Greek word · G1047
γάζα
gaza
treasury
A Persian loanword for a royal treasury: the king's stored wealth and the state finances. It also forms gazophylakion, 'treasury-guard', the Temple treasury (Mark 12:41; Luke 21:1; John 8:20).
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
γάζα, -ης, ἡ (a Persian word),
[in LXX for גִּנְזִין, II Est.5:17 6:1 7:20, 21, Esther 4:7; גִּזְבָּר, II Est.7:21; Isaiah 39:2 * ;]
treasure: Acts 8:27.†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A Persian loanword for a royal treasury: the king's stored wealth and the state finances. It also forms gazophylakion, 'treasury-guard', the Temple treasury (Mark 12:41; Luke 21:1; John 8:20).
- Against the English
BSB 'treasury' is exact. KJV/WEB/YLT 'treasure' now suggests a chest of gold, not a state finance ministry.
- How it drifted
KJV 'treasure' in 1611 could mean a public treasury; modern English mostly means a hoard of valuables.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Roman historian Curtius Rufus notes that 'the Persians call royal money gaza' (3.13.5). The Greek Old Testament uses it for royal treasuries, e.g. in Ezra and Esther. This is its only use in the New Testament.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
-
Acts 8:27 γάζης treasure
So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
Here: A Persian loanword for the royal treasury, both the stored wealth and the state finances. It sounds just like *Gaza*, the place named in the previous verse, so a Greek listener would hear a play on words: on the road to Gaza Philip meets the keeper of the *gaza*.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.