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Mat 5:13-14. Ὑμεῖς, you) sc. the first disciples and hearers of the Messiah. Salt and light are, in nature, things essential, and of widest use. Frequently in Scripture the same thing is first declared by metaphorical expressions, that our attention may be excited: and then, when we have not understood it as we ought, and in the meanwhile have perceived our blindness, it is disclosed in plain words.-τῆς γῆς, of the earth).-τοῦ κόσμου, of the world) The earth of itself is without salt, the world without light.-ἐαν, κ.τ.λ., if, etc.) It is not affirmed in this passage, that salt does lose its savour; but it is shown what, in such a case, would be the lot of the Salt of the earth.-μωρανθῇ, should lose its savour) Galen,[178] in his observations on Hippocrates, explains ΜΕΜΩΡΩΜΈΝΑ (the perf. pass. part. of this verb) by ΤᾺ ἈΝΑΊΣΘΗΤΑ, i.e., which have no feeling; in Mar 9:50, we find ἄναλον γένηται, become saltless. It is the nature of salt to have and to give savour; and to this savour are opposed saltlessness, want of taste, value lost.-ἁλισθήσεται, shall it be salted) Impersonal. Neither can the salt (see Mark, cited above) nor the earth be seasoned from any other source.-ἔξω, out of doors) far from any household use.-καὶ, and) sc. and therefore.-καταπατεῖσθαι, to be trodden under foot) There is nothing more despised than one who wishes to be esteemed divine, and is not so.[179]-ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, by men) i.e., by all who come in its way. This is the force here of the article τῶν.
[178] Hippocrates, the greatest physician of antiquity, was born at the island of Cos in the 80th Olympiad, and flourished during the time of the Peloponnesian War. Galen, second only to Hippocrates, was born at Pergamus, in the Lesser Asia, about the year 131.-See ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA.-(I. B.)
[179] The mere man of the world is not so much disgraced by his vanity as is such a one.-Vers. Germ.