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OET (OET-LV) And having_called_to the apprentices/followers of_him, he_said to_them:
Truly, I_am_saying to_you_all that the this the poor widow, throw more than all of_the ones throwing into the treasury.
OET (OET-RV) Yeshua called his followers and told them, “Honestly, that poor widow gave more than all the others.
In this section, a poor widow gave everything she had as an offering to God. Jesus praised her for doing this. He contrasted what many rich people were doing with what she did. This contrast is an example of the difference between those who truly worship God and those who only pretend to worship him.
It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
The Widow’s Offering (ESV, GNT)
A poor widow gave a generous gift to/for the temple
There is a parallel passage for this section in Luke 21:1–4.
Jesus called His disciples to Him and said,
Then Jesus told his disciples to come close to him. He said to them,
Jesus saw this and called his followers to gather around him. When they did, he said,
Jesus called His disciples to Him and said: There is implied information here. Jesus saw what the poor widow gave to God. In some languages it may be helpful to make this explicit. For example:
When Jesus saw this, he called his disciples to him and said
Use a natural way in your language to connect this verse with 12:42.
called: The word called does not indicate that Jesus shouted to his disciples. They were probably right there with him. He asked them to come near to him so that he could tell them something.
disciples: The Greek word that the BSB translates as disciples means “learners” who are in a relationship with a teacher. The learners commit themselves to their teacher in order to learn from him and live according to his teaching and example. In the New Testament disciples often lived with their teacher and followed him wherever he went.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
students/learners
apprentices
followers
See how you translated this term at 2:15b. See also disciple in the Glossary for more information.
“Truly I tell you,
“I tell you the truth, (NIV)
“I assure you that
“I tell you this:
Truly I tell you: Jesus often used the phrase that the BSB translates as Truly I tell you to begin a statement that he wanted to emphasize. When he began a statement with these words, he was asking people to listen closely.
Here are some other ways to show this emphasis:
Listen to this!
I tell you this:
I assure you
See how you translated this phrase in 3:28a. In addition to the translation options given there, you may be able to use an emphatic word within Jesus’ statement. For example:
This widow has truly/really put in more than all the others.
this poor widow has put more than all the others into the treasury: Here Jesus used a figurative way to praise the widow and her gift. She did not literally give more than the others, but what she gave had more value to God than all the other gifts. Jesus explained the reason for that in 12:44. She was more generous than the others, because she gave all that she had. This made her gift more valuable than all the other gifts, even though the actual amount was much less than the other people gave.
If people in your language do not understand the meaning correctly, you may want to express the meaning literally. For example:
What this poor widow gave has more value to God than all the money that the others have given.
more than all the others: This phrase implies that the widow gave more than all of the others put together.Most English versions translate this Greek word literally as “all.” Several commentators also suggest that “all the others put together” could have been Jesus’ meaning. However, another possible interpretation would be that the widow gave more than any of the other people. Turner & Bock (vol 2, page 15) supports this interpretation.
the others: The phrase the others refers to the other people who put money into the treasury.
this poor widow has put more than all the others into the treasury.
this poor widow has put more money into the offering boxes than all the other people did.
what this poor widow gave to God is worth more than all the money that the other people gave.
the money that this poor widow put into the boxes has more value to God than the money that all of the other people put in combined.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / yousingular
ὑμῖν
˱to˲_you_all
Because Jesus is speaking to his disciples, the word you here is singular.
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχὴ, πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν
¬the widow this ¬the (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί προσκαλεσάμενος τούς μαθητάς αὐτοῦ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Ἀμήν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχή πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν τῶν βαλλόντων εἰς τό γαζοφυλάκιον)
Even though it is not literally true that the widow has put more money into the offering box than all the rich people, this is still not figurative language. As Jesus explains in the next verse, he means that she has put in proportionately more than all the others, relative to her means, and that is literally true. But Jesus makes the seemingly untrue statement first, to get his disciples to reflect on how it can be true. So it would be appropriate to translate Jesus’ words directly and not express them as if they were figurative.
πάντων & τῶν βαλλόντων
all & ˱of˲_the_‹ones› casting
Alternate translation: [everyone else who put money]
Note 3 topic: translate-unknown
τὸ γαζοφυλάκιον
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί προσκαλεσάμενος τούς μαθητάς αὐτοῦ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Ἀμήν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχή πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν τῶν βαλλόντων εἰς τό γαζοφυλάκιον)
See how you translated treasury in [12:41](../12/41.md). Alternate translation: [the temple money box] or [the chest for the gifts for the temple]
OET (OET-LV) And having_called_to the apprentices/followers of_him, he_said to_them:
Truly, I_am_saying to_you_all that the this the poor widow, throw more than all of_the ones throwing into the treasury.
OET (OET-RV) Yeshua called his followers and told them, “Honestly, that poor widow gave more than all the others.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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