O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

the wrong way and right way (Talbert 2006:121). The antitheses is seen in verse 19depicting the “wrong way” while verse 20 depicts the “right way (Hendrickx1984:129).” Lloyd-Jones (2006:396) says that as there is a negative command inverse 19 and a positive command in verse 20 this means that the disciple is left withno excuse in making a decision. Lenski (1964:275-276) also picks up on thenegative command or prohibition and argues that the negative command can beread as “stop treasuring,” i.e. it was something the disciples were currently doing.The imagery created by Jesus commanding his disciples not to lay up treasures onearth would be one of a person either amassing treasure or storing it up for safekeeping. This is seen as follows: the word for treasure comes from thesauro whichwas used in ancient Jewish Culture to refer to treasure or some sort of storagefacility such as “treasure chamber, a storage room, granary, or strongbox (Eiclher &Brown1976:829-830).” “Lay up” comes from thesaurizo and is used similarly tothesauros in the sense of “storing up treasure, or putting it in safe keeping.”Thesaurizo is often put to use by NT authors as a “concept” to teach the idea thatGod and man’s values as they relate to material possessions are at odds; whatpeople consider of great value, God considers worthless, and “real treasure involvesearthly poverty (Eichler & Brown 1976:830-831).”A surface level reading of Matthew 6:19-20 seems to enforce the idea that earthlypoverty is necessary to gain Heavenly riches. It looks like Jesus is stating that it isimpossible to accumulate both earthly and heavenly reassure. However, it is unlikelythat Jesus was prohibiting the accumulation of all material possessions.Ridderbos (1987:136) shows that several other passages from scripture suggest thatJesus did not forbid acquiring material possessions. Doriani (2006:156) points outthat Jesus wouldn’t be forbidding all economic activity as the bible in fact condoneshard work and prudent investment of wealth(Genesis 41 and Proverbs 6:6-10).Further, Ridderbos (1987:136) argues that Jesus, being a Jewish teacher, wouldhave had a style of teaching that uses contrasts that need not be taken in theabsolutes. Watson (n.d.:18) follows a similar line. He notes that the teaching style39