Mark 9:49

[Cristian_B]

What does the next passage refer to? What is fire? What does it mean?

[BIBLEDRB]Mark 9:48[/BIBLEDRB]

Everyone will be salted with fire. Mark 9:49

This is the Greek passage.

Πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται. Mark 9:49
The salt thing is ordered in Leviticus.

[BIBLEDRB]Leviticus 2:13[/BIBLEDRB]

Maybe it has something to do with the next passage?

[BIBLEDRB]Mark 9:49[/BIBLEDRB]

I also thought that it could refer to the fire Jesus was talking about in Luke 12:49-53

[BIBLEDRB]Luke 12:49-53[/BIBLEDRB]

I do not know and I am confused. What do you think “salted with fire” means? What is the exact meaning of the passage?

 

[SavedbyHisBlood]

Here is a footnote and verse from the NAB:

49 “Everyone will be salted with fire.
50 Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another.”

[49] Everyone will be salted with fire: so the better manuscripts. Some add “every sacrifice will be salted with salt.” The purifying and preservative use of salt in food (Lev 2:13) and the refinement effected through fire refer here to comparable effects in the spiritual life of the disciples of Jesus.

Hope that helps.

 

[Todd_Easton]

The following is from A Commentary on the New Testament, prepared by the Catholic Biblical Association, 1942, page 217, on Mark 9:48-49:

48. The words For everyone shall be salted with fire are peculiar to Mark. If understood with the peceding context, the fire would be the eternal fire of hell, which unlike the fires on earth, does not destroy but on the contrary has a preservative effect like salt. Other commentators understand fire here of the fire of tribulation and temptation by which the just on earth are purified from the dross of their faults and preserved unto life everlasting, just as salt purifies and preserves. The words and every victim shall be salted are missing in the best Greek MSS[manuscripts] and are probably a gloss added by some early copyist who took these words from Lev. 2, 13. 49a. The same words occur in Luke 14, 34 with no apparent logical connection with the context. The similar words in Matt. 5, 13 refer to the power of good example. Perhaps that is the meaning here also, since the preceding context is on the avoidance of scandal. 49b. Have salt in yourselves: etc., peculiar to Mark. In ancient times salt was considered the symbol both of wisdom and of friendship. Christ seems to be referring to this latter meaning of the word here. The words be at peace with one another probably refer back to the dispute of the Apostles (32) which was the cause of this discourse.
My :twocents:…
Maybe the salting with fire mentioned in Mark 9:48 is a reference to the purgatorial fire described in 1 Corinthians 3:13, which will test every man’s work.

 

[rocketrob]

Similar thoughts to Todd Easton’s post are contained in the Haydock Commentary which was linked to in the original post:

For every one shall be salted with fire. The sense seems to be, that every wicked unrepenting sinner (of whom it was before said, that their worm dieth not ) shall be severely and continually punished, though not consumed by the fire of hell. — And every victim shall be salted with salt; that is, even good men shall be cleansed and purified by trials and sufferings in this world, as some victims were to be salted by the law. Lev. ii. 13.

rocketrob

 

[ryanoneil]

In addition to trials and temptations, it may also include the purifying suffering of penance, which is needed to avoid sin and turn away from impure habits.

In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 1:6-7)

CCC1430 Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, “sackcloth and ashes,” fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.

CCC1431 Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).

In the end, those refined by the temporal fires of this world will be spared the unquenchable fires of the next.