College chemist draws parallels between salt, Christian wisdom

Stephen Patton, associate professor of chemistry at Missouri Valley College, shows a model of sodium chloride during a talk comparing salt to aspects of Christianity at the college Monday night. He used passages from the Bible and his chemistry knowledge to support the idea that science is not an enemy of religion. His was the first in a three-part series of presentations by scholars who are also Christians. [Click to enlarge]

Salt is one of the most widely studied, and used, of all chemicals, and was so even back in Jesus' time, said Stephen Patton, associate professor of chemistry at Missouri Valley College.

Patton was the first of three MVC science scholars who will compare science and religion during a series of addresses stretching into April. He spoke Monday to an audience of about 40 including MVC students, staff and community members.

"I heard a minister talk about 20 years ago (about salt)," Patton said. "He wasn't a chemist, but he did the best he could." After that sermon, Patton said he came up with about 20 analogies involving salt and Christianity. By the end of the week, he was up to around 100 and now, he said, he has found several hundred analogies of salt and Bible references.

He said salt is mentioned in nearly 30 Bible passages, where it is often compared to wisdom, to leading a good life in the eyes of God and being a Christian. He touched on several passages and gave those attending a hand-out of more metaphors and Bible references.

In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he said (Matthew 4:13), "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."

Patton said in Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew languages, there is a strong double meaning between salt and wisdom. The people of Jesus' time knew that too much or too little salt was bad, and he gave the Old Testament example of Judges 9:45, when Abimelech, after winning a battle, "demolished the city and sowed it with salt."

They also knew of two types of salt that would have been known in biblical times: the salt of Istra in Romania and the salt of Sodom.

In Istra, the salt was over 99 percent sodium chloride, which people use today as table salt. Patton said soldiers in Roman armies were paid in salt from Istra, and the word salary comes for the Latin word "sal," which means salt. But in Sodom, the salt was only 27 percent sodium chloride and 52 percent magnesium chloride, which made for a bitter taste and will sting the eyes, Patton said. He said in the Talmud, a sacred Jewish text, hundreds of references are made to salt, including ritual washing before and after eating the salt of Sodom.

In Ezekiel 16:4, the passage mentions the tradition of rubbing infants with salt. Patton likened the process to rubbing newly-caught fish with salt to preserve them, just like newborn Christians should be given the knowledge of Christ.

In his handout, Patton gave additional examples and went into more detail of a few of the salt analogies. "Salt makes bread in particular and food in general taste better to us," he wrote. "We make the bread of life, the story of Jesus, and spiritual food, the Bible, taste better to each other."

Tim Kiser, Missouri Valley campus minister and one of two facilitators of the talks, also discussed how Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt could be seen as an example for other Christians and mentioned the similarities of salt content in the ocean and the human body. He also asked what people can do if they ingest too much salt, to which Patton replied they can drink water to dilute the salt and cleanse themselves.

Jessica Swanson, a MVC student, said she enjoyed the talk. She said she was interested in Patton's answer that living water purifies salt, and that people knew too much or too little salt was bad for both crops and people in Jesus' day.

Louise Mills, whose husband Mark will give the next presentation in the series at 7 p.m. March 29, said she thought the concept of the series -- that scientists can also be Christians -- was important and often not understood. "Science does not dispute God," she said. "You can have a scientific background and believe in God and the Bible."

Contact Jenny Bryers at

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