Lange Commentary - Mark 12:41 - 12:44

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Lange Commentary - Mark 12:41 - 12:44


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

8. The Widow’s Mite, and our Lord’s view of the Piety and Good Works of the Jews. Mar_12:41-44

(Parallel: Luk_21:1-4)

41     And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44For all they did cast in of their abundance: but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See the parallel passages in Luke.—This apparently trifling history is of inestimable importance. It shows how the Lord, in perfect quiet of spirit, can still seat Himself in the temple, after He had ended His great day’s work in it, namely, after the silence of the Sanhedrim regarding His person, in which its rejection of Him lay,—after He had opened His mouth, and pronounced the great denunciations, and with these had, as theocratic King, whom the authorities of Israel rejected, taken His departure from the temple. In this He seems like a deposed king, who seats Himself, as he leaves, on the lowest step of his palace, not to weep on account of his fall, but to bless the poor child of a palace-domestic; or like one excommunicated, who is able, under the new burden of its fanatical ban, to judge with the greatest mildness, and freedom from prejudice, that religious society which cast him out. It is the divine manifestation of His freedom from all fanatic disposition and exasperation, with which He had fought through the great decisive epochs, made His denunciatory speech, and presented His great judgment-picture. In this sunlike clearness and purity, the old Catholic Christians did not in general leave the heathen temples, and but few of the old Protestants the temples of Roman Catholicism. This eternally figurative import is gained by our passage in consequence of its position. In itself, however, it shows us, in a most instructive narrative and act of our Lord, how His eye—and how, consequently, God’s view, and the Spirit’s—rests upon the treasury of the Lord, and marks the act and manner in which we give. Luke has recorded this circumstance likewise; but Mark presents it more picturesquely and more fully. The Lord’s seating Himself opposite to the treasury, the statement of the worth of the mite, the summoning of the disciples to Himself, and the sublime elevation of tone characterizing the decision,—in all this we see plainly how important Mark deemed the history. It stands there to show that the Lord has His eye upon the offerings in His temple, and that, amid all the chaff of seeming religion, He finds out the noble grain of spirituality and truth.

Mar_12:41. The treasury, ãáæïöõëÜêéïí —The sacrifice-fund is meant, which was distinguished from the proper temple-treasury, but yet, as belonging to it, was denoted by its name (Josephus, Ant. 19:6, 1). The Rabbis tell us that this treasury consisted of thirteen brazen chests ( ùׁåֹôָּøåֹú , “trumpets;” certainly not because the chests themselves were trumpet-shaped, but because the mouths through which the money was cast into the chests were wide at the top and narrow below). They stood in the outer court of the women. This offering-fund received also the voluntary gifts for the temple. Lightfoot, Hor.: “Nine chests were for the appointed temple-tribute, and for the sacrifice-tribute (that is, money-gifts, instead of the sacrifices); four chests for freewill-offerings, for wood, incense, temple-decoration, and burnt-offerings.” Before the Passover, freewill-offerings, in addition to the temple-tax, were generally presented. No one, we may easily suppose, entered the temple without putting something in. This is also the custom in the synagogue. The Church has taken an example from this habit.—Many that were rich cast in much.—They were not content to give only copper, which was the general offering, but presented silver. Or, perhaps, gave in copper, because a large gift in that metal was of greater bulk, and made more noise.

Mar_12:42. A certain poor widow.—She is singled out from the whole crowd of donors.—Two mites, ëåðôüí —The very smallest copper coin. Two made one Roman quadrans, which was equal to the fourth of an as: ten or sixteen ases were equal to a denarius, which is equivalent to about five groschen, four pfennigs Prussian money (6½ pence, nearly). An as in Cicero’s time was worth nearly four pfennigs (or nearly a halfpenny); hence the quadrans would be one pfennig (one-tenth of a penny,) and the mite half a pfennig. She gave two; and Bengel remarks, she could have kept one. “The rabbinic injunction, ‘Non ponat homo ëåðôüí in cistam eleemosynarum,’ is of no force here, because alms were not under consideration.” Meyer. Nevertheless, the inference drawn by Schöttgen is by no means foreign; only it is probable this rabbinic habit became, at a later period, the matter of rabbinic legislation.

Mar_12:43. More in than all they.—That is, in proportion to her means, as the Lord Himself immediately explains.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See Exegetical Note.

2. Jesus, to a certain degree as stranger, or observer of a religion now become foreign to Him, presents us with an ever-enduring example of the way in which one should, in the spirit of Christianity, look upon and judge all religious systems and associations. Such was the conduct of Paul at Athens, Acts 17. He found out the altar of the Unknown God.

3. The last object on which our Lord’s eyes rested in the temple.—The widow’s mite. It is not said that the gifts of the others were worthless. Many possessed, no doubt, no worth (Mat_6:1); others, a greater or a lesser. The greatest value, however, attached itself to the widow’s mite.

4. And how much interest may that mite, in the course of the entire history of the Church, have accrued?

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See Doctrinal Reflections.—The Lord’s sublime peace of soul in leaving the temple, where He had met no recognition.—The humble resting-place of the Lord at the temple-gate, after He had been refused the throne.—The backward glance of mildness which the Banished cast upon the Church system by which He had been banished.—Christ’s example teaches the heaven-wide distinction between godly zeal and ungodly fanaticism.—The Lord’s eyes are upon all offerings.—The mite of the widow as a gift: 1. The smallest gift; 2. the largest gift.—The freewill-offering of the heart, the real inner existence and life of the temple.—Christ observes with emotion the dying embers of the expiring fire of God in the temple.—The distinction between the treasury of the Lord in the law-church and Gospel-church (there, chiefly intended for symbolic temple necessities; here, Chiefly for the poor. See the lame beggar at the Beautiful gate of the temple, whom Peter heals).—The ancient estimable institution of Church alms.—Christo in pauperibus.

Starke:—Canstein:—The Lord Jesus pays attention, without doubt, to men’s alms; hence they should be willing to give, and take earnest heed how they give.—Bibl. Wirt.:—Christians must willingly deposit in God’s treasury, and contribute to the support of God’s service—churches, schools, the poor, 2Co_9:7.—J. Hall:—Where distribution is made to the poor, there Jesus pays attention, and takes pleasure therein.—O God, I have only two mites, a body and a soul.—Canstein:—Christ remarks a compassionate and believing heart, when alms are being given.—Nova. Bibl. Tub.:—God’s opinion regarding good works is infinitely different from that of men. Those who give the most, give often the least; and those who give the least, the most.—Servants must not exclude themselves from almsgiving.

Braune:—He says, Verily I say unto you, because He wishes to make His judgment abide, as though it were a dogma and fundamental principle in His divine kingdom.—How she must have fixed her trust upon God, and not have cared for the morrow; since she did to-day, what to-day brought with it, Mal_1:8; Mar_12:14.

Schleiermacher:—If there had only been many such to give as this poor widow, who was ready to contribute all that she could claim as her own, to the support of God’s service, then might a purer zeal have developed itself, which had been far from degenerating into that tempest which destroyed the temple, and had contributed rather to prevent the downfall. This extreme tendency to externals on the part of the many was the first germ of destruction to that people.

Footnotes:

[Mar_12:41.—‘ Ï ’ Éçóïῦò wanting in B., L., Ä ., Tischendorf, Meyer; bracketed by Lachmann.]

[Mar_12:43.—Lachmann, after A., B., D., Origen, reads ἔâáëåí ôῶí âáëëüíôùí .]