SALT AND FIRE IN MARK 9:49

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1 SALT AND FIRE IN MARK 9:49 A Sample Chapter from If you have ever endeavoured to sit down and read the Bible cover-to-cover, then you ve probably noticed that at least some of the language used is difficult to understand, and some of the verses don t have any meaning that you can readily interpret. One very good example of this is Mark 9:49, for which there are a number of different readings in the English. The King James Bible which was translated from the Textus Recepticus has: For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. The New International Version, the Berean Study Bible, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, GOD'S WORD Translation, NET Bible, New American Standard Bible and the English Standard Version all have the reading as: everyone will be salted with fire. The New Living Translation goes out on a limb and says, For everyone will be tested with fire. Other strange versions occur in the Aramaic Bible in Plain English which has the verse as, For everything will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. 1

2 The Douay-Rheims Bible, which has: For every one shall be salted with fire: and every victim shall be salted with salt. The Young's Literal Translation is very much representative of the literal Greek reading, which is: for every one with fire shall be salted, and every sacrifice with salt shall be salted. International Standard Version Because everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt. And of course there are many, many more variants and combinations of these The natural question which is raised is How can a man be salted with fire? We will get to that shortly, but first a small lesson on the Greek. The RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005 is created by taking an assay of all of the extant Greek manuscripts and creating from it an average text. The RPBMT has the following reading for this verse: Πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται καὶ πᾶσα θυσία ἁλὶ ἁλισθήσεται The manuscripts that have this reading include: The Textus Receptus, from which the King James Bible is translated has this reading, as does the 1904 edition by the Greek Orthodox Church. The Greek breaks down as follows: Greek English Strong s Number Πᾶς everyone

3 γὰρ indeed 1063 πυρὶ with fire 4442 ἁλισθήσεται will be salted 233 καὶ and 2532 πᾶσα every 3956 θυσία sacrifice 2378 ἁλὶ with salt 251 ἁλισθήσεται shall be salted 233 However, a large number of Greek Bibles don't retain the latter half of the verse. This is likely because this type of purely Aramaic poetry sounds redundant in Greek, making the second half of the verse unnecessary. The simple answer is that the text was there in the Aramaic original but the Greek redactors took it out of some manuscripts because it was grating on the ears. The fact that the most ancient Aramaic manuscripts all have the second half of the verse, and only some of the Greek manuscripts have the second half of the verse, indicates that the Greek redactors eliminated it because it was grating on the ears. Instead they have only the first half of the verse, as: Πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται The Bibles which retain only the first have include the SBL Greek New Testament 2010, Nestle Greek New Testament 1904, Westcott and Hort 1881, Westcott and Hort / [NA27 variants], Tischendorf 8th Edition The Old Sinaitic Palimpset, which many believe was most likely translated from the Greek has: כול אנ ש גיר בנורא נתמלח All men shall be salted with miraculous fire. So why the non-sense about being salted with fire? The answer is pretty simple, is a classic split-word. A split-word is a word which has more than one מלח meaning, making it difficult to translate into other languages without knowing the proper context. I am not the first person to address this point with this verse in 3

4 particular. Andrew Gabriel Roth also mentions it in his excellent book Ruach Qadim 1 and in a number of other places. As Roth says, מלח can mean both salted and vaporised, depending on the context. Unfortunately this point was lost on the Greek translators who read the word מלח and translated it always as salted regardless of the context. This same thing couldn t happen if the original language was Greek. For comparison an example of a modern split-word would be the French verb gagner which means both to win and to earn Thus if you see the sentence Je gagné de l argent it can mean either I won the money or I earned the money, and only the context can tell you which. In Greek the word εξάτμιση means vaporized and the word ἁλισθήσεται means salted. These words look nothing alike and would not be easily confused. The context of fire makes vaporise the only possible meaning, and proves that the Gospel of Mark was originally written in Aramaic and then only afterwards translated into Greek. The BFBS/UBS Peshitta and the Khabouris Manuscript both of which are much older in chronological age than the Old Syriac Palimpset, give the following reading: כל גיר בנורא נתמלח וכל דבחתא במלחא תתמלח All shall be vaporised 2 with fire and every sacrifice shall be seasoned with salt. (Mark 9:49) Word for word this breaks down as: every] [all / כל 1 Andrew Gabriel Roth, Ruach Qadim Aramaic Origins of the New Tes tament, Tus hiyah Pres s, 2005, ISBN , pages The Aramaic root מלח can mean either " to s alt" or " to vaporize"... The fact that the Greeks chos e the wrong (and totally illogica l) word is undeniable proof of trans lation. 4

5 גיר בנורא נתמלח וכל דבחתא במלחא נתמלח for fire [salted / vaporised] [all / every] sacrifice salt [salted / vaporised] What s actually being said here isn t so logical until you read the three verses of the Gospel of Matthew relating to John s ministry and the ransoming by fire; which elucidate the wider meaning: הא דין נרגא סים על עקרא דאילנא כל אילנא הכיל דפארא טבא לא עבד מתפסק ונפל בנורא Behold! The axe is placed at the root of the tree, that every tree which does not make good fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:10) אנא מעמד אנא לכון במיא לתיבותא הו דין דבתרי אתא חסין הו מני הו דלא שוא אנא מסנוהי למ שקל הו מעמד לכון ברוחא דקוד שא ובנורא I baptise you with water unto repentance, but He who comes after me is stronger than I, he whose sandals I am not able to bear; It is He who shall baptise with fire and the Spirit of Holiness. (Matthew 3:11) הו דרפ שא באידה ומדכא אדרוהי וחטא כנ ש לאוצרוהי ותבנא מוקד בנורא דלא דעכא 5

6 He whose fan is in his hand shall purge the threshing floor, gather the wheat for the storehouse, and burn the chaff with a fire which may not be extinguished. (Matthew 3:12) Thus we see that in the final reconciliation God will cut off that which is evil and against Life (i.e. YAH) and keep within Himself all that is Good. It is not the eternal damnation of the Protestants, but rather a cleansing and renewal of His greatness, manifest in creation. While researching this paper the idea was presented that there might be an anagram or piece of poetry hiding within the fragment, as there a re in a number of other places in the Gospels. In Matthew 3:11, the Prophet John says that he baptises with water, but he who comes after shall baptise by fire and the Spirit of Holiness. If you read the verse: כל גיר בנורא נתמלח וכל דבחתא במלחא תתמלח Very frequently such anagrams are like locks, which require they key to open them fully. In this case, by adding the letters for the Name of God YAH (יה) the following phrase appears from the text: במים כגהינום Which translates as As by water, so too by hell It is impossible to know if this is intentional, but it is none-the-less an interesting aside which at the very least makes one wonder whether there is not something mo re going on in this verse. This level of mysterion does not exist in the Greek New Testament, because it is not representative of the authentic first century tradition of the Church A L L RI G H T S RE SE RV E D BY T H E N A Z A RA N I FO U N D A T I O N 6