Salt of the Earth

Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. Mark 9:49-50

  Salted with Fire, janrichardsonimages.com, The Painted Prayerbook

What does this mean, to "be salted with fire"? 

To be salted can mean "to be seasoned". Maybe it makes sense to think of it like that, every one will be "seasoned" with fire. Season(v.) is from Old French assaisoner "to ripen, season". So if a person is salted it might mean he or she is ripened or brought to full potential. To be brought to full potential with fire is a kind of testing or trial which purifies (pyro-fies) like clay pots put in a kiln and precious metals in a fire.

And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. . . Zachariah 13:9

In Greek hala αλα, halas αλας is "salt".

Is one who is salted or seasoned with hala (salt) holy? Holy is from Old English halig "holy, consecrated, sacred, godly". From Proto-Germanic *hailaga. We are called to be holy and we are also called to be the salt of the earth.

   Madonna and Child. A Holy Salty Pair.

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Mt. 5:13

Salt is used to preserve and flavor food. It is also often used in ritual.

You are to offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burt offering to the LORD. Ezekiel 43:24

Does the  hala (salt) help to make the food halig (holy)? 

Salt preserves food and helps to make it complete in taste, make present the whole flavor, and in that sense, it is fit for royalty. It might even be considered to be angelic, holy, transformed, compared to bland unsalted (unholy, or un-hala) food.

    Fish in Salt

It is interesting that certain words used for greeting are similar to words for salt.

Hail (compare with hala[salt], hello) as "salutation in greeting" is from Old Norse heill "health, prosperity, good luck". If those who are salty are those who have been purified, then wouldn't this mean that they were healthy (hala-thy)?

Those who are healthy are those who are whole, or perhaps whole-y.

Health is from Old English hælp "wholeness, a being whole, sound or well." From Proto-Germanic *hailitho, from Pie *kailo- "whole, uninjured, of good omen".  Cognate Old English hal "hale, whole", Old English halig, Old English hælan "to heal".

Helen in Greek is Helene, probably the feminine form of helenos meaning "the bright one". Helen was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. She must have been quite healthy, and since she was beautiful would have been considered to be, perhaps, tasty . . . so was she salty?

  Helen on the Trojan Ramparts,Gustave Moreau, 1826- 1898. - Helen of Troy - beautiful and bright, like an angel.

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Illium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. Her lips suck forth my soul; see where it flies! -- Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips, and all is dross that is not Helena. -Christopher Marlow, Doctor Faustus, The Harvard Classics, Scene XIII, ln. 88-94

Bright can mean intelligent, it can also mean something very shiny like the angels who are bright, holy, and whole which makes them salty (and probably intelligent).

    Angelic Energy, ashtarcommand crew.net

Salutations is ultimately from Latin salutationem "a greeting, saluting".

Perhaps we might say when greeting someone, "Salt!", or "Salt-utations!", or "salute-tations ", as well, since it is a good thing to be salty.

In Hebrew "salt" is melach, "angel" is malak," king" is melek, and "to become king or queen, to reign" malak. So again there is a similarity in the word for salt and also words meaning the kind of people who might be salty, whole or holy, namely angels, royalty, or the gods.

  Pala dei Linaioli(detail), by Fra Angelico

The English word natron is a French cognate from the Spanish natrón , from the Greek nitron. This, in turn, is from the Ancient Egyptian ntry "natrón". Natron was taken from dry lake beds in Ancient Egypt. It was used as a cleaning product domestically and for the body, in burial rituals and mummification. It was also used for fish and meat preservation, among other uses. 

It is interesting that the Ancient Egyptian word for gods / divine was very similar, ntr (neter). The gods (neter) were the royalty of the underworld / afterworld / neterworld. They would be the salty ones, would they not?

   Osiris, Lord/King of the Dead, God of Re-birth. One of the ntr

So, perhaps salt was named with the intent of meaning something "divine" or "of / like the gods". 

We might take salt for granted because it is so readily available to us, but try to imagine life without salt . . . it would be pretty bland. Life would also be pretty bland without salty people, but they are readily available to us as well. In fact you can be one yourself. You ARE the salt of the earth! Don't become tasteless. God is in you and all around you. Don't take that for granted. Act accordingly.

Om Nama Shivaya