What Does Matthew 6:20 Mean in the King James?
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek uses one word-family for both “lay up” and “treasures,” then places that treasure beyond decay and theft.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you wherever security seems to come from accumulation: what is held in earthly stores remains vulnerable to slow consumption and sudden seizure. It names treasure held in the heavens, where neither kind of loss reaches it. Its measure of security is where it is kept, beyond decay and theft.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that ownership and careful guarding can make a treasure invulnerable; decay and theft remain limits possession cannot remove.
THE ROOT
θησαυρίζετε
thēsaurizete
GROWS FROM
θησαυρ-
Greek word-family stem
Treasury or store of valued things; as a verb, to store up as treasure.
“lay up / treasures” in this verse is thēsaurizete. English separates “lay up” from “treasures,” but the Greek uses forms from the same word-family. The verse binds the act of storing to the value being stored, then names a place where that treasure is beyond decay and theft.
ALSO GROWS
thēsaurizō: To store up or treasure.
θησαυρίζω
This is the verb behind “lay up,” sharing its stem with the noun for “treasures” beside it.
thēsauros: Treasure, store, or treasury.
θησαυρός
This noun names the valued deposit itself; Luke 12:33 uses the same word for a treasure in the heavens.
βρῶσις
brōsis
GROWS FROM
βρω-
Greek word-family stem
Eating or consumption.
The word rendered “rust” means eating or consumption and elsewhere can refer to food. Beside the moth, it pictures decay as another eater: wealth is consumed from within or taken by a thief from without.
ALSO GROWS
brōsis: Eating, consumption, or food.
βρῶσις
Here the word rendered “rust” makes corrosion sound like something eating away at treasure.
brōma: Food; something eaten.
βρῶμα
This related word keeps the same eating sense, illuminating “rust” as consumption rather than merely a surface blemish.
THE PATTERN
What is held in the earthly realm remains vulnerable to loss, while treasure kept in heaven is described as enduring.
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,THE THREAD
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.Luke uses the same Greek noun, θησαυρός (thēsauros), for “treasure” and places it in the heavens, then names the same threats Matthew names: moth and thief. The shared word-family makes the connection visible: both verses describe treasure by its location and by the losses that cannot reach it.
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