havoc was wrought. What then is the alternative? If it be a question as between offence
and some part of ourselves, a limb or member, however useful - the hand, the foot, the
eye - then let it rather be severed from the body, however painful, or however seemingly
great the loss. It cannot be so great as that of the whole being in the eternal fire of
Gehenna, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.52 it hand, foot, or
eye - practice, pursuit, or research - which consciously leads us to occasions of
stumbling, it must be resolutely put aside in view of the incomparably greater loss of
eternal remorse and anguish.
51. St. Matt. xviii. 8-9; St. Mark, ix. 43-48.
52. St. Mark ix. 44 the last clause of ver. 45, and ver. 46, seem to be spurious. But ver.
48 (except the words του πυρος, for which read simply: 'into Gehenna') as well as the
expression 'fire that never shall be quenched,' and in St. Matthew, 'everlasting fire,' are
on all hands admitted to be genuine. The question of 'eternal punishment,' from the
standpoint of Jewish theology, will be treated in a later part.
Here St. Mark abruptly breaks off with a saying in which the Saviour makes general
application, although the narrative is further continued by St. Matthew. The words
reported by St. Mark are so remarkable, so brief, we had almost said truncated, as to
require special consideration.53 It seems to us that, turning from this thought that even
members which are intended for useful service may, in certain circumstances, have to
be cut off to avoid the greatest lo ss, the Lord gave to His disciples this as the final
summary and explanation of all: 'For every one shall be salted for the fire'54 - or, as a
very early gloss, which has strangely crept into the text,55 paraphrased and explained it,
'Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.'56 No one is fit for the sacrificial fire, no one can
himself be, nor offer anything as a sacrifice, unless it have been first, according to the
Levitical Law, covered with salt, symbolic of the incorruptible. 'Salt is good; but if the
salt,' with which the spiritual sacrifice is to be salted for the fire, 'have lost its savour,
wherewith will ye season it?' Hence, 'have salt in yourselves,' but do not let that salt be
corrupted by making it an occasion of offence to others, or among yourselves, as in the
dispute by the way, or in the disposition of mind that led to it, or in forbidding others to
work who follow not with you, but 'be at peace among yourselves.'
53. St. Mark ix. 49, 50.
54. The rendering 'Salted for the fire,' viz., as a sacrifice, has been adopted by other
critics.
55. We can readily understand how that clause, which was one of the most ancient
explanations, perhaps a marginal gloss on the text 'Everyone shall be salted for the fire,'
crept into the text when its meaning was no longer understood.
56. These words are spurious.
To this explanation of the words of Christ it may, perhaps, be added that, from their
form, they must have conveyed a special meaning to the disciples. It is well-known law,
that every sacrifice burned on the Altar must be salted with salt.57 Indeed, according to