Matanga, Tinos SilverioTinos SilverioMatanga2024-08-192024-08-192024978-3-98989-012-1https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/96602This study intends to suggest an alternative reading of the concept “treasure”, which is found in Jesus’ command “not to treasure for yourselves treasure on earth” (Matt 6,19). For its literary section, the paper will employ selected steps of the exegetical method which include inter- and intratextual reading of the concept under study, found in the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, as well as its use within the religio-economic context of the Near East. This is here argued as paramount in coming up with an alternative understanding of treasuring within the context of the Sermon on the Mount. On the level of application, the study will utilise the Zimbabwean context as a case study, for the purposes of observing how the pericope is currently being interpreted by the proponents of involuntary material poverty, as well as the advocates of the Gospel of prosperity, two seemingly antagonising poles within Zimbabwean denominational Christianity. Whilst both camps appeal to biblical passages to justify their stance in relation to material wealth, Matt 6,19–21 included, the main question in this regard will be to determine whether the pericope under study fits in the discourse. The hypothesis is that when understood within the context of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus possibly inaugurated his new movement distinct from the one advocated by the Jewish temple, his use of the Old Testament concept “treasure” referred to temple wealthmore than it would fit in the discourse regarding individual accumulation or not accumulation of material wealth, technically referred to as πλοῦτοςin the Synoptic Gospels.otherGospelMatthewTreasureAccumulation of Wealth230bookpart