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Bible Lexicons
Old & New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary Greek Lexicon
Strong's #217 - ἅλας
- Thayer
- Strong
- Mounce
- salt with which food is seasoned and sacrifices are sprinkled
- those kinds of saline matter used to fertilise arable land
- salt is a symbol of lasting concord, because it protects food from putrefaction and preserves it unchanged. Accordingly, in the solemn ratification of compacts, the orientals were, and are to this day, accustomed to partake of salt together
- wisdom and grace exhibited in speech
- Book
- Word
- Parsing
ἅλας, ᾰτος, τό, = ἅλς,
salt, Arist. Mir. 844b16, Lycon ap. Hdn. Gr. 2.716, LXX Leviticus 2:13, al., Col. 44.6, Gal. 14.327; ἅ. ἀμμωνιακόν POxy. 1222.2 (iv A. D.).
ἅλα, τό, read by Tdf. in Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34; see ἅλας.]
STRONGS NT 217: ἅλας ἅλας, (ατος, τό (a later form, found in the Sept. and N. T. (Aristotle, de mirab, ause. § 138; Plutarch, qu. conv. 4:4, 3, 3), cf. Alexander Buttmann (1873) Ausf. Spr. i., p. 220; dative ἅλατι Colossians 4:6), and ἅλς, ἁλός, ὁ (the classic form (from Homer down); Sir. 22:15 (13);
1. Salt with which food is seasoned and sacrifices are sprinkled: Mark 9:49 R G; cf. ἁλίζω.
2. ἅλας τῆς γῆς, those kinds of saline matter used to fertilize arable land, Matthew 5:13{a}; here salt as a condiment cannot be understood, since this renders land sterile (Deuteronomy 29:23; Zephaniah 2:9; Judges 9:45); cf. Grohmann in Kauffer's Biblical Studien, 1844, p. 82ff The meaning is, 'It is your prerogative to impart to mankind (likened to arable land) the influences required for a life of devotion to God.' In the statement immediately following, ἐάν δέ ἅλας κτλ., the comparison seems to be drawn from salt as a condiment, so that two figures are blended; (but it is better to adopt this latter meaning throughout the passage, and take γῆ to denote the mass of mankind, see under the word, 4 b. and cf. Tholuck and others at the passage). In Mark 9:50{a} and Luke 14:34 salt is a symbol of that health and vigor of soul which is essential to Christian virtue; (cf. Meyer on the former passage).
3. Salt is a symbol of lasting concord, Mark 9:50{c}, because it protects food from putrefaction and preserves it unchanged. Accordingly, in the solemn ratification of compacts, the Orientals were, and are to this day, accustomed to partake of salt together. Cf. Winers RWB under the word Salz; (BB. DD. under the word
STRONGS NT 217a: Ἄλασσα Ἄλασσα: Acts 27:8; cf.Λασαία.
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ἅλας
(T, ἅλα ), -ατος , τό , late form of cl. ἅλς , -ος , ό (MM, VGT, s.v.),
[in LXX chiefly for H4416;]
salt, lit, and fig.: Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:50 Luke 14:34; like cl. ἅλες , wit, of wisdom and grace in speech: Colossians 4:6.†
Copyright © 1922 by G. Abbott-Smith, D.D., D.C.L.. T & T Clarke, London.
As early as iii/B.C. the neuter form is proved to have been in existence, e.g. P Petr III. 140 (a)2 ἔλαιον ν ̄ ἅλας ν ̄ ξύλα , and may therefore be acknowledged in P Hib I. 152 (B.C. 250) ἐμβαλοῦ εἰς τὸ πλοῖον ἅλας καὶ λωτόν , though there the editors treat the word as accusative plural. A clear example seems to be quotable from P Par 55 bis i. 29 (ii/B.C.) καὶ ἄρτοι καὶ ἅλας . From later times we can quote P Leid X i. 8 (iii/iv A.D.) ἅλας Καππαδοκικόν , P Oxy IX. 12222 (iv/A.D.) τὸ ἅλας . The ambiguity of earlier exx. attaches itself even to P Leid C verso iv. 5 (p. 93 of part i.), where ἅλας may as well be acc. pl., since the items are acc. as well as nom. in this λόγος of provisions supplied to the Twins of the Serapeum (ii/B.C.). Mayser (Gr. p. 286) quotes a conjectural reading ἅλατος for ἄμτος in the same document; but the Petrie and the Paris papyri cited give us our only certain exx. from Ptolemaic times, to set beside 2 Esdras 7:22, Sirach 39:26. Cf. MGr ἁλάτι . Mr Thackeray (in a letter) would now regard ἅλας in LXX as probably neuter : ";the only indubitable cases of the plural are in the local plural phrases ἡ θάλασσα (etc.) τῶν ἁλῶν . This looks as if the plural was the regular form for salt-areas."; In the fourteen LXX instances of ἅλα and ἅλας the article is absent, and we are free to assume that a new neuter noun was already developing, perhaps under analogy of other food names like γάλα and κρέας . Ἁλός lived on in the papyri as late as A.D. 258–9, P Lond 1170 verso.124 ( = III. p. 196). By σταθμίον α ̣λ ̣ι ̣ς in P Tebt II. 331.14 (c. A.D. 131) we are apparently to understand ἁλός , ";a quantity of salt."; BGU III. 731 ii. 3 (A.D. 180) ἁλὸς πλεῖστον will serve as a further instance. Note ἁλική , ";salt tax,"; common in early papyri : see ἁλυκός below.
[Supplemental from 1930 edition]
See also N. D. Coleman in JTS xxiv. (1923), p. 387 ff., and W.S. Wood in ib. xxv. (1924), p. 167 ff.
Copyright © 1914, 1929, 1930 by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Derivative Copyright © 2015 by Allan Loder.
