He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Matthew 13.52, NIV
Whenever I have passed this saying in the street (as it were), I have thought, “Really? This is kind of weird…”
The problem is that in our English translations, it sounds like Jesus is saying to His disciples that Scribes will have a richer, more rounded experience of the Kingdom because of all the learning and study they have under their belts. And you really ought to be thinking “what???” by now, because this would represent the first nice thing Jesus has to say about them.
To me this rendering is a great example of a religious mindset reading things backwards. A moment’s reflection should tell us this is an impossible statement from the mouth of the one who said “new wine goes in new wine skins” and “no one patches an old cloak with a patch of unshrunk cloth”.
But maybe, unlike Jesus, we do want to water things down, so that the “explosive power” of the new wine is defused and won’t damage our treasured old wineskins.
The Greek here is actually very clear, not to mention unambiguous. A Scribe who is discipled into the Kingdom of the Heavens is like a man, a steward of a house, who throws out of his storeroom new things and old things.
So firstly, good news: the invitation to the Kingdom is for everyone, including scribes. In Greek, the word is γραμματεύς, which is literally a secretary or registrar; in Israel, Torah scrolls and copies of Rabbinic and pre-Rabbinic teachings wore out with constant use, and so the role of scribe – someone who made new copies of the texts – was both necessary and, because of their constant exposure to the texts, highly respected.
But a simple reading of this saying in Greek tells us this is not a story about scribes adding the teaching of Rabbi Jesus to their wonderful store of wisdom. No, this Scribe discipled into the Kingdom is like the man in charge of a household who, just like the man stumbling over treasure in v 44 or the merchant of pearls in v 45, recognises that everything has to go from the storeroom (ἐκ τοῦ θησαυροῦ, a term which covers everything from a pantry cupboard to a treasure house), regardless of age and value, because he needs to make room for something better and of infinitely more value.
Now we have a saying that makes sense and is consistent with Jesus’ dealings with the religious elite – which, despite what we might think, are not all anger and condemnation (He was definitely warning them, though). If you want to reflect on the genuine compassion Jesus offered them, some of my earlier posts, including https://seeingthekingdom.com/2021/01/17/we-talk-about-what-we-know/ and also Chapter Nine in Seeing the Kingdom cover this.
And we also have a saying that makes far more sense of my own experience, and that of many others I know. Learning the Kingdom is relatively simple; but if you aren’t careful, unlearning everything you have been taught by religion can take years. Much faster to just assume everything you already know is wrong and throw it out of the storehouse.
Better you understand one Law of the Kingdom and operate in it, than live life in a tangle of wrong beliefs about God.
Seeing the Kingdom 