[Greek] μωραίνω (mōrainō), [Latin] evancescere, [French] disparaitre, [Latin] stultus: to become foolish (moronic), to become tasteless, to become insipid, to make foolish; Mt.5:13, Mt.5:22, Rom.1:22, 1Cor.1:20
Background information:
Greek Hellenism: This term means to be foolish (absurd), to be deficient (dull), to play the fool, to indulge, and to be silly.
Medicine: Slackness, fatigue, and dullness of nerves
Animals: Panicked (stupefied) animals, and hibernating animals
Man: Mental and physical deficiency, folly, foolish judgment, impulsiveness, arrogance, desire for power, lack of understanding, thoughts, words, and acts
Sophocles’ Ajax 594: “You have foolish hope, I think.”
Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus 433: “I did not know you would speak foolishly.”
Sophocles; Electra 889: “Now, for the gods’ love, listen, so that you may know.”
Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae 474: “It’s and old saying that our absurdist and maddest decrees always somehow turn out for our good.”
Euripides’s Medea 615: “You would be a fool, woman, not to accept this offer, woman.”
Demosthenes’s Philippic 3 9.54: “As all heaven is my witness, you have reached such a height of folly or madness—I know not what to call it.”
Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus 540: Is your attempt foolish to seek the throne without followers and friends?”
Sophocles’ Antigone 469: “If my actions actions are foolish in your sight, it may be that it is a fool who accuses me of folly.”
Old Testament: Folly is seen as having a lack (intentional or unintentional) of knowledge of God. This is seen as having eyes that do not see or ears that do not hear. This folly can be sometimes condemned as apostasy from God. Evil and corrupt leaders/rulers are often perceived as fools. Devotion to idols is seen as foolish. Warning against fools is a rule of life which runs through the wisdom of Sirach.
New Testament: This term means to become foolish, to lose taste, and to be nonsensical. Salt becomes a metaphor (simile) for the usefulness (or uselessness) of a disciple. A disciple who fails in good works is useless as flavorless salt. An ineffective disciple is also like tasteless salt. Idolaters and false teachers, claiming to be wise, become fools in the sight of God. God makes the wisdom of the world look foolish. Wise persons, scribes, and philosophers are made fools.
Scripture:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Mt.5:13
This salt’s flavor is the disciples’ desire and enthusiasm to spread the Gospel. The disciple who wavers in his faith loses his value (“saltiness”). Jesus was telling His disciple to be “salty”.
“While claiming to be wise, they became fools.” Rom.1:22
Idolaters, false teachers, and philosophers, claiming to have their own wisdom, are made foolish.
“Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish?” 1Cor.1:20
The wise men, scribes, philosophers all appear vain and contemptible. They fail to see God’s plan for salvation.
Salt: Salt, used in a variety of ways, is an important trading commodity. Salt is used in preserving foods, enhancing food flavor, and cleaning wounds. Even useless and tainted salt still has some useful value in plugging roof leaks and absorbing moisture. This useless salt was also thrown on the roads in the Roman Empire.
Etymology: The Latin adjective stultus means foolish or stupid. The related Latin verb stultificare means to allege to be of unsound mind. The French verb disparaitre means to disappear. The Latin verb evanescere means to vanish or pass away. The Latin sal means salt. Soldiers were paid for their services (salarium) in the form of salt. The Romans also developed the tradition of dipping romaine lettuce (salata) in salt. This later becomes salad.
Conclusion,
Salt, salad, salary, disappear, disappearance, vanish, stultify, stultification, moron, moronic, moratorium, evanesce, evanesence
Again, foolishness is another time ‘honored’ human character trait which appears again and again throughout history. It is perhaps not surprising that arrogance and pursuit of power are examples of foolishness and folly.
In the Old Testament, foolishness can take on a much more serious sense impacting one’s relationship with God. This foolishness can be intentional or unintentional
A “salty” disciple (Christian) is an effective disciple (Christian). One could perhaps say also that a “seasoned” Christian is one experienced doing this. Luke also says tasteless salt must be thrown out. Essentially, disciples “worth their salt” are the ones who are effective in spreading the Gospel. The world’s wisdom is foolish compared to God.
Who would have thought that foolishness and vanishing could be related? This makes sense when knowledge, mental faculties, common sense, and wisdom disappear.
Solomon offers some very wise advice about foolishness.
Update: Where to begin? There is so much I could say!
The BLM and woke crowd foolishly believed defunding the police and zero-bail would reduce crime. Now there is more crime and fewer police.
I can imagine many Ukrainians are thinking; ‘Listen. For the love of God, please do more to help us!’
The creator of Libs of TikTok is now being attacked for just illustrating the liberals who “proudly” talk about themselves on TikTok. (As it turns out, the joke is on those who are upset or even embarrassed about what is being illustrated on TikTok).
It is often very true that it sometimes it takes one fool to know and recognize another fool. (It takes one to know one!)
Elon Musk was not a fool in accepting Twitter management’s previous offer to sit on their board. It is now Elon Musk who is making a lot of people look foolish.
It is no longer to foolish to believe there couldn’t possibly be a “Ministry of Truth” in the United States. Not so anymore. The Dept. of Homeland Security is now creating a “Disinformation Governance Board” dedicated to countering “misinformation” (China and the other authoritarian regimes must be proud!).
Many of us have witnessed such great heights of incompetence, foolish, and weakness with this administration.
Many of us are unfortunately seeing the stultification (declining of mental faculties) of our president before our very eyes.
This administration continues to foolishly abdicate its responsibility for securing the southern border.
This “Disinformation Governance Board will be run by Nina Jankowicz, the ‘Mary Poppins of disinformation’ which is something quite atrocious!
And I hope your day is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
As we have seen, what is considered foolish (or wise) is sometimes up-ended in scripture. It turns up that what we think is wise is actually foolish to God. At times others may get upset when we point out their absurdity. There are times when one needs to overthrow the status quo to make one’s point. Sometimes one must even subvert conventional wisdom to bring about needed change in the cultural wars. I hope this post is worth its weight in salt.
Next post: Overturning and upsetting