The recognized meaning of these words in the days of Jesus intensified their importance at every use of them, as when it was said that "in Him was life; and the life was the light of men."[123] Salt was blood; blood was life; salt was life; life was light; blood and salt and light were life.
Among folk-lore customs on both sides of the ocean, salt and a candle are carried across the threshold on moving to a new house, as if representing life and light as needs in a new home. Sometimes the Bible also is included, as if in recognition of the true basis of all sacred covenanting. There are other folk-lore customs connecting salt and light.[124]
According to Professor Dr. Hilprecht, in the old Assyrian language, _[t.]âbtu_, "salt," and _[t.]âbtu_, "blessing," have the same ideogram, and are written exactly alike. "This suggests the inquiry whether they are not derived from the same root, _[t.]âbu_, 'to be good,' and whether _[t.]âbtu_, 'salt,' was not so called by the Assyrians as the great blessing given to man, as needed more than aught else for the preparation of food and the preservation of life."
Bread is the basis of a common meal, as blood is the basis of a common life. As, in the sacrifices, the body of the animal offered in sacrifice was the basis of a covenant meal, while the blood was the basis of union with the divine; so in the symbolism of bread and wine, in any sacramental meal, or in any meal of sacred covenanting between two persons, the bread stood for the flesh, and the wine for the blood. So, also, when bread and salt are used together, the salt would seem to stand for blood or life, and the bread to stand for the flesh or the body.[125]
[125] See _Blood Covenant_, pp. 182-190; 268 f.; 350-355.
Blood gives life; flesh as food gives sustenance. Salt represents life; bread represents sustaining food. In this light those who share salt together are in a life-sharing covenant; those who share bread together are sharers in a common growth. Covenant union in sacrifice is secured or consummated by blood-sharing; it is evidenced or celebrated by food-sharing.
"Milk and honey" seem to be a symbol of blood and flesh, or of salt and bread, from a divine source. They are supplied to man from the vegetable world, through the agency of living animals, by the power of the Author of life. They stand for the vivifying and nourishing of the body by a providential ministry to man. In this light they seem to be viewed by primitive peoples. The Land of Promise was represented to the ancient Hebrews as "a land flowing with milk and honey,"[126] and this figure seemed to represent to them all that could be desired in the line of God's ministry to their material needs. It was many times repeated to them, or by them, in this sense.[127]