TREASURE, TREASURY, TREASURER
1. In OT ‘treasure’ and ‘treasury’ stand for various Heb. terms, but both words usually render ’ôtsâr . This shows that ‘treasure’ and ‘treasury’ are not carefully distinguished in EV [Note: English Version.] , or else that ’ôtsâr itself may stand for either. As a matter of fact the truth lies with both alternatives. Strictly, a treasure is a store of wealth, while a treasury is a storehouse, a place where treasure is kept. Sometimes, however, ‘treasure’ occurs in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] where ‘treasury’ is meant, as Job 38:22 ‘Hast thou entered into the treasures (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘treasuries’) of the snow?’; and, on the other hand, ‘treasury’ is sometimes found where ‘treasure’ would be the more correct rendering, as Joshua 6:19; Joshua 6:24 and RV [Note: Revised Version.] of Ezra 2:69 . The indeterminateness of ’ôtsâr is shown by its constant employment for ‘treasure’ and ‘treasury’ alike. The ‘treasure (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘store’) cities’ of Exodus 1:11 (cf. 1 Kings 9:19 , 2 Chronicles 8:4 ) are cities in which provisions were stored up (cf. Genesis 41:48; Genesis 41:56 ).
2. In NT we find a like ambiguousness in the use of ‘treasure,’ and also of the Gr. thçsauros for which it stands. The treasures of the Magi ( Matthew 2:11 ) and the treasure in heaven ( Matthew 19:21 ) refer to precious stores; but it is out of his treasury rather than his treasure that the good man brings forth good things ( Matthew 12:35 ), and the householder things new and old ( Matthew 13:52 ). In Acts 8:27 ‘treasure’ renders gaza , a word of Persian origin. In Matthew 27:6 ‘treasury’ represents korbanâs (the depository of the ‘corban,’ see Sacrifice and Offering, § 1 ( a )), the sacred treasury into which the chief priests would not put Judas’ 30 pieces of silver. For the treasury of the Temple ( gazophylakion ) into which Jewish worshippers cast their offerings ( Mark 12:41; Mark 12:43 , Luke 21:1 ) see Temple, § 11 ( b ). When Jesus is said to have spoken ‘in the treasury’ ( John 8:20 ), the meaning probably is that He was teaching in the colonnade of the Temple where stood the treasure-boxes into which the offerings were cast.
Treasurer occurs in OT in Nehemiah 12:13 , Ezra 1:8; Ezra 7:21 , Isaiah 22:15 , Daniel 3:2-3 , representing a different term in each writer. The word is found in NT only in RV [Note: Revised Version.] of Romans 16:23 as substitute for AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘chamberlain’ (Gr. oikonomos ), but the Ethiopian eunuch is said to have had charge of all the treasure of queen Candace.
J. C. Lambert.