Wed Dec 18 02:00:29 1996

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Subject: have salt with each other ??
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 96 07:52:04 +0100
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From: Jean VALENTIN 
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Hello tc-ers.

I'm back with a strange translation I found in the Arabic version of ms 
Sinai Arabic 71 (Xth century, one of the earliest mss on which I'm 
working).

In NA27, Mk 9.50 (second part) is translated:
"Have salt in yourselves, and be in peace with each other".

In Sin. Arb. 71, this sentence is translated:
"Have salt in yourselves (litt. in your souls, usual in Arabic), and have 
_salt_ with each other".

I ask myself several questions about this passage. Could it be just 
another carelessness of the translator or the scribe, or is it possible 
that we have here a correct interpretation of this enigmatic sentence of 
Jesus? I mean by this, could it be that, in the milieu that produced the 
Gospel texts, "salt" was a metaphor for "peace"? 

Here are some pros and cons in disorder. NB. I don't want to get into 
speculations about "semitic originals of the Gospels" here, only I want 
to understand what happens in my Arabic version and its interpretation of 
the Greek!

(1) The translator is often free, if not careless. It might be just 
another occurrence.
(2) If an expression in Aramaic involved "salt" as a metaphor for 
"peace", then it might have survived in Palestinian Arabic and it would 
have been easy for the translator to restitute an idiomatic expression 
that was "simplified" by the Greek redactor(s) of Mk for the sake of 
being understood by his (their) audience.
(3) On the other hand, I've found some occurrences where Jewish realia 
were not known to the translator, who mistranslates words like 
"phylacteries" and sometimes "synagogue" (both in Mt 23).

So I ask the exegetes among you if they know of references to salt as an 
emblem of peace? And, maybe this can help us also understanding the 
meaning of the salt in the OT passages where it accompanies several 
sacrifices cf. Lev 2.13, Nb 18.19, Esd 4.14 and 7.22, Ez 43.24 - and what 
about Mt 5.13?). Also, if somebody had Rabbinic references about this, I 
think they would be interesting to examine in this context. I've just 
looked in the Qoran, there are a few references to salt but they don't 
help us as they are in descriptions of the sea as created by God.

Frankly, my impression after writing this is that options (1) and (3) are 
the most plausible, but one never knows...

Thanks for your feedback.



_______________________________________________________________________
Jean Valentin - Brussels - Belgium

Ce qui est trop simple est faux, ce qui est trop complexe est 
inutilisable.
What's too simple is wrong, what's too complex is unusable.
Wat te eenvoudig is, is verkeerd; wat te ingewikkeld is, is onbruikbaar.

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