Leithart on Perrin’s Jesus the Temple

Leithart summarizes Perrin’s fascinating observation on St. Matthew’s language of heavenly treasures with the following words:

In his highly stimulating Jesus the Temple, Nick Perrin examines Jesus’ statements about “heavenly treasure” in the light of the “counter-temple” agenda that Perrin argues is central to Jesus’ work.  The contrast that Jesus draws is not between a treasure room in a home (which few would have) v. a treasure room in heaven.  Perrin points out that in Scripture “treasury” typically, almost invariably, refers to the temple treasury.  Jesus is contrasting the practice of storing up treasures in the (doomed) earthly temple in Jerusalem – which are threatened by rust and robbers, like Antiochus and the corrupt priests – and the practices that store up treasure in the heavenly temple, the treasury that is being opened up in Jesus’ own ministry.