G. The widow’s gift (21:1–4)
G. The widow’s gift (21:1–4)
1–2. The treasury was apparently the name given to a section of the court of the women where there were thirteen trumpet-shaped collection boxes, each with an inscription indicating the use to which its contents would be put. Here Jesus saw the rich making their gifts. Luke does not say so, but he implies that some at least were giving generously. In contrast is the offering of a certain poor ( penichra) widow. Luke’s word is unusual (here only in the New Testament) and may emphasize her penurious state. A widow had few ways of earning money in first-century Judea and normally found life very difficult. A poor widow is thus almost proverbial for the poorest of people. This one made a gift of only two copper coins (lepta). The word denotes a small Jewish coin (incidentally the only Jewish coin mentioned in the New Testament). Its monetary value was small. Commentators often say that worshippers were not allowed to make gifts of less than two lepta, so that this was the minimum offering. But the relevant Talmudic passage does not say that a gift of one lepton is forbidden. It simply says that one should not put one lepton into the charity box unless it is under proper supervision (Baba Bathra 10b).
3–4. Jesus shows that the monetary value of a gift is not everything. There is a sense in which the widow made the biggest gift of all (‘what matters is not the amount that one gives but the amount that one keeps for oneself ’, Marshall). Jesus’ words, if taken literally, mean not ‘more than any one of them’ but ‘more than all of them together’. If the measure be what is left over after giving, she certainly outdistanced them all, for they gave out of their abundance, and thus had much left over. She gave all she had. This is real sacrifice.