^5:13“You are the salt¹³ of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor,¹⁴ how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. ^5:14You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. ^5:15People¹⁵ do not light a lamp and put it under a basket¹⁶ but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ^5:16In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.

Fulfillment of the Law and Prophets

^5:17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.¹⁷^5:18I¹⁸ tell you the truth,¹⁹ until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter²⁰ will pass from the law until everything takes place. ^5:19So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others²¹ to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ^5:20For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law²² and the Pharisees,²³ you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Read in Logos

Matthew 5:13: ...You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

Footnotes

13 Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer ( ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.
14 The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its flavor since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested that the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens; under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja ( a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be that both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.
15 Grk “Nor do they light.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.
16 Or “a bowl”; this refers to any container for dry material of about eight liters (two gallons) capacity. It could be translated “basket, box, bowl” (L&N 6.151).
17 Grk “not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Direct objects (“these things,” “them”) were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but have been supplied here to conform to contemporary English style.
18 Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.
19 Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amēn), I say to you.”
20 Grk “Not one iota or one serif.” The smallest letter refers to the smallest Hebrew letter (yod) and the stroke of a letter to a serif (a hook or projection on a Hebrew letter).
21 Grk “teaches men” (in a generic sense, people).
22 Or “that of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in .
23 See the note on Pharisees in .