a common meal, as blood is the basis of a
common life. As, in the sacrifices, the body of the animal offered in
sacrifice was the basis of a covenant meal, while the blood was the
basis of union with the divine; so in the symbolism of bread and wine,
in any sacramental meal, or in any meal of sacred covenanting between
two persons, the bread stood for the flesh, and the wine for the blood.
So, also, when bread and salt are used together, the salt would seem to
stand for blood or life, and the bread to stand for the flesh or the
body.[125]
[125] See _Blood Covenant_, pp. 182-190; 268 f.; 350-355.
Blood gives life; flesh as food gives sustenance. Salt represents life;
bread represents sustaining food. In this light those who share salt
together are in a life-sharing covenant; those who share bread together
are sharers in a common growth. Covenant union in sacrifice is secured
or consummated by blood-sharing; it is evidenced or celebrated by
food-sharing.
"Milk and honey" seem to be a symbol of blood and flesh, or of salt
and bread, from a divine source. They are supplied to man from the
vegetable world, through the agency of living animals, by the power of
the Author of life. They stand for the vivifying and nourishing of the
body by a providential ministry to man. In this light they seem to be
viewed by primitive peoples. The Land of Promise was represented to
the ancient Hebrews as "a land flowing with milk and honey,"[126] and
this figure seemed to represent to them all that could be desired in
the line of God's ministry to their material needs. It was many times
repeated to them, or by them, in this sense.[127]
[126] Exod. 3 : 8, 17; 13 : 5; 33 : 3.
[127] Lev. 20 : 24; Num. 13 : 27; 14 : 8; 16 : 13, 14; Deut. 6 : 3;
11 : 9; 26 : 9, 15; 27 : 3; 31 : 20; Josh. 5 : 6; Jer. 11 : 5;
32 : 22; Ezek. 20 : 6, 15.
This symbolism was preserved by the early Christians in connection with
the rite of baptism. Tertullian describing that rite says: "Having come
out from the bath, we are anointed with a blessed unction of holy oil;"
afterwards "we first taste a mixture of honey and milk."[128]
[128] Tertullian. _De Coron._, v. 3, _adv. Prox._ XXVI., _de Bapt._
vii. and viii., cited in Blunt's _Annotated Book of Common Prayer_, p.
209.
IX
SALT IN SACRIFICES
Salt seems to have been recognized as a vital element in sacrifices
both in the teachings of the Bible and in the customs of the pagan
world. In the Lord's injunction to Israel, it is said unqualifiedly:
"And every oblation of thy meal offering shalt thou season with salt;
neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be
lacking from thy meal offering: with all thine oblations [offerings
bloody or unbloody] thou shalt offer salt."[129]
[129] Lev. 2 : 13. See also Ezek. 43 : 21-24.
An alternative reading of the words of Jesus in Mark's Gospel refers
to this custom when it says that "every sacrifice shall be salted
with salt."[130] Josephus, in his "Antiquities of the Jews," makes
reference to the large quantities of salt required for sacrifices.[131]
This corresponds with the provision of the King of Persia for Jewish
sacrifices, "salt without prescribing how much,"[132]--a limitless or
indefinite amount.
[130] Mark 9 : 49. These words are by some critics counted a gloss; yet
the fact as a fact, with reference to salt in sacrifices, is undisputed.
[131] _Antiquities of the Jews_, XII, iii, 3.
[132] Ezra 7 : 21, 22.
In the Hebrew text which the Septuagint translators had before them,
salt is represented as always on the table of shewbread, and as an
important factor in that memorial offering before the Lord. It reads:
"And ye shall put upon the pile [of bread] pure frankincense and
salt, and they shall be to the bread for a memorial lying before the
Lord."[133] Philo Judæus makes mention of this salt with the bread, on
the sacred table in the Holy Place, and refers to the salt as a symbol
of perpetuity.[134]
[133] Swete's _Septuagint_ at Lev. 24 : 7.
[134] _De Victimis_, § 3.
In the directions for the preparation of the holy incense for use by
the priests in the services of the tabernacle, the fragrant gums and
spices were to be "seasoned [or tempered together] with salt, pure and
holy."[135] And this incense was for sacrificial offering.
[135] Exod. 30 : 34, 35, Revised Text, and marginal note.
It is still a custom among strict Jews to observe the rite of the
covenant of salt at their family table, before every meal. The head of
the house, having invoked the Divine blessing in these words, "Blessed
be thou O Lord our God, King of the universe, who causest bread to
grow out of the earth," takes bread and breaks it in as many pieces as
there are persons present. Having dipped each piece into salt, he hands
a portion in turn to every one, and they share it together. In cases
where there is less strictness of ritual observance on the part of
modern Jews, this ceremony is limited to the beginning of the Sabbath,
at the Friday evening meal.
This might seem to be merely a renewal of the covenant which binds
the members of the family to one another and to God; yet it evidently
partakes of the nature of a sacrifice, and it is so understood by
the more orthodox Jews. The primitive idea of an altar was a table
of intercommunion with God, or with the gods. It was thus with the
Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Hindoos, the Persians,
the Arabs, the early inhabitants of North and South America, and with
primitive peoples generally.[136] Thus also the Bible would seem
to count an altar and a table as synonymous. The prophet Malachi
reproaches, in God's name, the Jews for irreverence and sacrilege. "And
ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon
mine _altar_. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye
say, The _table_ of the Lord is contemptible."[137]
[136] _Blood Covenant_, pp. 167-190.
[137] Mal. 1 : 6, 7. See also Isa. 65 : 11 and Ezek. 41 : 22.
The Talmud emphasizes the home table of the Jew as the altar before
the Lord, to be approached in sacrifice with the essential offering of
salt. "As long as the Temple existed, the altar effected atonement,
and now it is for the table of each man to effect atonement for him. It
is for this reason that the description of the altar (in Ezekiel 41 :
22) closes by saying, 'And he said unto me, This is the table that is
before the Lord.'"[138]
[138] Tract B'rakhoth 55 _a._, cited by the Rev. Dr. M. Jastrow.
It would seem, therefore, that bread and salt are as the body and the
blood, the flesh and the life, offered in sacrifice at the home table
of the Jew, as formerly at the altar of intercommunion with God.[139]
[139] _Blood Covenant_, pp. 350-355.
This view of the household table as an altar has been recognized by
many Jews. Picart[140] says:
[140] _Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations of the
Known World_, I., 245. London, 1733.
"The German Jew sets bread and salt upon his table, but the loaf, if
possible, must be whole. He cuts it without making a separation, takes
it up with both his hands, sets it down upon the table, and blesses it.
His guests answer, Amen. Afterwards he rubs it with salt, and whilst he
is eating it is as silent as a Carthusian. The bread thus consecrated
is distributed to all who are at table. If he drinks wine, he blesses
it as he did the bread before; takes it in his right hand, lifts it
up, and pronounces the benediction over it; and all other drink, water
alone excepted, is consecrated in the same manner. The master of the
family concludes with Psalm 23, and then every one eats what he thinks
convenient, without further ceremony. The ceremony of cutting the loaf
without separation has the same reason to support it; and a passage
from Psalm 10 : 3 is a voucher for its solidity. The master of the house
holds the bread in both his hands, in commemoration of the ten precepts
relating to corn; and each finger is the representative of one of
them.[141]
[141] Buxtorf _ex_ Talmud.
"The salt as the religious intention of it is typical of the ancient
sacrifices. Meat without salt has no savor, which is proved from a
passage in Job, chapter 6, verse 6.[142] This is civil policy confirmed
by religion.
[142] _Ibid._, cap. xii.
"A modest deportment at table is much recommended; so likewise is
temperance and sobriety. Their bread must be kept in a very neat place,
and preserved with all imaginary care. They must talk but little, and
with discretion at table, because, according to the opinion of the
rabbis, the prophet Elijah, and each respective guest's guardian angel,
are present at all meals. Whenever that angel hears anything indecent
uttered there, he retires, and a wicked one assumes his place. They
never throw down bones of flesh or fish upon the ground; but, however,
this caution is not the result of cleanliness only, but fear, lest
they should hurt any of those invisible beings.[143]
[143] Dr. Kohler states that the reason for not throwing these
fragments on the ground, is because the Jews would not disgrace what is
regarded as a special gift of God.
"The knife that cuts their meat, must never touch what is made of
milk;[144] whatever, in short, strikes the senses in any manner, must
be blessed. They never rise from the table without leaving something
for the poor; but the knives must be removed before they return thanks,
because it is written, 'Thou shalt set no iron on the altar.' Now a
table is the representative of an altar, at saying grace before, or
returning thanks after meal."[145]
[144] Because meat and milk are never to be eaten together. See p. 62,
_supra_. (Exod. 23 : 19; 34 : 26; Deut. 14 : 21.)
[145] Buxtorf _ex_ Talmud, cap. xii.
That the table was looked at as an altar among ancient peoples, is to
be inferred from various proverbs and practices with reference to it.
Thus one of the symbolic sayings of Pythagoras is, "Pick not up what is
fallen from the table."[146] A comment on this is, that as the table
was consecrated to divinities, whatever fell from it was not to be
restored, but to be left, as was the gleaning of God's fields, for the
poor.[147] When the Syrophoenician woman said to Jesus, "Yea, Lord:
for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters'
table,"[148] she spoke in recognition of this primitive truth, that
the crumbs from the table might be shared by whoever hungered.
[146] Dacier's _Life of Pythagoras_, p. 116.
[147] Lev. 19 : 9, 10; Deut. 24 : 19-21.
[148] Matt. 15 : 27.