The Sermon on the Mount creates an untransitioned shift at this point. The Beatitudes are finished, and this verse begins a completely different type of statement. We no longer follow the blessing form. Nevertheless, there is conceptual continuity from the previous section to this one.
In the Beatitudes the blessed nature of the believer in the Atoning Messiah was emphasized. The blessing, however, emphasized a future blessing rather than a current one. In the Beatitudes we have a current people in a current time looking forward to a reversal and a blessing in the world to come.
The implicit contrast between now and future is now refocused into the present. These blessed by marginalized believers are looking to a future blessing for themselves, but they are the blessing of the present world. The ironic contrast is that this marginalized group will be the blessing for the rest of the world that reviles them.
The emphasis of the sermon is shifting away from the blessings of the believers to the responsibilities of the believers. Salt is small, and a little seasons a large pot. It is even an essential element for life, in spite of the smallness of the grains, and the fact that a relatively small amount is used to flavor then entire pot. The responsibility of the few believers is to flavor the “whole pot” of the world. That is their responsibility.
The second clause emphasizes their personal responsibility in that task. They are salt, but if they are not salty they are worthless. Their responsibility is to bring the gospel to the whole world, but if they do not live it, then they are not truly “salt,” or the righteous who are worthy of the promised blessings.
Textual: There are some interesting differences between the 3 Nephi text and that of the KJV Matthew. The bracketed text is added to the KJC in 3 Nephi, and the text in parentheses is deleted in the 3 Nephi text.
Matthew 5:13
13 [Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be] (Ye are) the salt of the earth: but if the salt [lose its] (have lost his) savour, wherewith shall [the earth] (it) be salted? [The salt] (it) [shall be] (is) thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Each of the alterations follows the same pattern. There is a replacement in 3 Nephi of something in Matthew. Each of the replacements serves to clarify the English meaning to a more modern audience. It does by expanding the reference (“I give unto you to be” as opposed to “Ye are,”) or to shift the tense to a more modern future tense rather than the more convoluted tense that reflected the underlying verb structure in the KJV (“lose its” replaces “have lost his”). Other awkward remnants of Hebrew are also removed to make the English flow better, such as the insertion of “its” instead of “his” since the reference is “salt,” which would require the impersonal in English. All of these changes improve the flow of the English reading of the KJV text. They do not alter the meaning at all. The only function of the changes is to make the meaning more accessible to an audience accustomed to a different style of English.
The “I give unto you” does add the idea that the requirement to be the salt of the earth is a commandment of the Lord. This might be implicit in the declaration of the imperative “ye are…” but nevertheless it does highlight the relationship of the Savior to this statement. This is very clearly “given” as the mission of this people. They are not the salt of the earth because they are naturally salty, and implied by the interesting statement that the salt might lose its flavor. In spite of the fact that they might not be what the world expects as its salt, it is nevertheless their responsibility to be that salt.
In both Matthew and Luke (Luke 11:34), the phrase that is translated here as “good for nothing” is actually a word meaning “foolish.” Mark has the more appropriate “saltless.” The probable explanation for this curious word in Greek is that the Greek translates an underlying Hebrew.
“The Hebrew verb tpl has a double meaning, “to become unsavory,” “insipid” and a “fool.” (Robert Guelich. A Foundation for Understanding the Sermon on the Mount. Word Publishing, Dallas. 1982, p. 121).
An enigmatic phrase in this Beatitude is the “of the earth.” Salt has no beneficial effect on earth, and indeed can destroy the fertility of the earth. The “earth” in this case is not the soil, but the “world of men.” (Alan Hugh M’Neile. The Gospel According to St. Matthew. MacMillan and Co LTD, London, 1961, p. 55).