Text:

At the end of the verse Textus Receptus adds kai pasa thusia hali halisthēsetai ‘and every sacrifice will be salted with salt,’ which is omitted by all modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

The translation of this verse offers no insurmountable difficulties: concerning its interpretation, however, at least 15 different explanations of the meaning of the verse have been proposed.

halisthēsetai (only here in Mark) ‘will be salted,’ ‘will be seasoned’: it is generally assumed that the figure ‘to salt with fire’ is in some way related to Lev. 2.13, salt denoting preservation, and fire, purification (cf. commentaries in loc.). Goodspeed translates ‘must be seasoned.’

Moffatt attempts a meaningful translation by rendering: ‘Everyone has to be consecrated by the fire of the discipline,’ in a footnote explaining his translation by reference to Lev. 2.13.

Translation:

The real problem of translation in this verse is that we do not know exactly what is meant. Moreover, it is not easy in some languages to say ‘be salted,’ for the only equivalent would be ‘have salt added to,’ but then how can one add to this ‘with fire’ or ‘by means of fire.’ Many suggestions have been made, and some noted in The Bible Translator (5.143-44, 1954) are valuable: ‘everyone shall be seasoned with fire,’ ‘everyone shall be purified with fire’ and ‘everyone shall be tempered by fire’ (the last of which departs from the Greek metaphor, but certainly conveys a significant meaning). In Tzeltal the rendering is ‘everything becomes salty by means of fire,’ but this admittedly does not mean much though it carefully adheres to the original. In Loma (Liberia), the expression is expanded considerably, e.g. ‘fire will be put on everyone just as salt is placed on food,’ which is probably as meaningful as a translation can be, without involving complete recasting of the expression.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .