salted with fire

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 flavour, good or bad.” (Source: Ross McKerras)

See also complete verse (Mark 9:49).

sacrifice

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.'”

complete verse (Mark 9:49)

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.)

Translation commentary on Mark 9:49

Text:

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 .