13“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
The Greek that is translated “if salt has lost its taste (or “saltiness”)?” or similar in English is translated in Amele as “if salt’s bitterness stings” (source: John Roberts), in Mairasi as “if that salt becomes watery” (source: Enggavoter 2004), and i8n the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) as “even if it would be possible for it to lose its taste.”
John Roberts comments on the nature of the salt in question in this article : “Jesus says salt can lose its salty taste and when it does it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out. ‘You are the salt of the earth’ in Mat 5.13 is a metaphor. In this metaphor, ‘You’ (the disciples of Jesus) is the tenor and ‘salt of the earth’ is the vehicle of the metaphor. The metaphor applies the properties of salt to the disciples. When Jesus spoke this metaphor the salt (ἅλας) referred to was not pure sodium chloride. It was dug out of the ground mixed with other materials. The salt used in the area mostly came from mines around the Dead Sea and material extracted from that area demonstrates these same properties today. This ‘salt’ was used as seasoning or fertilizer, or as a preservative. However, when exposed to the elements, the sodium chloride in this ‘salt’ would leach out and leave only the sediment or impurities behind. What was left was good for nothing, except that it was used to place in paths, or walks, as we use gravel today. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_5:13 ). These are the properties of ‘salt’ that Jesus applies metaphorically to his disciples.”
The Greek in Matthew 5:13 that is translated as “trampled under foot” or “walk on (the salt)” is translated in Chol as “thrown out with the trash” because there is a taboo regarding stepping on salt.
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:13:
Uma: “‘You who follow me can be compared to salt, which brings goodness [broad word sometimes used to mean salvation] to mankind. But if you do not follow my teaching, you are like salt that is tasteless, it cannot be made salty again, and there is no longer its usefulness, with the result that it is discarded and stepped on.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “‘You who follow me are like salt for all mankind. But when/if the salt has no more taste, it will not become salty again. There is no use for it anymore. Then it is just thrown out and the people walk over it.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “You, my disciples, you are like salt which is that which makes food good, because you are the means of making all-mankind good. However if the flavor is removed from salt, there is no way to bring its flavor back, and there is no use to salt which no longer has any flavor. It is thrown out and people inadvertently walk on it.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Jesus continued to teach and said, ‘You are what-can-be-compared to salt for the people on this earth. But if salt becomes-tasteless it is impossible to return its saltiness (same word as sour/bitter). It is useless, therefore it will be thrown-away and people will step on it.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Jesus continued his teaching saying, ‘You (pl.) who obey the will of God, an illustration of you is salt, that being really necessary here in the world. Well suppose this salt becomes tasteless, how can its saltiness be caused to return again? Isn’t it useless now? Of course it will just be thrown away. What will happen to it is that it will just be being trodden on by people.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Salt has the work that when it is put on something it keeps it from spoiling. You must do like this in the world so that because you live here it will keep down the evil which people do. But when salt has lost its strength, it is not able to salt anything again. Then it is worth nothing, it is then thrown away, people step on it.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Martu Wangka: “Jesus told them a small talk like this, ‘Meat becomes good from salt. That salt is good. Salt which has laid around on the ground becomes bad and then becomes bad rubbish. You all sit like good salt — you who are my relatives. Others, when they see you sitting well, they will gather together with you and they will follow me, Jesus. You will sit like good salt.'” (Source: Carl Gross)
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 6:13-16:
For everyone on this earth, you and you alone are salt!
But if salt is no longer salty, it’s good only for gravel.
For everyone on this earth, you and you alone are light.
You are a city on top of a hill and cannot be hidden.
Only a fool would light a lamp and place it under a bucket
instead of on a lamp stand.
Keep your light shining! Let everyone see what you do,
so they will praise your Father above.
Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
Here, Jesus is addressing his disciples, individuals and/or crowds with the formal pronoun, showing respect.
In most Dutch translations, Jesus addresses his disciples and common people with the informal pronoun, whereas they address him with the formal form.
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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