Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Mark 12:42

a certain poor widow One of the helpless class which He had just described as devouredby the extortion of the Scribes and Pharisees. In three words St Mark presents to us a picture of her desolation: she was alone, she was a widow, and she was poor.

two mites "Sche sente tweye mynutis, pat is, a ferping, "Wyclif. Mite is a contraction of minute, from Lat. minutum, though Fr. mite. Thus Becon says, "let us with the poor widow of the gospel at the least give two minutes, and God will surely approve and accept our good will." The Lepton, here mentioned, was the very smallest copper coin. Two made one Roman quadrans, which was ¼th of an as. The asin Cicero's time = nearly a halfpenny, and the quadrans= one-eighth of a penny. This poor widow gave two, though, as Bengel remarks, she might have kept back one. She gave her "all." "If we have regard to the origin of the expression, it argues more of presumption than humility to call any gift, as many do, however liberal, unless it were our all, a -mite," while the frequent use of the term to excuse some shabby offering which costs the donor nothing, is a remarkable example of the serene unconsciousness with which persons will sometimes pass the most bitter sarcasms upon themselves." Davies, Bible English, p. 251.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Mark 12:42

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