Luke 14:35

[Jim Golz]

Do any of you have commentaries that give a reasonable reaction to this verse?

Here it is in context from Young's Literal Translation:
Luke 14:34 `The salt [is] good, but if the salt doth become tasteless, with what shall it be seasoned? 35 neither for land nor for manure is it fit -- they cast it without. He who is having ears to hear -- let him hear.'

Here's Matthew's similar saying:
Matthew 5:13 `Ye are the salt of the land, but if the salt may lose savour, in what shall it be salted? for nothing is it good henceforth, except to be cast without, and to be trodden down by men.

And Mark's:
Mark 9:50 The salt [is] good, but if the salt may become saltless, in what will ye season [it]? Have in yourselves salt, and have peace in one another.'

What bothers me about the Lucan version is that Luke seems to misunderstand the purpose of salt and somehow thinks it would be used for fertilizer on fields or compost heaps. It isn't. The Romans salted the fields of Carthage to totally destroy the city by preventing future crops.

None of the commentaries I've seen have recognized the problem. Instead, they skip to the intended meaning of the saying, that Christians must be active, like fresh salt.