One definition of a genizah or “treasury” is the following:
Genizah: storage in
synagogue or Jewish cemetery for old sacred texts which cannot be disposed of as
is the cause with profane literature. (Susan Gillingham, Psalms through the
Centuries: A Reception History Commentary on Psalms 73–151 [Wiley Blackwell
Bible Commentaries 3; Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Blackwell, 2022), 463)
A fuller definition is found
in The Jewish Encyclopedia:
GENIZAH
(lit. “hiding” or “hiding-place”): The storeroom or depository in a synagogue;
a cemetery in which worn-out and heretical or disgraced Hebrew books or papers
are placed. A genizah serves therefore the twofold purpose of preserving good
things from harm and bad things from harming. Shab. 115a directs that holy
writings in other than the Hebrew and Greek languages require “genizah,” that
is, preservation. In Pes. 118b “bet genizah” = “treasury.” In Pes. 56a Hezekiah
hides (“ganaz”) a medical work; in Shab. 115a R. Gamaliel orders that the
Targum to Job should be hidden (“yigganez”) under the “nidbak” (layer of
stones). In Shab. 30b the sages sought to hide (“lignoz”) as heretical the
books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. The same thing occurs in Shab. 13b in
regard to the Book of Ezekiel, and in Pes. 62 in regard to the Book of
Genealogies.
In medieval times such Hebrew scraps and papers as were
relegated to the genizah were known as “shemot” (names), because their sanctity
and consequent claim to preservation were held to depend on their containing
the “names” of God. In addition to papers, articles connected with the ritual,
such as ẓiẓit, lulabim, and sprigs of myrtle, are similarly stored (comp. Shab.
63; Yoma 16, as to the stones of the altar). (The Jewish Encyclopedia: A
Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the
Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 12 vols. [New
York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-1906], 5:612)
A well-known “genizah” is
that of the Cairo Genizah, which
is a storage room found in
the 1860s in the Ben-Ezra synagoguge, which was built in A.D. 1015 in Fostat or
Old Cairo, a
storage room found in the 1860s in the Ben-Ezra
synagogue, which was built in a.d. 1015 in Fostat or Old Cairo. A genizah (from the Aramaic word גְּנַז, gĕnaz,
“to hide”) was a room used to store manuscripts until they could be properly
disposed of so that they would not be misused or profaned since they contained
the name of God. Apparently the genizah was forgotten and it was walled over
and undisturbed until the 1860s. This hidden storeroom contained a great
variety of materials; it has been estimated that about 200,000 fragments were
deposited there (see fig. 6.10). The vast majority come from about a.d. 1000 to
1400, though some date much earlier (sixth to eighth centuries). Several dozen
manuscripts are palimpsests, about fifteen percent of which are biblical texts
in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. The genizah also housed materials from the
Midrash, Mishnah, Talmud, liturgical texts, lists, letters and much more. Some
of the most important items discovered were:
• An almost
complete copy of the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach in Hebrew (previous to this
discovery the work was known only from Greek texts).
• The Zadokite Document (a work closely
related to the Manual of Discipline
[1QS] from Qumran and is now generally known as the Damascus Document [CD = Cairo Genizah Document]).
• The most
important documents for the study of textual criticism are the biblical
manuscripts, some of which date back to the sixth century a.d. These show how
more and more vowel pointings were gradually added in the Tiberian pointing
system. At present the earliest completely pointed manuscript is the Cairo
Manuscript of the Prophets from a.d. 895. (Paul D. Wegner, A
Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, &
Results [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2006], 155-57)
This is interesting in light
of the Brass Plates being said to have been placed in “the treasury of Laban”
(1 Nephi 4:20). For more on the use of a treasury for sacred documents, see
John A. Tvedtnes, The
Book of Mormon and Other Hidden Books: “Out Of Darkness Unto Light” (Provo,
Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 155-66.
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