Complete textual-variant dossier
Adverse entailment established
Sections distinguish readings, edition history, evidence, theological consequences, and the Research Center's evaluation. CBGM is an analytical tool; editorial committees—not the software—make textual decisions.
1Passage and issue
Passage
Issue
> “It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
The exact TR reading has not yet been entered in the structured field.
Authorized Version
“It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” — Matthew 5:13
Edition note
The Research Center uses the received Greek text underlying the Authorized Version as its baseline; edition-specific differences are recorded when the variation unit requires them.
Historical annotation witness
Erasmus’s Annotationes
Erasmus’s printed Greek text, his Latin annotation, and the Research Center’s evaluation are distinct evidence. Each edition remains separately identified because Erasmus revised the Annotationes across his five editions.
Not yet assessed. No inference about Erasmus’s silence has been made. A Latin annotation and translation will appear here only after an edition and exact locus have been verified.
The Erasmus annotation audit has not yet been completed for this locus. Do not infer from this status that Erasmus was silent.
Westminster and Dutch annotation witnesses
Westminster Annotations
Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.
Dutch Annotations
Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.
3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale
NA28 baseline reading
No distinct NA28 reading has been entered; the received and NA28 texts may agree at this unit.
Translation or explanation
The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of the variation unit. The note grounds the relevant decision in the balance of external and internal evidence described in the entry; the printed confidence rating represented here is {C}. This is a controlled synopsis rather than a quotation.
Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., note on Matthew 5:13
ECM / CBGM evidence and editors
No passage-specific ECM/CBGM editorial explanation is attached to this record. Official method sources describe the CBGM as a set of coherence procedures, not a decision-maker: editors define variation units and local stemmata and evaluate pre-genealogical, genealogical, and stemmatic coherence together with transcriptional, intrinsic, and other philological evidence.
4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision
UBS6 retains the NA28 / UBS5 Greek main-text wording in Matthew, so no main-text change is shown for this passage. The separate project ledger covers Acts, Mark, and Revelation.
No change row is attached to this passage.
UBS6 is published, and the German Bible Society identifies its Greek main text as identical to the intended NA29 main text. The complete NA29 volume and its apparatus remain forthcoming. Project-ledger rows retain their source and verification statements until they are checked against the published UBS6 text and, when available, the NA29 apparatus.
5Doctrinal and four-point analysis
Effect class
No meaningful doctrinal effect
Exact proposition affected
No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
Doctrinal analysis
No doctrine changes if the shorter grammar is read. This is why a small conjunction can matter without carrying a doctrine alone.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Matthew 5:13, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. The critical form reads more like “being cast out, to be trodden under foot.” A critic can say that a scribe added the conjunction and reshaped the first verb to create smoother parallelism. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Matthew 5:13 must be applied to comparable readings as well. A principle such as age, difficulty, brevity, or coherence cannot be decisive here and quietly reversed elsewhere merely to escape a historical, grammatical, or theological difficulty.
Consequences
No meaningful doctrinal effect: No doctrine changes if the shorter grammar is read. This is why a small conjunction can matter without carrying a doctrine alone.
Preconditions of intelligibility
The argument presupposes stable authorship, meaningful language, objective logical norms, transmissible evidence, and a coherent account of how Scripture can be received and identified by the church. The analysis tests whether the method can make those conditions intelligible without reducing the text to an indefinitely revisable editorial construct.
This framework examines an argument and its conditions; it does not claim to read an editor's private motives.
6Argument for the received reading
External and historical evidence
The Authorized Version preserves that structure. The long construction has broad Greek and versional support and sounds like Matthew’s deliberate warning. Two verbs mark the whole ruin of a witness that has lost its savor.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
The received grammar gives two linked results. A critic can say that a scribe added the conjunction and reshaped the first verb to create smoother parallelism. Copyists like balance.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The Textus Receptus says spoiled salt is good for nothing except to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot. The long construction has broad Greek and versional support and sounds like Matthew’s deliberate warning. The saying is not a command for the church to chase cultural praise.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Matthew 5:13. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.
Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture
Canonical coherence remains an explicit test: a proposed reading must make grammatical and theological sense within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. No conflict is asserted merely because two editions differ; the claimed incoherence must be demonstrated at this passage.
Canonical-coherence verdict
The Authorized Version is retained where its representation of the TR forms a coherent reading within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. Any competing form must demonstrate an equal or better canonical fit rather than merely invoke an edition or method label.
Response to the principal critical argument
The critical form reads more like “being cast out, to be trodden under foot.” A critic can say that a scribe added the conjunction and reshaped the first verb to create smoother parallelism. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament.
Conclusion
“Wherewith shall it be salted?” may ask how the salt itself can regain savor or how the earth will be salted if the appointed salt fails. Either way, the disciples’ vocation is not replaceable by a decorative religion. The following lamp saying makes the positive side visible: salt must retain its savor, and light must not hide.
This is why a small conjunction can matter without carrying a doctrine alone. And lets Matthew strike both blows. Textual preservation concerns the form of inspired warnings as well as the minimum content needed to reconstruct their general idea.
Logical entailment
The Authorized Version serves as the faithful English representation. The preservation claim applies immediately to the authentic Hebrew and Greek texts—not to an English translation as though it were the inspired source.
Canonical-status rule: Physical printing is not canonical inclusion. If an edition prints a passage in double brackets while judging it secondary or non-original, it disagrees with the received text concerning the identity and extent of inspired Scripture.
Status: Established
Immediate textual or doctrinal consequence
At Matthew 5:13, the received text reads and its Authorized Version representation reads “It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” — Matthew 5:13”. The assessed critical reading is “The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. No local Christian doctrine is lost; the immediate effect is confined to this textual difference.
Necessary reasoning chain
- At Matthew 5:13, the received Hebrew/Greek form is ; the Authorized Version represents it as “It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” — Matthew 5:13”. The assessed critical form is “The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.”.
- The received and critical forms are not the same at this locus. Therefore, if the competing critical form is original, the received form is secondary rather than the authentic wording at this place. The immediate consequence is: At Matthew 5:13, the received text reads and its Authorized Version representation reads “It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” — Matthew 5:13”. The assessed critical reading is “The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. No local Christian doctrine is lost; the immediate effect is confined to this textual difference.
- If the received form at this place is secondary rather than original, then the authentic Hebrew/Greek text was not kept pure at this place in the received textual tradition; therefore the unqualified confessional preservation claim must be denied or redefined.
Ultimate preservation consequence
If the competing reading is original and the received reading is secondary, then God did not preserve and keep pure the authentic text at this place in the received textual tradition. The unqualified confessional claim that Scripture was kept pure in all ages must therefore be denied or redefined.
Sources
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)Chapter 1, section 8 — Governing confessional preservation claim
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — The Sixth Edition of the Greek New TestamentCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- INTF — Online Tools for the ECMCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — Interview with Hugh HoughtonCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
“It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” — Matthew 5:13
The shorter reading does more than remove and. It recasts the final verbs. The Textus Receptus says spoiled salt is good for nothing except to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot. The critical form reads more like “being cast out, to be trodden under foot.”
The picture remains salt on the road. The received grammar gives two linked results.
Infinitives in balance
Christ first asks how savorless salt will be salted. Then he answers with a balanced pair: it is cast out and trodden down. The two infinitives depend on “good for nothing, except.” The Authorized Version preserves that structure.
The shorter construction has early support. A critic can say that a scribe added the conjunction and reshaped the first verb to create smoother parallelism. That is possible. Copyists like balance.
Copyists also shorten balance when repeated endings invite an eye-skip. Once and drops, the grammar almost demands recasting. The shorter form may therefore record one loss followed by a sensible repair. The long construction has broad Greek and versional support and sounds like Matthew’s deliberate warning.
Christ does not say true salt chemically ceases to be sodium chloride. First-century salt could be mixed with mineral matter. The useful portion could leach away and leave a tasteless residue. Whatever the physical process, the image is public failure: a disciple meant to preserve and season becomes road dust beneath human feet.
The saying is not a command for the church to chase cultural praise. Salt serves by remaining salt. The disciples must live the righteousness Christ unfolds in the sermon, even when that faithfulness brings persecution.
No doctrine changes if the shorter grammar is read. The question is whether Matthew gave the warning its paired fall. The received form has the clearer parallel, the wider transmission, and a ready account of how loss produced grammatical adjustment. The salt is cast out and trodden under foot. Two verbs mark the whole ruin of a witness that has lost its savor.
The grammar also controls the subject of the trampling. The salt does not merely fall by accident and happen to meet feet. It is judged useless, thrown outside, and then treated as refuse. The passive verbs leave the acting people unnamed because the fate, not the street crew, is Christ’s point.
“Wherewith shall it be salted?” may ask how the salt itself can regain savor or how the earth will be salted if the appointed salt fails. Either way, the disciples’ vocation is not replaceable by a decorative religion. The following lamp saying makes the positive side visible: salt must retain its savor, and light must not hide.
This is why a small conjunction can matter without carrying a doctrine alone. And lets Matthew strike both blows. Textual preservation concerns the form of inspired warnings as well as the minimum content needed to reconstruct their general idea.
Sources and further reading
- Matthew 5:1–16; Mark 9:49–50; Luke 14:34–35.
- Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, discussion of Matthew 5:13.
- Frederick H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament.
7Related materials
Open a group to follow connected articles, books, biographies, media, research notes, variants, or downloads. Research Center relationships use permanent record IDs; external items retain their actual link.
- Record
- VAR-1016
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.1-dossier
- Review
- Level B — Editorial synthesis
- Editor
- Chris Thomas
- Reviewer
- Independent reviewer pending assignment
- First date
- 2026-07-22 · Exact Day
- Last revised
- 2026-07-22
Evidence and editorial controls
- Verification
- Recovered project data; bibliographic and source-level verification remains record-specific. Metzger commentary entries were matched by exact passage where present; ECM/CBGM rationale is passage-specific only when an official editorial explanation is cited. Ledger rows are identified as UBS6 / intended NA29 data but retain their row-level verification caveats pending direct collation.
- Rights and access
- Original editorial synthesis; cited sources retain their stated rights.
- Known limitations
- Staging record; independent review remains open.
Links from this record
No public outgoing links are recorded.
Records that cite or connect here
No public backlinks are recorded.
Corrections and evidence submissions
No correction submission is presently attached to this record. Submit evidence or read the correction policy.
Chris Thomas, “Matthew 5:13 — “Cast Out and Trodden Under Foot”: Has the Salt Saying Been Shortened?,” VAR-1016, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas
- — Chris Thomas