Does it matter ...? Does Mark 9.49b belong in your Bible?
AV/KJV: … and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt
ESV: [Missing]
It does matter ... Because every word of God matters (Proverbs 30.5). But also because there is overwhelming documentary evidence since the earliest times for this reading. They are in the majority of manuscripts and they are quoted
by early Christian writers from the second century onwards. This omission in the ESV is serious because it is a unique teaching of the Saviour.
Background
The omission of the above phrase by the Nestle-Aland text is supported by Codices Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Ephraemi, and other Alexandrian manuscripts. The inclusion of the words is supported by the universal witness of the Byzantine Text going back to
Codex Alexandrinus of the fifth century, and is also supported by Tatian's Diatessaron of the 2nd century,1 and Ephraim the Syrian of the fourth century A.D.2
Doctrinal Difference
The words ‘and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt’ have a spiritual importance, and are well supported by the universal witness of the Byzantine Text, and by the early fathers Tatian and Ephraim the Syrian. We would concur with Ephraim the Syrian3 that the 'sacrifices' are the sacrifices of the believers themselves, and the salt wherewith they are salted is their sincere and true faith. The omission of these words, which are attested to by the universal witness of the Byzantine Text and by
the church fathers, deprives the believer of a very sublime mystery concerning the faith of God's elect, as set forth from the lips of our Lord and Saviour.
Endnotes
1 Tatian, ANF09, Diatessaron, Section XXV.
2 Ephraim
Syrus, NPNF213, Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh, 'Hymn XIII', line 24. Ephraim interestingly considers the 'salt' of the believers to be their faith, whereby they are salted with salt as acceptable sacrifices
to the Lord.
