Wartość Królestwa Bożego w przypowieści o ukrytym skarbie (Mt 13,44)

Abstract

The chief purpose of Jesus Christ’s teaching was the propagation of Kingdom of God. He mainly did that by means of parables in order to win as large group of people as possible, especially those who were ordinary and uneducated, often from the dregs of Jewish society. Jesus presented various aspects of Kingdom of God, in particular ‒ its value. Among the parables that deal with this subject, we can find in St. Matthew’s Gospel one of the shortest parables ‒ about the hidden treasure. By means of linguistic method we discover many aspects of this parable. Its purpose is to make the audience aware that the Kingdom of God is not, in fact, distant nor impossible for them to achieve. Nevertheless, some measures are needed and one's own commitment, but not beyond human abilities (the founder of the treasure possesses just enough money to buy the land in which he found and hid again this treasure). However, the emphasis is put on presenting the great value of Kingdom of God (the treasure) for which a man is ready give all what he has got in order to take part in it. What is more, by means of these linguistically exegetic considerations, we come to the conclusion that this ability of renunciation does not only refer to material goods, but, above all, it refers to changing one's own life, denial of sin, in general to reformation. The most characteristic feature of this parable is also the fact that the value of the Kingdom is quite accidental (a chance discovery of the treasure), but when it is finally understood, it becomes the most important goal in the life of a human being. Thanks to other methods of interpretation of the biblical text, such as the narrative or diachronic ones, it is possible to present more thorough and comprehensive analysis that, in turn, enables us to look at this parable from a different perspective.