What does ἅλας (hálas) mean in the Bible?
ἅλας (hálas): Salt preserves and flavors; figuratively denotes wisdom and grace that seasons speech and character.
Greek · G217
ἅλας
Salt; figuratively, prudence
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ἅλας G217
Pronunciation hálas
What does ἅλας (hálas) mean in the Bible?
ἅλας (hálas): Salt preserves and flavors; figuratively denotes wisdom and grace that seasons speech and character.
Full entry for ἅλας (G217) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G217?
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include salt (6), Salt [is] (1), with salt (1).
Where does ἅλας (hálas) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Mark (3), Luke (2), Matthew (2), Colossians (1).
Are there verse guides for ἅλας (hálas)?
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It salt 6× Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:50, Luke 14:34
Salt [is] 1× Mark 9:50
with salt 1× Colossians 4:6
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 5:13 ἅλας to salt Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 5:13 ἅλας to salt Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Mark 9:50 ἅλας to Salt [is] Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Mark 9:50 ἅλας to salt Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Mark 9:50 ἅλα to salt Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Luke 14:34 ἅλας to Salt Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Luke 14:34 ἅλας to salt Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Colossians 4:6 ἅλατι to with salt Noun - Dative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 5:13
Aligned rows 8
Books represented 4
Matthew 2 Mark 3 Luke 2 Colossians 1
Source forms
ἅλας 6x halas Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:50, Luke 14:34
ἅλα 1x hala Mark 9:50
ἅλατι 1x halati Colossians 4:6
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 6x Matthew 5:13, Mark 9:50, Luke 14:34
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular 1x Mark 9:50
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular 1x Colossians 4:6
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Salt preserves and flavors; figuratively denotes wisdom and grace that seasons speech and character.
Source Gloss
salt; figuratively, prudence
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
alav
salt
Read verse alav
salt
Read verse Mark 9:50 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἅλας· alav
salt
Read verse Mark 9:50 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἅλας alav
salt
Read verse Mark 9:50 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἅλας, alav
salt
Read verse Luke 14:34 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἅλας· alav
salt
Read verse Luke 14:34 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἅλας alav
salt
Read verse Colossians 4:6 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
ἅλατι alati
salt
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 2 Aligned forms 7 Case pattern Nominative (6) Number pattern Singular (7)
Dative · Singular · Neuter Col 4:6 1×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Mark 9:49–50 ἅλας hálas
salt; preservative, covenant symbol
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἅλας is built from this root:
ἅλς G251
Canonical Themes
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain