<P> This is a very famous verse, and "salt of the earth" has become a common English expression . Clarke notes that the phrase first appeared in the Tyndale New Testament of 1525 . The modern usage of the phrase is somewhat separate from its scriptural origins . Today it refers to someone who is humble and lacking pretension . Due to its fame it has occurred a number of times in art and popular culture, but as Siebald notes usually these are based on the secular understanding of the term . It has been the title of an important 1954 film, a John Godber play, a song on The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet, and a non-fiction work by Uys Krige . Both Algernon Swinburne and D.H. Lawrence wrote poems by this name . In Middle English literature the expression had a different meaning somewhat closer to the scripture, mostly being used to refer to the clergy . This usage is found both in Chaucer's "The Summoner's Tale" and Piers Plowman . </P> <P> Along with Matthew 5: 14, this verse became the theme of World Youth Day 2002: "You are the salt of the earth...you are the light of the world". </P>

For ye are the salt of the earth