Take a Little Salt with Your Analyses

[Charles Wilson]

I've had reason to come back to the "Salt" verses again and there is something unusual contained within them.

Mark 9: 42 - 50 (RSV):

[42] "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
***
[43] And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
[45] And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
[47] And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
[48] where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
[49] For every one will be salted with fire.
[50] Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

Compare with Matthew 9: 13 (RSV):

[13] "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.

Hope the underlining is OK and helps.

Mark 9: 50 and Matthew 9: 13 follow a pattern and is not surprising. Matthew writes to hide meaning in Mark and to "smooth" Passages. So it is here. There is, however, more:

"Mark 9:49 "For everyone will be salted with fire. [a: Other mss add and every sacrifice will be salted with salt]" The complete text was present as of A.D. 175. Arabic Diatessaron 25:23: "Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt."

"The original Aramaic has the complete text; when translated well Mk 9:49 (based on Younan) reads: "For with fire everything will be *vaporized*, and with salt every sacrifice will be *seasoned*." Vaporized and seasoned, the root MLKh can mean 'to salt, season' or 'to destroy, vaporize, scatter.' The intended meaning shifted between the first and second lines—the Messiah plays on the dual meaning of MLKh"

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_o ... anslations

Note the continuing friction using the idea that "If Matthew had Mark in front of him when writing Matthew..."

In front of the Markan Passage concerning salt is a Passage describing the "Kingdom of God", aka "The Realm of Heaven", dba "Where the Priests congregate". "...it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell..." There is such bitter Irony in this Fragment. The Priests are able to do their Jobs [note: meeting in The Kingdom of God/Realm of Heaven] only so long as they are without Blemish - and if you think that the More-than-Simply-Blemished character "Jesus" doesn't add more Irony to the pot, then do I have some Big News for you.

As previously announced, verse 42 is part of a greater Herod Story, concerning Herod building a Safe Harbor for the purpose of getting grain from Petronius in Egypt. See also: Matthew 7.

What follows may be traced to the aftermath of the Temple Slaughter of 4 BCE. There are "Only a few who are saved..." quoting Luke and those who make it into the Pure Realm of Heaven are definitely Blemished.

Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another
and
but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.[/u]

Matthew paraphrases but look at what follows the paraphrase. The Markan Passage has a somewhat bland reminder to "Love one another and etc., etc."

Matthew is somewhat visceral. The 2 previous verse are:

[11] "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
[12] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What gives?

I've looked at one possibility already. Valeria Gemina takes Frugi Piso's head and body to Via Salaria after Otho had this Piso killed. This is the explanation for "...trodden under foot by men...".

What then, of Mark? In seeing the Markan Passage as reflecting outrage of the Temple Slaughter, seen in memory some 65 years later (or so), the suggestion is that you should look among yourselves for help. This again reflects the "Millstone of a Donkey" verse. "Better if Herod were to be thrown into the sea with one of his giant millstones of a donkey stones tied to his neck than a little one go astray". "Eat...but remember that God will provide..."

There is more and I hope some of you can see it. If the dual meaning of Mark is that "Fire Destroys but Salt Seasons" there appears to be a cautionary Tale. The Jews, especially in Jerusalem were looking for someone into which they could place their faith, not necessarily Messianic. Is there anyone that is attempting to steer the conversation in that direction?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Julius_Alexander :

In May 66, Nero appointed Alexander as Prefect of Egypt, one of the two most prestigious posts available to an equestrian along with Prefect of the Praetorian Guard... However, any hope that he would be able to quell the recurring conflicts in his province between Greek and Jewish populations proved to be short-lived. The year he assumed office saw the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War in Judea, and aggression inevitably spilled over into the large Jewish community of Alexandria. An outbreak of ethnic violence during a Greek assembly escalated when the Greeks took prisoners, leading the Jewish side to threaten to burn the assembled Greeks to death. Alexander sent mediators to calm the Jews, warning he would have to use the Roman legions if violence continued.The threat was ineffective, and Josephus describes the outcome:

[Alexander] then let loose among them the two Roman legions, and with them 2,000 soldiers who happened to have come from Libya, with fearful consequences for the Jews. He gave the men leave not merely to kill them but also to plunder their property and burn down their houses. The soldiers rushed into the area called Delta where the Jews were concentrated, and proceeded to carry out their orders, but not without bloodshed on their own side; for the Jews stood shoulder to shoulder with their most heavily armed men in front and held their ground magnificently, but when once the line gave they were destroyed wholesale. Death came upon them in every form; some were overtaken in the open, others driven into their houses, which the Romans first looted and then burnt down. They felt no pity for infants, no respect for the aged; old and young were slaughtered right and left, so that the whole district was deluged with blood and 50,000 corpses were heaped up: even the remnant would not have survived had they not begged for mercy till Alexander, pitying them, ordered the Romans to retire.

A less violent side to Alexander's government is demonstrated by other evidence. Over a century after his time, his administrative decisions were still being cited as precedents. Some of these are known from a surviving edict issued on July 6, 68, less than a month after Nero's death. This denounces, and introduces measures against, a variety of abuses including inaccurate tax assessments, malicious prosecutions and the imprisonment of debtors by private creditors. The edict's only allusion to the chaotic political situation comes as a call for trust in the benevolence of the new Emperor, Galba, and his ability to put right the wrongs of the past. Alexander was making representations to Galba on behalf of the provincials, presumably representing the desired reforms as the price of loyalty from this vital grain-producing province.

Thus, there are requests made to the Jews to Please Refrain from setting off a Conflagration with Rome which will certainly lead to death and destruction. There was evidently a hope that Frugi Piso would govern more wisely:

Acts 6: 5 - 6 (RSV):

[5] And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Proch'orus, and Nica'nor, and Ti'mon, and Par'menas, and Nicola'us, a proselyte of Antioch.
[6] These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them

On the view that "Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch" is Octavian, who championed Antioch and became Caesar Augustus, Stephen Martyr becomes Frugi Piso, the Four Day Emperor.

The question of "Salt losing its flavor" thus becomes twice more complicated. Is it from an Aramaic Story of the Atrocity at the Temple in 4 BCE, rewritten into a "Jesus" story, or is it a story of the widow of the Four Day Emperor taking the head and body of her husband to the Salt Road?

Or is it both?

CW

[perseusomega9]

Neither?

[Charles Wilson]

Neither?

Ohh...I suppose it's possible...