In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the bible says that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt. Thanks to Zecharia Sitchin, I've learned that this is very likely a mistranslation, though a very understandable mistake, as you'll see. What might actually have happened to her is far more interesting. First, here's the relevant passage.


The Hebrew word translated as salt in this passage is melach, which does indeed mean salt. However, the root of melach is malach, which means to vanish away, or dissipate, as salt does when mixed into water. Given that Hebrew writing omits vowels, it's easy to see why malach may have been mistranslated as melach. Here's a verse from Isaiah wherein malach (vanish away) is used.


While credit goes to Zecharia Sitchen for pointing out the melach/malach confusion, Zecharia didn't address the other word, pillar. But I have a theory about that. Recall the pillar of cloud/fire, which led the Israelites through the wilderness. What this term might be describing is a column of light which came down from heaven, perhaps much like this actual photo of a mysterious beam of light, which is but one of many contemporary examples wherein people have witnessed a beam of light being emitted from a UFO. Now returning to the story, we can theorize with some confidence that what might actually have happened to Lot's wife is that she became enveloped in a column of light (pillar) from above, and vanished away. One can't help but be reminded of Star Trek's transporter beam. And with that, another amazing (and emerging) truth comes to light.

For an in-depth discussion of this topic see also Steven Cheairs' excellent article, Lot's Wife. In that article he points out some of Jesus's words which lend additional weight to the theory that this was indeed a mistranslation, and that Jesus knew the actual meaning.

Also interesting is that the Hebrew word for angels is malachim. It would seem to me, therefore, that they were named after their ability to vanish into thin air.