The Greek that is translated in English “(Everyone will be) salted with fire” is translated in Uripiv as “God will test all people with fire, like they test black stones [which are used in cooking]. If a stone is no good, it crumbles to ashes; if it’s good, the fire doesn’t affect it. So also they put salt with food to test its flavor, good or bad.” (Source: Ross McKerras)
In Elhomwe it is translated as “everyone will be cleansed by fire, like salt cleanses things.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Greek that is translated as “sacrifice” in English is translated in Huba as hatǝmachi or “shoot misfortune.”
David Frank (in this blog post ) explains: “How is it that ‘shoot misfortune’ comes to mean sacrifice, I wanted to know? Here is the story: It is a traditional term. Whenever there were persistent problems such as a drought, or a rash of sickness or death, the king (or his religious advisor) would set aside a day and call on everyone to prepare food, such as the traditional mash made from sorghum, or perhaps even goat. The food had to be put together outside. The king or his religious advisor would give an address stating what the problem was and what they were doing about it. Then an elder representing the people would take a handful of that food and throw it, probably repeating that action several times, until it was considered to be enough to atone for all the misfortune they had been having. With this action he was ‘shooting (or casting off) misfortune’ to restore well-being to his people. As he threw the food, he would say that this is to remove the misfortune that had fallen on his people, and everybody would respond by saying aɗǝmja, ‘let it be so.’ People could eat some of this food, but they could not bring the food into their houses, because that would mean that they were bringing misfortune into their house. There is still a minority of people in this linguistic and cultural group that practices the traditional religion, but the shooting of misfortune is no longer practiced, and the term ‘shoot misfortune’ is used now in Bible translation to refer to offering a sacrifice. Aɗǝmja is how they translate ‘amen.'”
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Juan dijo: “Maestro, nosotros, los doce discípulos vimos a otras personas que tenían adentro demonios y un hombre extraño habló en el nombre de Jesús y expulsó los demonios.
Nosotros, los discípulos, fuimos y dijimos: “Tú no estás junto con nosotros en el grupo, no puedes hablar en el nombre de Jesús, paralo.”
Jesús dijo: “No lo prohiban, dejanlo, las personas que hablan en mi nombre, en el nombre de Jesús, y hacen milagros ¿pueden después estar en contra de mi? No pueden, es imposible.
Si las personas no hablan en contra de mi es lo mismo como si fueran junto con nosotros.”
Jesús les advirtió: “Si uds, las personas que creen en Cristo, dan un vaso de agua a otra persona, les digo la verdad, seguramente Dios les dará un premio.”
Jesús les advirtió y les explicó otra cosa: “Los niños pequeños que crecen creyendo en mi, si otra persona insiste en tentarlos y los niños desvisan y pecan , huy, Dios lo castigará fuertemente.
Mejor que un piedra grande sea atado alrededor de su cuello y empujado en el mar y él se caiga en el agua, sería menos castigo.”
“Otro ejemplo: si las manos son una tentación a pecar, agarrando cosas, sería mejor cortar la mano y tener una mano tullida e ir al cielo.
Si rechazas que la mano sea cortado, porque la quieres conservar, es peor que vayas al fuego que no se puede apagar.
Otro ejemplo: si los pies son una tentación a pecar sería mejor cortar el pie y ser cojo e ir al cielo.
Si rechazas que tu pie sea cortado porque lo quieres conservar, es peor ser echado en el fuego que dura.
Otro ejemplo: si el ojo es una tentación a pecar, viendo cosas, sería mejor quitar el ojo y tirarlo y ser tuerto e ir al reino de Dios.
Si rechazas que el ojo sea tirado porque lo quieres conservar, es pero ser echado en el fuego con gusanos comiendo tu cuerpo, el fuego que dura y no se apaga jamás.
Mira, cuando el sacerdote mata un animal lo pone en el altar, agrega sal, y lo sacrifica para Dios, y Dios lo ve bien. En la misma manera las personas sufrirán para quitar el pecado y volver limpios.
Por ejemplo: sal que sabe rico, está bien, pero si otro sal es dejado por mucho tiempo y ya no sabe nada rico, no sabe de nada, ¿se puede otra vez hacer que el sal sepa rico? No, no sirve, ¿entienden?
Este sal es parecido a uds, a personas. Uds necesitan tener paz juntos.
John said: “Teacher, we, the twelve disciples, saw other people who had demons inside and a strange man talked in the name of Jesus and threw out the demons.
“We, the disciples, went up to him and said: ‘You are not in the group with us, you cannot talk in the name of Jesus, stop it.'”
Jesus said: “Don’t forbid it, leave him, the people who speak in my name, in the name of Jesus, and do miracles, can they later be against me? No they cannot, it’s impossible.
“If people don’t talk against me at all it’s the same as if they were with us.”
Jesus warned them: “If you, the people who believe in Christ, give a glass of water to another person, I tell you the truth, God will reward you.”
Jesus warned them and told them something else: “The little children who grow up believing in me, if another person insists on tempting them and they deviate and sin, wow, God will punish him severely.
“It would be better that a big stone were tied around his neck and pushed into the sea, and he would fall into the sea, it would be a lesser punishment.
˜Another example: if your hands are a temptation to sin, taking things, it would be better to cut off your hand and have an amputated hand and go to heaven.
“If you reject that your hand is cut off because you want to preserve it, it is worse if you are sent to the fire that cannot be extinguished.
“Another example: if your feet are a temptation to sin, it would be better to cut off your foot and be lame and go to heaven.
“If you reject the cutting off of your foot because you want to preserve it, it is worse being thrown into the lasting fire.
“Another example: if your eye is a temptation to sin, because of the things it sees, it would be better to take out your eye and be blind in one eye and go to the kingdom of God.
“If you reject your eye being thrown out because you want to preserve it, it is worse being thrown into the fire where worms eat your body, the fire that lasts and is never extinguished.
“Look, when the priest kills an animal and puts it on the altar, he adds salt and sacrifices it to God, and God sees that it is good. In the same way the people will suffer to take away the sin and become clean.
“For example, salt tastes good, it is good, but if there is other salt that has been left for a long time and does not taste good anymore, it does not taste of anything, can you then make the salt taste good again? No, it is of no use. Do you understand?
“This salt is like you, people. You need to have peace together.”
— There are simple people who believe in me. And if anyone leads such people astray, saying to them, “Sin!”, there will be a very severe punishment for that person!
There is such a punishment: a big stone is tied to the neck and a person is thrown into the water, and there he drowns. For that person, the punishment will be even worse!
If your hand likes sin and is drawn to sin, it is better to cut off your hand! Then you can go to eternal life in heaven. But if you pity the hand that leads you to sin, then you will go to hell, to the lake of fire, where fire burns all the time.
If your foot likes sin and goes to sin, it is better to cut off that foot. It is better with one foot to go to eternal life in heaven. But if you pity the foot that leads you to sin, you will fall into the lake of fire, where fire burns all the time.
If your eye likes to look at sin, you had better pluck it out. With one eye you will go to eternal life. But if you pity the eye that tempts you, you will go into the lake of fire, where the fire never goes out. There worms never disappear and torment.
The meat of animals is sacrificed to God. This meat must be sprinkled with salt. For what purpose? For purification. In the same way, suffering and trials are like fire. Man must go through it. Why? To purify man.
Salt is a very important thing for God. If salt has lost its taste, how can you give it back its taste? So keep salt inside you, and live in peace with each other.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Иисус сказал ученикам:
— Есть люди простые, которые верят в меня. И если кто-нибудь будет соблазнять таких людей, говорить им: «Греши!», то для такого человека будет наказание очень сильное!
Есть такая кара: большой камень привязывают к шее и бросают человека в воду, и там он тонет. Так вот, для того человека, кара будет еще страшнее!
Если вашей руке нравится грех, и она тянется ко греху, то лучше отрубить руку! Тогда ты сможешь попасть в жизнь вечную на небесах. Если же вы пожалеете руку, которая ведет вас ко греху, тогда вы попадете в ад, в огненное озеро, где все время горит огонь.
Если вашей ноге нравится грех и она идет ко греху, лучше отрубить эту ногу. Лучше с одной ногой попасть в жизнь вечную на небесах. Если же вы будете жалеть ногу, которая ведет вас ко греху, то вы попадете в огненное озеро, где все время горит огонь. Если вашему глазу нравится смотреть на грех, лучше вам вырвать его. С одним глазом вы попадете в жизнь вечную. Если же вы пожалеете глаз, который соблазняет вас, вы попадете в озеро огненное, где огонь никогда не гаснет. Там черви никогда не исчезают и терзают.
Мясо животных приносят в жертву Богу. Это мясо нужно посыпать солью. Для чего? Для очищения. Так же и страдания и испытания — они, как огонь. Человек должен пройти через него. Зачем? Чтобы человек очистился.
Соль для Бога очень важная вещь. Если соль лишилась вкуса, разве можно вернуть ей вкус обратно? Поэтому сохраняйте соль внутри себя, и живите друг с другом в мире.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 9:49:
Uma: “According to the Law of Musa long ago, all food that is offered to God must be salted. So all every person must be made holy with suffering.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Isa said yet, ‘All people have to pass through fire, that means through difficulties, in order that their trust becomes strong.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Every disciple of mine shall be prepared by means of salt and fire, which is to say, by means of hardship, so that his faith might be strenghtened.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “‘All people, they must experience difficulties so-that their behavior becomes-good, like the food that must be salted so-that it is delicious.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “It’s true, there are hardships which will be experienced by all, which cause improvement of their ways/nature. For like the action of salt and fire, these hardships remove whatever is not good or is worthless.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Shuar: “If a person wants to give a meat killed gift to God, he is to salt it that it be good. So also people will taste/experience suffering like fire so that their heart may be good.”
Mezquital Otomi: “The animals long ago, those that were burned as gifts for God, it was necessary that salt be put on them as God had commanded. Also, you all are like those animals which are burned, because it is necessary that you pass through bad happenings.”
Tlahuitoltepec Mixe: “All of God’s people are going to suffer here on earth and when they thus do they will result much better. Thus we will imagine it like an animal sacrifice comes out much better when it is sacrificed with salt.”
Usila Chinantec: “Everyone will be made good through suffering, which feels like fire. All offerings to God are acceptable to him when they are salted.”
Mopán Maya: “Thus it was. They put salt on the animals they burn before God. It is the same with someone who is believing/obeying me. He will have tribulation [meet pain] so that that man will become good before God,”
Totontepec Mixe: “Everyone will have hearts like good salt when they have suffered here. This suffering is like fire. . .”
Sierra de Juárez Zapotec: “Everyone is going to be tried with suffering in this world.” (Source for this and six above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): “This fire is as imperishable as salt. Everyone comes into contact with it. If it is not consumed, it is preserved.”
At the end of the verse Textus Receptus adds kai pasa thusia hali halisthēsetai ‘and every sacrifice will be salted with salt,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
The translation of this verse offers no insurmountable difficulties: concerning its interpretation, however, at least 15 different explanations of the meaning of the verse have been proposed.
halisthēsetai (only here in Mark) ‘will be salted,’ ‘will be seasoned’: it is generally assumed that the figure ‘to salt with fire’ is in some way related to Lev. 2.13, salt denoting preservation, and fire, purification (cf. commentaries in loc.). Goodspeed translates ‘must be seasoned.’
Moffatt attempts a meaningful translation by rendering: ‘Everyone has to be consecrated by the fire of the discipline,’ in a footnote explaining his translation by reference to Lev. 2.13.
Translation:
The real problem of translation in this verse is that we do not know exactly what is meant. Moreover, it is not easy in some languages to say ‘be salted,’ for the only equivalent would be ‘have salt added to,’ but then how can one add to this ‘with fire’ or ‘by means of fire.’ Many suggestions have been made, and some noted in The Bible Translator (5.143-44, 1954) are valuable: ‘everyone shall be seasoned with fire,’ ‘everyone shall be purified with fire’ and ‘everyone shall be tempered by fire’ (the last of which departs from the Greek metaphor, but certainly conveys a significant meaning). In Tzeltal the rendering is ‘everything becomes salty by means of fire,’ but this admittedly does not mean much though it carefully adheres to the original. In Loma (Liberia), the expression is expanded considerably, e.g. ‘fire will be put on everyone just as salt is placed on food,’ which is probably as meaningful as a translation can be, without involving complete recasting of the expression.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
In these verses, there are three different sayings about salt. Salt had many functions for the Jewish people. Each of these sayings refers to a different use of salt.
(a) (9:49) God commanded his people to put salt on all their sacrifices (Leviticus 2:13). Salt became a symbol of the eternal nature of the covenant between God and his people.
(b) (9:50a) People used salt to keep food from spoiling. They also used it to make food taste better.
(c) (9:50b–d) When people entered into an agreement or covenant, they ate salt (or a meal that included salt) together.
9:49
For: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “For” connects 9:49 to the previous verse. In this context it indicates that 9:49 in some way explains the previous verses. All believers should remove causes of sin because they will all experience suffering of some kind. Some English versions do not translate this conjunction. You should introduce 9:49 in a way that is natural in your language.
You may want to refer back to 9:43–48 in a general way or refer to the general principle taught in those verses. For example:
I say that because -or- Remove causes of sin because
everyone will be salted with fire: There is a textual issue here:
(1) Some Greek texts have: “For everyone will be salted with fire.”
(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, NET Bible, God’s Word, Contemporary English Version, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, New Century Version, English Standard Version)
(2) Other Greek texts have: “For everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.”
(King James Version, Good News Bible (The Good News Bible appears to follow option (2). However, there is a possibility that it actually follows option (1) and makes explicit its interpretation of those manuscripts.))
It is recommended that you follow option (1).
The expression everyone will be salted with fire is very difficult. Bible scholars have interpreted it in different ways. However, most scholars believe that Jesus’ words figuratively referred to Jewish sacrifices which were always salted (see Leviticus 2:13). Most of these sacrifices were also burned with fire. Fire here is an image of the suffering or hardships that all disciples would experience. This suffering would make them more holy and help them to rely more on God.
In many languages, it will not be easy to translate salted with fire literally. In languages where it can be translated, it may not be easily understood. Another problem is that your culture may use salt and fire figuratively to mean different things than they meant to the Jews. If that is true, you may want to:
• Translate this expression in a way that explains the metaphor. For example:
Just as every sacrifice/food is salted, everyone passes though fires of suffering. -or-
Everyone will experience suffering/difficulties that will be like going through fire. -or-
Everyone will be like a sacrifice that is salted and then burned. -or-
Everyone will be purified by fire as a sacrifice is purified by salt. (Good News Bible) -or-
Everyone will be purified with/by the fire of suffering.
If you follow one of these models for translation, you may want to include a footnote giving the literal Greek text. For example:
Literally: “For everyone will be salted with fire.”
• Explain this expression in a footnote. For example:
The expression “salted with fire” probably refers figuratively to Jewish sacrifices which were always salted (see Leviticus 2:13). Most of these sacrifices were burned with fire. Fire here is an image of the suffering or hardships that all disciples would experience. These hardships would make them more holy and cause them to rely more on God.
everyone: The word everyone refers to all of Jesus’ followers. You may want to make this clear by saying:
all my followers -or-
all of you(plur)
will be salted: This is a passive clause. If it is more natural in your language to use an active verb here, you may be able to say:
Just as people salt every sacrifice, so God will cause everyone to pass though fires of suffering. -or-
Everyone will be like a sacrifice on which a person puts salt and then burns. -or- God will purify everyone with fire as a person purifies a sacrifice with salt. -or- God will purify everyone with/by the fire of suffering.
with fire: The phrase with fire is emphasized in the Greek. If you have a natural way to emphasize this phrase, you may want to do so. For example:
it is with/by fire that everyone will be salted
fire: Notice that fire in this verse does not have the same meaning as “fire” in 9:48b. This verse means that all followers of Jesus will experience suffering of some kind because they belong to him. This verse does not mean that everyone will experience the fire of hell. Your translation should make the different meaning clear either in text or in a footnote. See the notes and examples above.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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