This beautiful story is PERHAPS best
explained as originally a Jewish parable which Jesus took over in his teaching
and which was later transformed into an incident in his life. A number of quite
close parallels are known from both pagan and Jewish sources, most notably the
story in Leviticus Rabba of a priest who scorned a woman's offering of a
handful of flour. Overnight he received in a vision the rebuke: “Despise her
not; it is as though she offered her life.”
The present setting of the story may in
part be due simply to the catchword widow (vv. 40 and 42), but a more apt
position for it could hardly be imagined. Not only does it form a fitting contrast
to the previous section (in contrast to the bad scribes, who "eat"
widows' property, we have now the tale of the good widow and her sacrifice), but with its teaching that the true gift is to give 'everything
we have' (v. 44) it sums up what has gone before in the Gospel and makes a
superb transition to the story of how Jesus ‘gave everything’ for men.
v. 41. He sat down opposite the treasury and
observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in
large sums.
The details are even more imprecise than
usual, especially as there is some uncertainty about what is meant by the
treasury.
Elsewhere the Greek word is used for the
rooms or cells in which the temple valuables or deposits were stored (e.g. 1
Macc. 14:49, 2 Macc. 3:6, etc.). Here it is generally taken to refer to some kind
of receptacle for offerings.
According to the Mishnah there were
thirteen such receptacles (known from their shape as 'trumpets') placed round
the walls of the court of women. Other suggestions, however, have been made, particularly with a view to explaining how Jesus could have known what the rich
people and the poor widow gave. But even such suggestions do not explain how he
knew what the widow gave was her whole livelihood (v. 44).
It is probably simplest to suppose that a
story related by Jesus (on the basis of a current Jewish parable) has been
transformed into a story about him. In that case St Mark himself may have had no
very clear idea what treasury was intended.
v. 42. A poor widow also came and put in two
small coins worth a few cents.
Two small (copper) coins:
The Greek word (lepton) means ‘a tiny thing’
(cf. English 'mite') and was used for the smallest coin in circulation.
Worth a few cents:
Or ‘which make a penny’ (literally a
quadrans). . St Mark transliterates the Latin word into Greek. The coin is
often said to have circulated only in the West, and the inclusion of the
explanation that the two lepta make a quadrans is held to point to Roman readers,
who could not be expected to be familiar with the coinage of Palestine.
However, there is evidence that the name was naturalized in Palestine through
the Greek, and Cadbury shows that it is unsafe to deduce from this verse any
conclusions about the Gospel's place of origin.
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