Apparently so.
Damn! What happened to my OP??? AAAARGGHHH!!!
OK, let me try to recreate that particular bit of deathless prose…
In the Bible there are verses that talk about salt losing its “savour,” for example:
I’ve always wondered whether it’s actually possible for salt to lose its flavor and, if so, how? My understanding of salt is that it is a fairly simple molecule comprised of sodium and chorine atoms, and that there are no “esters” or other complex substances that would contribute to its taste.
The only thing I can think of is if the salt gets coated with something, or else reacts chemically with another substance.
Another possibility, I suppose, is that Jesus was speaking purely hypothetically, much like one might talk about the sun not rising.
Any thoughts?
Barry
Does … the …
saline lose its savour on the potroast overnight?
If the doctor says don’t use it, do you sprinkle it in spite?
Do you pour it on your taters, before you even take a bite
Does the saline lose its savour on the potroast overrrrr night?
I’d say that this is poetic speech.
You are the water of the earth, but if the water loses its wetness, who shall drink it? It thenceforth good for nothing, to be cast down and run out a gutter.
It gives the same feel. That is, I think He was talking about holding on to the quiddity of His message, for that is what made one of His followers. Lose His teaching, and one ceases to be His follower–one ceases to be salt of the earth.
When I was a kid one of my Sunday school teachers told us that it meant that dirt or sand had contaminated the salt, making it unfit for human consumption. IIRC, he then said that this was comparable to us letting sin contaminate the “salt” that was our souls.
But that guy was often pretty nutty, so take this with a grain of … yeah.
I assume that the “salt” here is salt from, say, a dry lake bed. When you gather it, you get a mixture of salt(sodium chloride), sand, and other random non-table-salt salts (magnesium chloride, potassium chloride). The only component that rerally tastes “salty” is the NaCl. If that leaches out through being dissolved, or if you get a patch with little NaCl in it, then you’d have “salt” that contained little of the stuff that tastes right.
That’s the way I’ve always interpreted the biblical line. Pure NaCl will always be salty. But if it’s only one component in what you gather and collloquially call “salt”, and if that stuff doesn’t have much NaCl in it (losesd its savour), then you might as well throw it out, as the Good Book says. It won’t season your food, or preserve it, and it might actually be bad for you.
Well, that’s what I thought. Just checking, though…
Barry
Considering the salt on your table is most likely from seas that dried out millions of years ago, it’s pretty safe to say salt doesn’t lost its flavor over time.
As for the quote, it was meant to be an example of faith, not a demonstration of scientific fact. Note the “If” – that means it’s hypothetical and does not imply anything. Also, the use of the word “have” is a sign of the subjunctive, which implies the speaker thought the possibility of salt losing its savor was unlikely.
I think CalMeacham has it. The explanation I’ve always heard is that most of the salt you’d find back then was very impure rock salt, which could sometimes lose enough of its NaCl that it tasted less salty. Of course, it’s also quite possible that it’s just a figure of speech. The point is the same either way.
According to my copy of “The Five Gospels” (by the Jesus Seminar):
Variants of the phrase appear in Mark, Matthew and Luke.
“Some scholars have suggested that the variations in Greek may reflect a common Aramaic original, which has been misunderstood. In any case, salt was commonly used in Palestine in an impure state. If the impurities were greater than the salt, the salt would be bland or insipid. In Q, the conclusion is that such salt is then good for nothing and has to be thrown away.”
The committee also asserted that, “…the original context of the saying has been lost…”
Salt 2000 years ago was not the refined, purified salt you and I use today. Most likely collected from salt flats or drying areas neas the sea side and contained salt, sand, and other detrius. Placed in a cloth bag and dipped in cooking food the food is salted. When the salt bag no longer is salty it is thrown out! (to be trampled underfoot.)
Wouldn’t we have a hard time if we could be transported back to such times and places in a manner where we would not be betrayed by dress or speech. Our view of customs and practices of those days would surely betray us, or we would be considered very strange strangers.
It’s a metaphor dammit^H^H^H^H^H^H, it doesn’t have to describe reality.
Hey one of my local supermarkets does ‘organic’ salt(!) what gives? Maybe thats a GQ?
“Organic salt”? 
What’s next? Organic water?
Hopefully they’re not talking about something like this.
Perhaps ‘organic salt’ is supposed to imply that it was harvested using environmentally friendly means? Doesn’t make much sense to call it that.
This isn’t quite true. Most table salt (at least in the US) is harvested using Vacuum Pan Salt Refining.
(Who would’ve guessed there was a Salt Institute?)
panamajack OK next time I’ll check the contents for that
trans-4-[P-(N-ethyl-N-(hydroxylethyl)-amino) styryl]-N-methylpyridinium tetraphenylborate stuff, sounds tasty!
Any look for the organic H[sub]2[/sub]O
Related question: What gives salt its salty taste?
Is it the Na, the Cl or both? Is it possible to swap one of the ions for something else, and still keep the taste? (Isn’t that how low-sodium salts are made - and in that case, what do they replace the sodium with?)
KCl
Crap. I meant to post:
KCl is about half as “salty” as NaCl.