Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 20:45-21:4, Long robes and a widow's two coins
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.
Luke 20:45-21:4, in every translation this tool compares.
In front of the whole crowd, Jesus warns his followers about legal experts who parade in fine robes, crave public honor and the best places at gatherings, swallow up the property of widows and pray at length for appearance. They face the harsher judgment. Watching the offerings at the temple, he then contrasts the rich, who give from their surplus, with a poor widow who drops in two tiny coins and so gives everything she has.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/widows\/","n":"Widows","s":"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.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
Teachers were greeted with titles of honor in the crowded marketplaces (Keener). The robes are described differently: Keener and Garland, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, give distinctive white linen robes like those of priests and temple officials, and Strauss long tasseled robes marking the teacher's office. Widows often had debts and no influential advocate, so the unscrupulous could take their property, often by legal means (the cultural backgrounds notes); Keener suggests either heavy tithes or legal rulings without the mercy the law required, and Strauss the exploiting of estates the teachers managed as appointed guardians, or the abuse of widows' hospitality. A later tradition places thirteen chests for gifts to the treasury in the Court of Women, where women could come (Keener; the ESV Study Bible cites the Mishnah), and Garland notes that a gift as small as hers could only go to the freewill offering. Each of her coins was worth 1/128 of a denarius (the cultural backgrounds notes). Readings of her gift differ: Keener thinks the temple's officials would probably waste it, so Jesus also laments the system, while the ESV and CSB Study Bibles simply hold up her giving.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 20:45-21:4, 20:45-46, 20:47 and 21:1-4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 20:47, 21:1 and 21:2
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Luke 21:1-4
- CSB Study Bible, note on Luke 21:1-4
- David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 12:38, 12:41 and 12:42
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 20:46, 20:47, 21:1, 21:2 and 21:3
