The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark9:49–50

Good Salt

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Mark 9:49–50 — Good Salt. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

49

For everyone will be salted with fire.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar Pas halisthēsetai pyri

Word by word4 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
Light connective binding this saying to the amputation sayings and the unquenched fire of vv. 43 to 48. Poole insists the reader must keep those six preceding verses in view, or the metaphor floats free.
ΠᾶςPaseveryoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
πᾶς: all, any, every, the whole Masculine singular, distributive: each one, taken singly. The referent is undefined in the Greek and the tradition splits on it. Benson argues from usage (Mark 12:44, Luke 16:16, Luke 21:32) that πᾶς can carry an implied limitation, "every one of them," and so restricts it to the condemned; JFB reads it as every disciple of Christ; the Pulpit Commentary refuses any limitation at all. ⚙ The text itself supplies no restrictive phrase, which is why the sentence has been read in opposite directions for centuries.
ἁλισθήσεταιhalisthēsetaiwill be saltedG233
√ ἁλίζω — to saltVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ἁλίζω: to salt Future passive of a verb that occurs in only two verses in the Greek New Testament, here and Matthew 5:13, where the same rare verb is used of salt itself becoming insipid. Salt in the ancient kitchen and the ancient altar does two things: it preserves from putrefaction and it stings raw flesh. Poole names both properties deliberately, and every serious reading of the verse turns on which one is in view. The passive with no named agent leaves the salter to be supplied from context, and the immediate context has just named fire twice.
πυρὶpyriwith fireG4442
√ πῦρ — "fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)NounDative Neuter Singular
πῦρ: fire (literally or figuratively) The same noun as the unquenched fire of v. 48, three verses earlier, which is exactly what makes the saying hard: the word that has just meant Gehenna now qualifies a verb of preservation. Cambridge answers that salt and fire share properties, both separating what is decaying from what is sound; Maclaren answers instead that this fire is set in opposition to that one, a fire that preserves over against a fire that destroys, and appeals to the Baptist's pairing of unquenchable fire with baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). ⚙ Mark gives no adjective here to settle it.
50

Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

to halas kalon de ean to halas genētai analon en tini artysete auto echete hala en heautois kai eirēneuete en allēlois

Word by word21 · parsed
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
Article with the following noun, marking salt as a known substance rather than a quantity of it.
ἅλαςhalasSalt [is]G217
√ ἅλας — saltNounNominative Neuter Singular
ἅλας: salt A rare noun, four verses in the Greek New Testament. In this one sentence it carries three loads: the household preservative, the Levitical altar salt of Leviticus 2:13, and the covenant salt of Numbers 18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5 that made a shared meal a bond. Cambridge is explicit that to eat salt together meant to make peace and enter covenant, which is why the sentence can move from salt to peace without an argument in between.
καλὸνkalongoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
καλός: good, fair, honest, well, worthy Predicate adjective agreeing with the neuter τὸ ἅλας, and not primarily moral: good at what salt is for. The Pulpit Commentary glosses it useful and beneficial; Cambridge, good in its kind and its effect. ⚙ Worth noticing that this is the same adjective that carries the refrain of the amputation sayings just above, where it is good for you to enter maimed rather than whole into fire (Mark 9:43, and so Matthew 18:8 and Matthew 18:9): the Verifier's candidate list confirms the shared lexeme G2570. The discourse thus measures the disciple and the salt by one standard, usefulness for the end they were made for, not intactness.
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
Adversative, turning from what salt is to what it can cease to be.
ἐὰνeanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
Conditional particle with the subjunctive: the case is put as a real possibility, not an idle one.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
ἅλαςhalassaltG217
√ ἅλας — saltNounNominative Neuter Singular
The article repeats: the same salt, now considered in failure.
γένηταιgenētailosesG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
γίνομαι: to cause to be, to become Aorist middle subjunctive. The salt does not act; it arrives at a state. ⚙ The grammar itself resists the idea that savour is a possession one mislays by accident, and equally resists the idea that the salt destroyed itself.
ἄναλονanalonits saltinessG358
√ ἄναλος — saltless, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἄναλος: saltless, unsalted Alpha-privative: the thing defined by what it no longer is. Job 6:6 asks whether the savourless can be eaten without salt, the same absurdity from the other side. The word appears only here in the Greek New Testament, and it names the one condition for which no remedy is proposed in the sentence.
ἐνenwithG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τίνιtiniwhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounDative Neuter Singular
Interrogative in the dative: "by what means," an instrument, not a person. The question is left unanswered, and every commentator in this brief notices that silence.
ἀρτύσετεartysetewill you seasonG741
√ ἀρτύω — to prepare, iVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἀρτύω: to prepare, to season Three verses in the Greek New Testament, and the other two are both about salt: Luke 14:34 (the same saying in Luke's setting) and Colossians 4:6, where Paul orders speech seasoned with salt. The future active plural addresses the disciples as the ones who would have to do the seasoning, and so implies they cannot.
αὐτὸautoitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Singular
ἔχετεecheteHaveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
ἔχω: to hold, to have Present imperative: keep holding. Poole draws the distinction exactly here, that in Matthew 5:13 the disciples are the salt, while here they are commanded to keep salt in themselves. Maclaren presses that the command implies the cleansing energy comes from God while the holding of it depends on us.
ἅλαhalasaltG217
√ ἅλας — saltNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἅλας: salt Accusative form ἅλα, the object of the imperative. Third occurrence of the noun in two verses, and by now the metaphor has shifted from what the disciples are for the world to what must be kept within them.
ἐνenamongG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἑαυτοῖςheautoisyourselvesG1438
√ ἑαυτοῦ — him- (her-, it-, them-, also (in conjunction with the personal pronoun of the other persons) my-, thy-, our-, your-) self (selves), etcReflexive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἑαυτοῦ: him-, her-, it-, them-, your-self Reflexive plural, dative after ἐν. Grammatically it can look inward (each in himself) or across the group (among yourselves), and the two readings produce two different sentences. ⚙ Given that the next clause is reciprocal, the corporate sense at least has the context on its side, but the Greek does not force it.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἰρηνεύετεeirēneuetebe at peaceG1514
√ εἰρηνεύω — to be (act) peacefulVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
εἰρηνεύω: to be (act) peaceful Present imperative, four verses in the Greek New Testament: here, Romans 12:18, 2 Corinthians 13:11 and 1 Thessalonians 5:13. JFB notes that this last word answers the miserable strife out of which the whole discourse had sprung, and Ellicott ties it back to the dispute of v. 33 by name.
ἐνenwithG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἀλλήλοιςallēloisone anotherG240
√ ἀλλήλων — one anotherPersonal / Reciprocal PronounDative Masculine Plural
ἀλλήλων: one another Reciprocal pronoun: the peace is mutual and horizontal, not merely inward calm. It closes a section that began with the Twelve disputing who was greatest, and Poole makes the union of salted parts the very figure of that mutual holding.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The hardest four words in Mark — Mark 9:49

Four Greek words, and the commentators in this brief cannot agree on any of them. Ellicott opens by conceding that the verse presents considerable difficulties both as to reading and as to interpretation, and that many of the best manuscripts omit the second clause. Barnes goes further and says that perhaps no passage in the New Testament has given more perplexity. The grammar is plain enough: Πᾶς is distributive singular, ἁλισθήσεται is a future passive with no named agent, πυρὶ is a bare dative. What is not plain is who is being salted and by what fire. Benson, following Whitby, restricts the every one to those of v. 48 whose fire is not quenched, and defends the restriction by parallel uses of πᾶς in Mark 12:44, Luke 16:16 and Luke 21:32. Gill reads the same way and draws the conclusion without flinching: the fire of hell preserves its objects in being as salt preserves flesh. JFB judges that interpretation farfetched and harsh, and takes every one to mean every follower of Christ undergoing a fiery trial. The Pulpit Commentary refuses to limit the statement at all and says the good and the evil alike are salted with fire, penal in the one case and purifying in the other. Cambridge, citing Lange, gives the two branches as voluntary self-denial or involuntary judgment. ⚙ The one thing the Greek itself decides is that nobody salts himself.

ii. Fire that destroys and fire that keeps — Mark 9:49

Maclaren takes the paradox head on and makes it structural: there is a fire that destroys and a fire that preserves, and the whole alternative for a man is which one he submits to. He reaches this by the Baptist's pairing at Matthew 3:11, where the unquenchable fire that burns the chaff stands in the same breath as the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, and he treats the saying as promise rather than threat. Poole arrives at nearly the same place by a different road, distinguishing a purging fire from a consuming one and insisting that every one must endure one or the other. Cambridge declines the opposition and argues instead that salt and fire share properties, both penetrating what is corruptible and separating what is decaying from what is sound, so that both effect a kind of transformation. Barnes cuts the knot by denying the verse refers to future punishment at all, and reads fire as the self-denials and trials by which a disciple is made a fit offering. ⚙ Mark supplies no adjective to adjudicate. What the shared vocabulary does establish, since πῦρ here is the same noun as the unquenched fire of v. 48, is that whatever Jesus means, he means it with that fire still audible three verses back.

iii. Salt that has gone dead, and the peace it was for — Mark 9:50

The second verse is the simpler and the sharper. The condition is put with γένηται ἄναλον, become saltless, and the question ἐν τίνι ἀρτύσετε αὐτό is put in the second person plural to the men who had been arguing about rank. Gill says plainly there is no recovery, it becomes good for nothing. Cambridge supplies the chemistry the Jews assumed, that salt exposed to air went inert, with Pliny's sal iners and Maundrell's report of a salt rock in that condition. Benson turns it into warning: the appointed seasoners of mankind can lose their own savour, and then what seasons them? Then the imperatives. Poole marks the shift precisely, that in Matthew 5:13 the disciples are the salt while here they are told to keep salt in themselves, and he makes the uniting property of salt the figure of the peace commanded next. Cambridge grounds the same move historically, in salt as the sign of covenant obligation and the shared table where eating salt together meant making peace. Ellicott, reading the last clause, sends it straight back to the contention of v. 33 and says purity from selfish aims was the chief or only preservative of peace. JFB says the same in one concluding word about the miserable strife out of which the whole discourse had sprung, and notes that the command recurs at 1 Thessalonians 5:13. Barnes names the content of the salt as self-denial and the suppression of pride, ambition and contention. ⚙ The three uses of ἅλας in this one verse are not one metaphor but three loads on one word: preservative, altar, covenant.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Two rare verbs frame the unit. ἁλισθήσεται is passive: the disciple is salted, he does not salt himself, and the agent is left unnamed. ἀρτύσετε is active and plural: if the salt goes dead, the seasoning is put into the disciples' hands, and the question has no answer. Read together the grammar says something the argument between Gill and JFB tends to bury. What preserves a man is done to him; what he is asked to do is keep it. That is why the closing imperatives are keep having and go on being at peace, both present and durative, rather than commands to produce something new. And the direction of the whole is outward, not inward: the unit begins in a quarrel about greatness (v. 33) and ends in a reciprocal pronoun. ⚙ On the disputed referent of every one, this reading under-claims deliberately. The Greek does not restrict it, and the honest position is the Pulpit Commentary's: the statement is general, the fire meets everyone, and what differs is whether it finds a sacrifice or a rebel. ⚙ Where it goes beyond the sources: the covenant-salt background that Cambridge supplies (Leviticus 2:13, Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5) is real Old Testament material, but Mark never cites it, and the second clause of v. 49 that would have made the sacrificial allusion explicit is precisely the clause the manuscripts fight over and BSB omits. Any reading that leans hard on the altar is leaning on a disputed text.

Not Scripture, a fallible ⚙ line offered for testing: what preserves you is done to you; what you are told to do is keep it, and keep peace.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The salt that lost its saltness, in the Sermon on the Mount verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew 5:13 is the only other verse in the Greek New Testament that uses ἁλίζω (G233), the rare verb of v. 49, and it uses it for the opposite case: there the salt is asked what will salt it. The nouns match too, ἅλας (G217) standing in only four verses in all. Poole, Gill and Barnes all send the reader to Matthew 5:13 for the sense of this verse, and Poole marks the difference that matters: in Matthew the disciples are the salt of the earth, here they are commanded to keep salt in themselves. ⚙ The two sayings are the same figure pointed in two directions, outward at the world and inward at the company.

Matthew 5:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G233 ἁλίζω (in 2 vv, so both occurrences in the canon are these) and G217 ἅλας (in 4 vv), plus G1437 ἐάν; a rare double lexeme match within the Greek New Testament, not a quotation of one text by the other

Seasoning: the three verses that use ἀρτύω verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἀρτύσετε (G741) stands in only three verses of the Greek New Testament, and all three are about salt. Luke 14:34 carries the same saying in a different setting, with καλὸν (G2570) and ἐὰν as here. Colossians 4:6 takes the figure and applies it to speech, ordering that talk be seasoned with salt. Gill reads the disciples, and chiefly the apostles, as the salt in view; Poole understands salt here as persons seasoned with the doctrine of Christ. ⚙ Paul's use at Colossians shows the early church already applying the figure to how believers speak to those outside, which is close to the peace command that ends Mark's sentence.

Luke 14:34 · Colossians 4:6

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G741 ἀρτύω (in 3 vv, so these are all three) with Luke 14:34 and Colossians 4:6; Colossians also shares G217 ἅλας (in 4 vv), Luke also G2570 καλός and G1437 ἐάν; rare lexeme link within the Greek New Testament, no quotation claimed

Be at peace with one another: the apostolic echo verbal / quotation: confirmed

The closing imperative εἰρηνεύετε (G1514) occurs in only four verses of the Greek New Testament, and the other three are all Pauline commands to congregations: Romans 12:18, 2 Corinthians 13:11 and 1 Thessalonians 5:13. JFB notes at this verse that the command is repeated at 1 Thessalonians 5:13. ⚙ Whether Paul is drawing on this saying or on common early Christian speech cannot be shown from the vocabulary alone; what the vocabulary does show is that the exact word Jesus leaves with the quarrelling Twelve is the exact word the apostolic letters leave with quarrelling churches.

Romans 12:18 · 2 Corinthians 13:11 · 1 Thessalonians 5:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1514 εἰρηνεύω (in 4 vv, so these are all four occurrences); 1 Thessalonians 5:13 also shares G1438 ἑαυτοῦ. A rare shared verb, not a citation; no claim of literary dependence is made

Every offering salted: the clause that may not belong here flagged: verify source

Leviticus 2:13 requires salt on every offering and forbids the salt of the covenant of God to be lacking, and Ezekiel 43:24 has the priests cast salt on the burnt offering. Ellicott, Benson, Barnes, Poole, JFB, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary all read Mark 9:49 against that law. But the words that make the allusion explicit, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt, are exactly the disputed clause: Ellicott records that many of the best manuscripts omit it, the Pulpit Commentary says that according to the most approved authorities it should be omitted, and the BSB text and interlinear this unit is built on omit it, leaving four words. ⚙ So the sacrificial link is real in the tradition and plausible in the motif, but it is not carried by the text as this Bible prints it. It is flagged rather than confirmed.

Leviticus 2:13 · Ezekiel 43:24

basis: Provenance disputed: the link runs through the second clause of Mark 9:49, which Ellicott and the Pulpit Commentary report is omitted by the best authorities and which BSB omits. Cross-Testament in any case (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number can be computed and no verbal tier is possible; readers should check the clause in their own text before leaning on it

A covenant of salt structural / thematic: confirmed

Numbers 18:19 calls the priestly portion an everlasting covenant of salt, and 2 Chronicles 13:5 says the Lord gave the kingdom to David by a covenant of salt. Cambridge, at Mark 9:50, cites this background directly and says that in the common life of the East to eat salt together meant to make peace and enter covenant. Gill makes the same connection, citing Numbers 18:19 with the covenant of peace at Numbers 25:12. ⚙ That is why the sentence can move without argument from have salt in yourselves to be at peace with one another: in the Old Testament idiom those are one thing, not two.

Numbers 18:19 · 2 Chronicles 13:5

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and no verbal tier is available. The basis is a shared institution named by two of the brief's sources: Cambridge on Mark 9:50 cites Leviticus 2:13 and 2 Chronicles 13:5 for salt as covenant sign, and Gill cites Numbers 18:19. No quotation is claimed

The other salt: sown ground and barren waste structural / thematic: confirmed

The Old Testament also knows salt as ruin, not preservation. Abimelech sows the ruined city with salt (Judges 9:45); the covenant curse leaves the land brimstone and salt, unsown (Deuteronomy 29:23); the man who trusts in flesh dwells in a salt land not inhabited (Jeremiah 17:6). ⚙ None of the sources in this brief invokes these texts here, and this synthesis does not claim Jesus alludes to them. They are recorded because they are the honest other half of the biblical symbol, and because they show why salt can sit next to fire in one sentence without strain: in the Old Testament salt already signifies both keeping and desolating.

Judges 9:45 · Deuteronomy 29:23 · Jeremiah 17:6

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier applies. Basis is a shared motif (salt as agent of ruin) offered as canonical background only. ⚙ Not asserted as an allusion by Mark, and not supported by any commentator in this brief

Can the savourless be eaten? structural / thematic: confirmed

Job 6:6 asks whether tasteless food can be eaten without salt, the same absurdity that ἄναλον names from the other side: not food lacking salt, but salt lacking salt. ⚙ Job's question has an answer, add salt. Mark's question, in what will you season it, is left without one, and that silence is the point of the warning Benson and Gill both draw from it.

Job 6:6

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme and no verbal tier. Basis is a shared figure of savourlessness, offered as background; ⚙ the inversion noted is this tool's observation, not a claim of allusion

The fire three verses back structural / thematic: confirmed

The fire of v. 49 is the same noun as the fire that is not quenched in the immediately preceding verses of this same chapter, Mark 9:43 and following, and Poole makes keeping those six verses in view the first rule for reading this one. ⚙ The lexeme itself proves nothing here, since πῦρ is common; what carries the link is proximity and argument, not rarity. That is exactly why the verse is hard: the connective for ties a salting to a burning, and the reader must decide whether the two fires are the same.

Mark 9:43

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4442 πῦρ (in 69 vv), G1437 ἐάν (in 311 vv), G2570 καλός (in 90 vv), all common, so the verbal overlap is too frequent to justify a verbal tier. The real basis is immediate literary context within one discourse

Peace among brothers, in the Psalms and the Prophets structural / thematic: confirmed

Psalm 133:1 calls it good and pleasant when brothers dwell together in unity, and Zechariah 8:16 commands truth and the judgment of peace in the gates. ⚙ The Twelve had been disputing who was greatest (v. 33), and Ellicott and JFB both read the closing command as the direct answer to that quarrel. These Old Testament texts are the standing canonical form of the same command; the link is thematic and is not claimed as quotation.

Psalm 133:1 · Zechariah 8:16

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed and no verbal tier is possible. Basis is a shared command and motif of concord among brothers; no citation is claimed by Mark or by any source in this brief

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The sacrifice that was salted with fire ancient/widely-held

The sources read the disciple as the offering. Barnes: you are sacrifices, offerings to God, and the salting is what makes the offering acceptable. Poole says every man and woman living will be a sacrifice to God, godly men as priests and sacrifices both, citing Romans 12:1 and 1 Peter 2:5. Ellicott says the same, that the spiritual sacrifice each man offers of body, soul and spirit needs the salt of the purifying grace of the Spirit. Benson: every one who offers himself as a living sacrifice shall be salted with the salt of divine grace. ⚙ What none of them presses, and what the redemptive order requires, is that the living sacrifice of Romans 12:1 is offered only because a prior sacrifice was accepted. Christ is the offering who went into the fire and was not consumed, and the disciple who follows him into the amputations of vv. 43 to 48 is being made into what he already is.

Romans 12:1 · 1 Peter 2:5 · Hebrews 10:10

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire ancient/widely-held

Maclaren reaches the sense of the verse by way of the Baptist's saying at Matthew 3:11, where the chaff cast into unquenchable fire (the same expression as in this text) stands beside the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, and he identifies the salting fire as the fire of the Divine Spirit that Christ came to cast on the earth (Luke 12:49). Poole reaches the same conclusion independently, that some God baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire, citing Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16, and that this salting fire is a purging one. Ellicott gathers 1 Corinthians 3:13 and 1 Peter 1:7 to the same point and ends by saying there must be the baptism of the Holy Ghost as well as that of fire. ⚙ If that is right, then the unnamed agent behind the passive ἁλισθήσεται is the one who baptizes, and the tongues as of fire at Pentecost are the promised salting arriving.

Matthew 3:11 · Luke 12:49 · Acts 2:3

He is our peace: the last word of the discourse novel

The unit closes on a reciprocal imperative given to men who had argued about rank on the road. Ellicott ties have peace directly to the contention of Mark 9:33 and says purity from selfish aims was its chief preservative; the Pulpit Commentary foresees that rivalry would prove the great hindrance to the Church in later ages. ⚙ This synthesis goes one step further than the sources quoted here: the peace commanded at the end of this discourse is the peace Christ makes, not merely the peace the Twelve manage. Ephesians 2:14 names him our peace who made the two one, and Colossians 1:20 grounds peace in the blood of his cross. Read that way, have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another are one command, because the covenant salt the disciples are to keep is the covenant he was on his way to Jerusalem to cut.

Ephesians 2:14 · Colossians 1:20 · Mark 9:33

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The BSB verse used here reads only For everyone will be salted with fire, four Greek words in the interlinear. The traditional second clause, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt, is absent from this text and from the word-by-word data, and the divergences and notes above are written against the four words that are actually present. This matters for the whole unit, because most of the commentary quoted here was written on the longer reading: Ellicott states that many of the best manuscripts omit the latter clause and one of the best omits the first; the Pulpit Commentary states that according to the most approved authorities the second clause should be omitted while still holding that Leviticus 2:13 was in our Lord's mind. Any thread that depends on the sacrifice clause is flagged above rather than confirmed.

Interpretation. The sources in this brief do not agree and are not made to agree here. Gill and Benson (the latter following Whitby) read every one of the lost and the fire as hell preserving its objects in being; JFB explicitly judges that reading farfetched and harsh; Maclaren reads the fire as the Spirit and the saying as promise; the Pulpit Commentary refuses to limit the subject at all; Barnes denies the verse is about future punishment. Both sides are recorded, with Gill carrying an editorial note. ⚙ This synthesis leans to the general reading but does not claim the Greek settles it.

Threads. The Verifier's computed bases are Greek to Greek only. Every Old Testament link in this unit (Leviticus 2:13, Ezekiel 43:24, Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5, Judges 9:45, Deuteronomy 29:23, Jeremiah 17:6, Job 6:6, Psalm 133:1, Zechariah 8:16) is therefore tiered structural, thematic or flagged, never verbal, because no shared Strong's number can exist across the two languages. The salt-as-ruin and savourless-food threads are background offered by this tool, not allusions asserted by Mark or by any commentator quoted here. The Christ section's third entry is marked novel because the sources quoted stop at the disciples' conduct and do not themselves ground the peace command in the cross.

Sources. All commentary is public domain and quoted verbatim by anchor, never paraphrased inside quotation marks. Several entries in the brief are capped; the capped portions of Maclaren, Benson, Poole and Gill were not consulted, so their arguments are represented only as far as the supplied text carries them.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)