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 Jos_6:19; Jos_6:24 and RV [Note: Revised Version.] of Ezr_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 Exo_1:11 (cf. 1Ki_9:19, 2Ch_8:4) are cities in which provisions were stored up (cf. Gen_41:48; Gen_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 (Mat_2:11) and the treasure in heaven (Mat_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 (Mat_12:35), and the householder things new and old (Mat_13:52). In Act_8:27 treasure renders gaza, a word of Persian origin. In Mat_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 (Mar_12:41; Mar_12:43, Luk_21:1) see Temple, § 11 (b). When Jesus is said to have spoken in the treasury (Joh_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 Neh_12:13, Ezr_1:8; Ezr_7:21, Isa_22:15, Dan_3:2-3, representing a different term in each writer. The word is found in NT only in RV [Note: Revised Version.] of Rom_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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909