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Matthew compares the kingdom of heaven to a hidden treasure, language similar to Rabbinic parables. Leviticus Rabbah links treasure to divine reward, describing entry into a king’s treasury as the contrast between Eden and Gehenna.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 13:44
New Testament
42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The one who has ears had better listen! 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. 46 When he found a pearl of great value, he went out and sold everything he had and bought it.
Leviticus Rabbah 5:4
Aggadah
Rabbinic
He said to her: ‘My rabbis are here and I do not know what to do.’ His wife, who was more righteous than he, said to him: ‘All that remains for us is such and such field. Go and sell half of it and give it to them.’ He sold half of it and gave it to them. They prayed on his behalf and said: ‘May the Holy One blessed be He restore what you have lost.’ Sometime later, he went to plow his half field. As he was plowing, the earth opened before him and his cow fell there and its leg was broken. He descended to take it up, and the Holy One blessed be He illuminated his eyes and he found buried treasure there. He said: ‘My cow’s leg was broken for my benefit.’ When the rabbis returned there, they asked about him and said: ‘How is Abba Yudan doing?’
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Notes and References
"... As far as Amoraic Midrashim are concerned, images from the Bildfeld of the treasure, both in the sense of finding a treasure and partaking of items from a treasury, appear in Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah. The idea of a divine reward for good deeds is associated with workers allowed to enter the king’s treasury in a king parable in Genesis Rabbah 9:9. The parable is used to illustrate the difference between Gan Eden and Gehenna. This is likened “to a king who had an orchard, and he brought workers into it, and he built a treasury at its entrance ..."
Hezser, Catherine
Finding a Treasure: The Treasure Motif in Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman Narratives in the Context of Rabbinic Halakhah and Roman Law
(pp. 295-325) Mohr Siebeck, 2019
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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