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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Widows

A woman whose husband died usually lost her income with him and depended on a son, relatives or charity. A widow who stayed faithful to her husband's memory and did not remarry was honored.

Jewish life and lawFamily, marriage and honor

First, in plain English

When her husband died, his wages died with him, and her son became her only safety net. In the ancient world, women could rarely earn enough to live on. A widow depended on her sons, on relatives with means, or on charity. Losing an only son could leave her with nothing. At the same time, a widow who did not remarry and gave her life to prayer was respected as faithful.

What it meant then

A woman ordinarily could not earn enough to live on, so a widow depended on her son in old age. For a widow's only son to die before her was thought a deep tragedy. Unless she had relatives with means, it left her relying on public charity, and the ESV Study Bible calls her situation desperate. Jews and Greco-Romans often admired widows who never remarried as devout and loyal. Judith, the famous widow of Jewish tradition, was said to have stayed a widow until she died at 105. Keener counts widows, with lepers, among the socially weak in Jesus' sermon at Nazareth, where Elijah is sent to a widow in Sidon (1 Kings 17). By custom the widow or the dead man's mother led the funeral procession, so a widow burying her son walked at its head. In the law the widow was the standard example of the oppressed, and judges were told to defend her (Exodus 22:22-24). Men controlled the courts, so she was easily exploited, and the unscrupulous could take her property by legal means. Levirate marriage, in which a man married his dead brother's widow (Deuteronomy 25:5-6), was meant to protect her. In Jerusalem, Jews from abroad who had settled there in old age left many widows without local family. Synagogues supported the widows of their own circle and helped their destitute widows. Since Augustus, quick remarriage for younger widows had been a Roman ideal, and a Jewish one too.

The bridge to today

An analogy: an elderly mother whose only grown child pays her rent, and who then loses that child. The grief comes with a question nobody says aloud: who will pay now?

What it changes in the reading

A widow following her only son's bier, as in Luke 7:12, is losing her future along with her child. The first church in Jerusalem took on the daily care of widows, as Acts 6:1 shows, and 1 Timothy 5:3-16 sets rules for which widows the church should support.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a loss a modern safety net would catch. The modern mother has pensions, welfare and courts that hear her. An ancient widow usually could not earn a living, men ran the courts, and her only cover was family, levirate marriage or synagogue charity.

Where scholars disagree

Three questions. First, Anna's age in Luke 2:37. Keener notes that if the eighty-four years were her widowhood, after seven years of marriage begun at the common age of fourteen, she would be 105, like Judith. The CSB Study Bible reads it the same way and calls the other reading a poor fit. The cultural backgrounds notes take eighty-four as her age, already exceptionally old then. Second, how helpless the widow was. The cultural backgrounds notes, the CSB Study Bible and Bailey treat the widow of Luke 18:1-8 as nearly powerless, with no bribe to offer and no man to speak for her. Levine argues that biblical widows, from Tamar and Ruth to Abigail and Judith, show strength and cunning against the stereotype of the poor, dependent woman. Third, who the widows on the list in 1 Timothy 5:9 were. Keener thinks they were a recognized group of widows serving the church, as in the second century, and adds, "Commentators disagree on this point." The ESV Study Bible calls an office unlikely, "since the stated issue is provision for those in need." Wright reads enrollment as a commitment to make the church one's primary family.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-2-21-40\/","n":"Luke 2:21-40, Two birds, Simeon and Anna","s":"Jesus is circumcised and named on the eighth day. At the temple his parents make the offering the law allowed the poor, and two old people waiting for God's comfort, Simeon and the widow Anna, speak about the child.","r":"Luke 2:21-40"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-7-11-17\/","n":"Luke 7:11-17, A widow's only son on the bier","s":"At the gate of Nain Jesus meets a funeral for a widow's only son. He touches the bier, raises the young man and gives him back to his mother, and the crowd says a great prophet has arisen.","r":"Luke 7:11-17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-18-1-8\/","n":"Luke 18:1-8, The widow and the judge","s":"Jesus tells of a judge who neither feared God nor respected people and a widow who kept coming to him for justice until he gave in. How much more, he says, will God see justice done for his chosen ones.","r":"Luke 18:1-8"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-20-27-40\/","n":"Luke 20:27-40, The Sadducees and the woman with seven husbands","s":"Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, ask whose wife a woman married to seven brothers will be. Jesus answers that the risen do not marry and are like the angels, and argues from the burning bush.","r":"Luke 20:27-40"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-20-45-21-4\/","n":"Luke 20:45-21:4, Long robes and a widow's two coins","s":"Jesus warns against teachers of the law who love long robes and the best seats and devour widows' houses. Then he watches a poor widow put two small coins into the temple treasury.","r":"Luke 20:45-21:4"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-19-16-30\/","n":"John 19:16-30, The cross, the notice in three languages, and his mother","s":"Jesus carries his own cross to Golgotha. Pilate's notice, King of the Jews, is written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek; soldiers cast lots for his seamless tunic; he gives his mother to the beloved disciple, takes the sour wine and says it is finished.","r":"John 19:16-30"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-6-1-7\/","n":"Acts 6:1-7, The Hellenists' widows and the Seven","s":"Greek-speaking believers complain that their widows are overlooked in the daily distribution of food. The Twelve have the community choose seven men, and lay hands on them.","r":"Acts 6:1-7"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-9-32-43\/","n":"Acts 9:32-43, Lydda and Joppa","s":"Peter heals a paralyzed man at Lydda and, at Joppa, raises Tabitha, a disciple known for her charity, while the widows she clothed stand weeping. He stays on with a tanner.","r":"Acts 9:32-43"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-7-25-40\/","n":"1 Corinthians 7:25-40, The present distress","s":"Because of the present distress and the shortness of the time, Paul advises the unmarried to stay as they are, though marrying is no sin, and tells a widow she is free to remarry, only in the Lord.","r":"1 Corinthians 7:25-40"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1timothy-5-1-16\/","n":"1 Timothy 5:1-16, Older men as fathers, and the widows' list","s":"Timothy is to treat older and younger believers as family; the church is to honor widows who are truly in need, families are to support their own, and only older widows of proven character are to be put on the list.","r":"1 Timothy 5:1-16"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/james-1-19-27\/","n":"James 1:19-27, Slow to anger, and the widows and orphans","s":"James tells his readers to be quick to listen and slow to speak and to anger, to do the word and not merely hear it, and names the religion God accepts: care for orphans and widows in their distress and a life kept unstained by the world.","r":"James 1:19-27"}

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 2:37, 7:12 and 7:13
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 2:37-38, 4:25-27, 7:11-12 and 7:13
ESV Study Bible, study note on Luke 7:12
CSB Study Bible, note on Luke 2:36-38
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 18:3, 20:28 and 20:47
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 18:1-5, 20:28 and 20:47
CSB Study Bible, note on Luke 18:2-3
Kenneth E. Bailey, Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes, Through Peasant Eyes, ch. 8, The Judge and the Widow
Amy-Jill Levine, Short Stories by Jesus, ch. 8, The Widow and the Judge
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 6:1
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Acts 6:1
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Timothy 5:3-16 and 5:14
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Timothy 5:3-16 and 5:14
ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Timothy 5:3-16
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comment on 1 Timothy 5:9-16

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