StrongerBible

halizō

ἁλίζω

GreekG0233“salt”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:13Mrk 9:49 (2×)
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradehah-LEE-dzohverb

What halizō means

to salt: to treat, season, or preserve something with salt

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Salt did three jobs in the ancient world that are worth keeping in mind at once: it flavored food, it kept meat and fish from rotting, and it sealed agreements. This verb names the simple act of applying salt, and its plain meaning was never in doubt. It is a rare, somewhat technical word, at home in treatises on cooking and farming rather than everyday speech.

Both New Testament writers who use it could have reached for the ordinary word for seasoning food (Luke does exactly that in his version of the salt saying, using ἀρτύω). Instead they chose this word, the same one the Greek Old Testament uses for salting every sacrifice laid on the altar (Leviticus 2:13, "every offering shall be salted with salt"). That choice pulls the image toward the altar and toward the "covenant of salt," where salt stood for a bond meant to last.

The two places it appears sit at very different levels. In Matthew it is literal: salt that has gone flat cannot be salted again, a warning about becoming useless. In Mark it turns figurative and famously dark, "everyone will be salted with fire," where salting and fire together suggest some process of testing, purifying, or preserving that people undergo. What the word means is settled; what that second image points to is one of the most argued questions in the Gospels.

Nuances

1ato season or preserve with salt (the literal act, spoken of salt itself)
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 5:13
1bto be salted figuratively: to undergo a salting pictured as a purifying, preserving, or testing process
Mrk 9:49 (2×)
Mrk 9:49

What "everyone will be salted with fire" (Mark 9:49) means. The lexical sense of the verb is agreed, but its figurative force is not, and the surrounding sayings about Gehenna, the divine passive form (God as the unnamed one who does the salting), and the echo of the salted sacrifices of Leviticus 2:13 pull in different directions. No reading commands a consensus.

  • contestedA sacrifice image: disciples are salted as the altar offerings were, dedicated and preserved for God, echoing the salted sacrifices of Leviticus 2:13.; R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 2002), 381-384; J. R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Pillar; Eerdmans, 2002), 296; J. Marcus, Mark 8-16 (Anchor Yale Bible 27A; Yale, 2009), 698-701
  • contestedAn end-time testing that every person must pass through, a standalone saying about universal judgment or trial.; C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel According to St Mark (Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary; CUP, 1959), 315-316; M. D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (BNTC; Hendrickson, 1991), 230-233; A. Y. Collins, Mark: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2007), on 9:49
  • contestedThe fiery trials of Christian life: believers are seasoned and refined through persecution and hardship, in language close to 1 Peter 1:7 and 4:12.; W. L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (NICNT; Eerdmans, 1974), 349
  • minorityA gathering rather than a salting: the verse uses the sound-alike Greek verb meaning "to gather, assemble," so that "everyone will be gathered by fire," a picture of end-time sifting.; R. Doran, "'Salting with Fire' (Mark 9:49)," Novum Testamentum 62 (2020): 361-374

What scholars say about halizō

Every major lexicon distinguishes two homonymous Greek verbs spelled alike: one from a root meaning "assembled" (LSJ's ἁλίζω A, "to gather, muster") and one from the noun for salt (LSJ's ἁλίζω B, "to salt, sprinkle with salt"). Only the salting verb occurs in the New Testament. BDAG glosses it "to salt, make salty" (Matt 5:13; Mark 9:49; LXX Lev 2:13; Ezek 43:24; Ignatius, Magn. 10:2), and Louw-Nida place it in the condiments domain (5.28) as a literal sense figuratively extended in Mark 9:49. Outside the Bible the verb is a rare, technical word, chiefly in Aristotle (Historia Animalium 570a1, 574a9) for salting fish and provisioning livestock; Moulton-Milligan found no clear documentary use, and Josephus and Philo discuss salt but avoid the verb. Its weight in the New Testament comes from the Septuagint, where it renders the Hebrew cognate construction of Leviticus 2:13 (ἁλὶ ἁλισθήσεται, "shall be salted with salt") and Ezekiel 16:4; Milgrom (Leviticus 1-16, AB) and Latham (The Religious Symbolism of Salt) trace salt's role as a symbol of covenantal permanence. The only New Testament form is the future passive ἁλισθήσεται, the exact form of LXX Leviticus 2:13, which most read as a divine passive. Matthew's use of this cultic verb rather than Luke's more idiomatic ἀρτυθήσεται is widely judged deliberate (Davies-Allison; Luz), and Davies-Allison catalogue eleven possible symbolic senses of salt before conceding the intended one cannot be fixed. Mark 9:49 is textually and exegetically the harder case: Metzger's Textual Commentary explains the longer readings as scribal glosses from Lev 2:13, and Hauck (TDNT 1.228-229) leans toward a purifying reading, while Frayer-Griggs (JSHJ 2009) surveys the full range including the Aramaic fire-baptism hypothesis. Ignatius (Magn. 10:2) is the earliest post-biblical witness and reads salting as preservation against moral corruption.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Danker et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG, 3rd ed.; University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. ἁλίζωlexicon
  • H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed.; Oxford, 1940), s.vv. ἁλίζω (A) and (B)lexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (2nd ed.; UBS, 1989), 5.28lexicon
  • F. Hauck, "ἅλας, ἁλίζω, ἄναλος," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Eerdmans), 1:228-229theological-dictionary
  • J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible 3; Doubleday, 1991), 190-192commentary
  • W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew (ICC; T&T Clark, 1988), 1:472-473commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 2002), 381-384commentary
  • J. Marcus, Mark 8-16 (Anchor Yale Bible 27A; Yale, 2009), 698-701commentary
  • B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (2nd ed.; UBS, 1994), 87monograph
  • J. E. Latham, The Religious Symbolism of Salt (Théologie Historique 64; Beauchesne, 1982)monograph
  • D. Frayer-Griggs, "'Everyone Will Be Baptized in Fire': Mark 9.49, Q 3.16, and the Baptism of the Coming One," Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 7 (2009): 254-285journal-article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ἁλίζω

future passive indicative 3s

ἁλισθήσεται

Mat 5:13, Mrk 9:49, Mrk 9:49