'Salting with Fire' (Mark 9:49)

At Mark 9:49, the verb ἁλίζω is translated as “to salt, season”: “For everyone will be salted with fire.” No satisfactory explanation has been given of what “salting with fire” means. Here, the author suggests that the other meaning of the same verb be taken: “to collect, gather”: “For everyone will be gathered by fire.” Before the final division into those who go to Gehenna or to heaven, the work of everyone will be examined by fire, similar to what is said in 1 Cor 3:13, to see where they should go. This is the meaning found in patristic commentators on this verse.