StrongerBible

thēsauros

θησαυρός

GreekG2344“treasure, treasure-chest, ...”

Appears 18 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 2:11Mat 6:19Mat 6:20Mat 6:21Mat 12:35 (2×)Mat 13:44Mat 13:52Mat 19:21Mrk 10:21Luk 6:45 (2×)Luk 12:33Luk 12:34Luk 18:222Co 4:7Col 2:3Heb 11:26
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradethay-sow-ROSSnoun

What thēsauros means

1

treasure: valuable things gathered and kept safe, from earthly riches to the lasting reward stored up with God

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

In its first sense the word names the valuables themselves, the things worth gathering and guarding. That can be plain earthly wealth, a buried find, or the royal riches of a kingdom. It can also be something priceless that is not money at all, like the good news about Jesus or the fullness of wisdom.

Its most striking use is treasure in heaven. In Jesus' world this was close to a fixed expression: a person who gave generously to the poor was thought to be building up an account with God that moth and rust could not touch and that would be paid out at the end. So when Jesus tells someone to sell what he has, give to the poor, and gain treasure in heaven, he is not offering a vague spiritual comfort but naming a real and lasting store that outlasts every earthly one.

The single English word treasure can drift toward something soft or sentimental. The original keeps its feet on the ground: it remembers granaries, strong-rooms, and account books, and that concreteness is exactly what gives the heavenly and figurative uses their force.

Nuances

1aliteral valuables: earthly wealth, riches, or a buried hoard
Mat 6:19Mat 13:44Heb 11:26
1btreasure in heaven: lasting reward stored up with God and paid out at the last day
Mat 6:20Mat 6:21Mat 19:21Mrk 10:21Luk 12:33Luk 12:34Luk 18:22
1cfigurative treasure: something of supreme worth, such as the gospel or the fullness of wisdom
2Co 4:7Col 2:3

Disputed

How to read "treasure in heaven": whether it names a real, lasting reward that giving to the poor and faithful obedience genuinely accumulate before God, or is instead a picture of undivided devotion and the coming kingdom that should not be read in terms of earning.

  • majorityIt is a genuine store of reward laid up with God. Almsgiving and cross-bearing really do build a lasting account that is drawn on at the end, and grace and recompense are not opposed. This reads the saying against the Jewish piety of Jesus' day, in which giving to the poor was widely spoken of as funding a heavenly account.; Gary A. Anderson, Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition (Yale University Press, 2013); Nathan Eubank, Wages of Cross-Bearing and Debt of Sin: The Economy of Heaven in Matthew's Gospel (BZNW 196; De Gruyter, 2013); W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Matthew (ICC), 3 vols.
  • minorityIt is a call to single-hearted devotion and a picture of the coming kingdom as blessing, not a transaction. The emphasis falls on where the heart is set, not on a tally of rewards earned by particular deeds.; Ulrich Luz, Matthew (Hermeneia); R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT)
2

storehouse or chest: the place or container in which valuables are kept and from which they are brought out

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

In its second sense the word names not the valuables but the place that holds them: a chest, a strong-room, a storeroom. When the visitors from the east opened their treasures before the child Jesus, they were opening their containers to bring out the gifts inside.

Jesus turns this into a picture of the human heart. The heart is a storehouse, and what a person says and does is simply what gets brought out of it: a good heart brings out good, an evil heart brings out evil. In the same way a well-taught follower is like the keeper of a storeroom who can bring out both new things and old.

English has no single word that covers both the valuables and the place that holds them, which is why translators move between treasure, treasure-chest, and storehouse depending on the verse.

Nuances

2aa chest or casket: a container for carrying and holding valuables
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 2:11
2ban inner storehouse: the store a person draws things out of, above all the heart
Mat 12:35 (2×)Mat 13:52Luk 6:45 (2×)

What scholars say about thēsauros

The standard lexica (BDAG, LSJ, Louw-Nida) keep two senses formally distinct: the stored valuables (the deposit) and the storehouse or container that holds them (the depository), a split that goes back to classical usage (LSJ senses I and II) and dominates the concrete Koine documentary evidence (Moulton-Milligan; Spicq). Beekes (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010) rejects the traditional derivation from tithemi as folk etymology and classes the word a Pre-Greek loanword tied from the outset to architecture. The Septuagint renders the word most often for Hebrew otsar (storehouse, treasury), also for matmon (hidden treasure), building a biblical field that includes royal and temple treasuries and God's cosmic storehouses of rain, snow, and judgment (Hauck, TDNT III.136-138). The most significant recent development, argued by Gary Anderson and Nathan Eubank, is that treasure in heaven was a near-technical Second Temple idiom, generated by exegesis of Proverbs 10:2 and attested in Tobit, Sirach, and the rabbinic Monobaz tradition, for a heavenly account funded by almsgiving; this has shifted the consensus on Matthew 6, Luke 12, and the rich-young-ruler tradition. Passage-level readings largely converge: Matthew 2:11 is the container sense (Davies and Allison; Luz); Matthew 12:35 and Luke 6:45 fuse the two, the heart being the storehouse and its good or evil the contents; Colossians 2:3 quotes Proverbs 2:3-4 LXX; Hebrews 11:26 is royal wealth parallel to ploutos (Attridge; Koester). The referent of the treasure in 2 Corinthians 4:7 (gospel knowledge, or apostolic ministry) is debated in degree, not kind (Thrall; Harris; Furnish).

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. θησαυρόςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. θησαυρόςlexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domainslexicon
  • Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Brill, 2010), p. 548dictionary
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930)lexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testamenttheological-dictionary
  • Friedrich Hauck, θησαυρός, in TDNT III.136-138theological-dictionary
  • Gary A. Anderson, Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition (Yale University Press, 2013)monograph
  • Gary A. Anderson, A Treasury in Heaven: The Exegesis of Proverbs 10:2 in the Second Temple Period, HBAI 1/3 (2012): 351-67article
  • Nathan Eubank, Wages of Cross-Bearing and Debt of Sin: The Economy of Heaven in Matthew's Gospel (BZNW 196; De Gruyter, 2013)monograph
  • W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Matthew (ICC), 3 vols.commentary
  • Ulrich Luz, Matthew (Hermeneia)commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT)commentary
  • Margaret E. Thrall, 2 Corinthians (ICC)commentary
  • Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC)commentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of θησαυρός

accusative m s

θησαυρὸν

Mat 19:21, Mrk 10:21, Luk 12:33, Luk 18:22, 2Co 4:7

genitive m s

θησαυροῦ

Mat 12:35, Mat 12:35, Mat 13:52, Luk 6:45, Luk 6:45

accusative m p

θησαυροὺς

Mat 2:11, Mat 6:19, Mat 6:20

nominative m s

θησαυρός, θησαυρὸς

Mat 6:21, Luk 12:34

dative m s

θησαυρῷ

Mat 13:44

genitive m p

θησαυρῶν

Heb 11:26

nominative m p

θησαυροὶ

Col 2:3