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Text critical issues=small word differences Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=normal (All still tentative.)
OET (OET-RV) “I can assure you all,” he said, “that this poor widow threw more in than all the others,![]()
OET-LV And he_said:
Truly I_am_saying to_you_all that the this the poor widow, throw more than all,![]()
SR-GNT Καὶ εἶπεν, “Ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχὴ, πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν· ‡
(Kai eipen, “Alaʸthōs legō humin hoti haʸ ⱪaʸra hautaʸ haʸ ptōⱪaʸ, pleion pantōn ebalen;)
Key: khaki:verbs, light-green:nominative/subject, orange:accusative/object, pink:genitive/possessor, cyan:dative/indirect object.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).
ULT And he said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all.
UST And he said to his disciples, “The truth is that this poor widow has put more into the offering box than all of these rich people.
BSB “Truly I tell you,” He said, “this poor widow has put in more than all [the others].
MSB “Truly I tell you,” He said, “this poor widow has put in more than all [the others].
BLB And He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has cast in more than all of them.
AICNT And he said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them;
OEB ‘I tell you’, he said ‘that this poor widow has put in more than all the others;
WEBBE He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them,
WMBB (Same as above)
NET He said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
LSV and He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow cast in more than all;
FBV “I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the rest together.
TCNT So he said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
T4T 3-4 He said to his disciples, “The truth is that these rich people have a lot of money, but they gave only a small part of it. But this woman, who is very poor, has put in all the money that she had to pay for the things she needs! So God considers that [HYP] this poor widow has put more money into the box than all the others.”
LEB And he said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow put in more than all of them.
BBE And he said, Truly I say to you, This poor widow has given more than all of them:
Moff He said, "I tell you plainly, this poor widow has put in more than them all;
Wymth and He said, "In truth I tell you that this widow, so poor, has thrown in more than any of them.
ASV And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than they all:
DRA And he said: Verily I say to you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
YLT and he said, 'Truly I say to you, that this poor widow did cast in more than all;
Drby And he said, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow has cast in more than all;
RV And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than they all:
SLT And he said, Truly I say to you, that this poor widow has cast in more than all:
Wbstr And he said, Of a truth I say to you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all.
KJB-1769 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
(And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath/has cast in more than they all: )
KJB-1611 And he said, Of a truth, I say vnto you, that this poore widow hath cast in more then they all.
(And he said, Of a truth, I say unto you, that this poor widow hath/has cast in more then they all.)
Bshps And he sayde, Of a trueth I say vnto you, that this poore wydowe hath put in more then they all.
(And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath/has put in more then they all.)
Gnva And he sayd, Of a trueth I say vnto you, that this poore widowe hath cast in more then they all.
(And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath/has cast in more then they all. )
Cvdl and he sayde: Verely I saye vnto you: This poore wedowe hath put in more the they all:
(and he said: Verily/Truly I say unto you: This poor wedowe hath/has put in more the they all:)
TNT And he sayde: of a trueth I saye vnto you this poore wyddowe hath put in moare then they all.
(And he said: of a truth I say unto you this poor widow hath/has put in more then they all. )
Wycl And he seide, Treuli Y seie to you, that this pore widewe keste more than alle men.
(And he said, Truly I say to you, that this poor widow cast/threw more than all men.)
Luth Und er sprach: Wahrlich, ich sage euch, diese arme Witwe hat mehr denn sie alle eingelegt.
(And he spoke: Truly, I said you, this/these poor widow has more because/than they/she/them all inserted.)
ClVg Et dixit: Vere dico vobis, quia vidua hæc pauper plus quam omnes misit.
(And he/she_said: Vere I_mean/say to_you(pl), because a_widow these_things poor plus how everyone he_sent. )
UGNT καὶ εἶπεν, ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν, ὅτι ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχὴ, πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν;
(kai eipen, alaʸthōs legō humin, hoti haʸ ⱪaʸra hautaʸ haʸ ptōⱪaʸ, pleion pantōn ebalen;)
SBL-GNT καὶ εἶπεν· Ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα ⸂ἡ πτωχὴ αὕτη⸃ πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν·
(kai eipen; Alaʸthōs legō humin hoti haʸ ⱪaʸra ⸂haʸ ptōⱪaʸ hautaʸ⸃ pleion pantōn ebalen;)
RP-GNT καὶ εἶπεν, Ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα ἡ πτωχὴ αὕτη πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν·
(kai eipen, Alaʸthōs legō humin hoti haʸ ⱪaʸra haʸ ptōⱪaʸ hautaʸ pleion pantōn ebalen;)
TC-GNT καὶ εἶπεν, Ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα [fn]ἡ πτωχὴ αὕτη πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν·
(kai eipen, Alaʸthōs legō humin hoti haʸ ⱪaʸra haʸ ptōⱪaʸ hautaʸ pleion pantōn ebalen; )
21:3 η πτωχη αυτη ¦ αυτη η πτωχη NA TH WH
Key for above GNTs: yellow:punctuation differs, red:words differ (from our SR-GNT base).
21:1-4 Jesus set the sacrificial offering of the poor widow in contrast to the greed and hypocrisy of the rich people, including the teachers of religious law (20:45-47).
In this section, a poor widow gave all the money that she had as an offering to God. Jesus praised her for doing that. He contrasted her gift with the gifts that the rich people gave. They gave greater amounts of money, but the widow gave God all the money that she had.
Jesus praised the widow on the same day that he criticized the scribes in the preceding section. In 20:47 Jesus said that the scribes “devour widow’s houses.” Most of the scribes were rich people. There is a strong contrast between the scribes and the widow. The scribes served God in order to impress other people, but the widow served him sincerely.
It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it. Examples of other headings for this section are:
A poor widow gave a generous gift to/for the temple
Jesus compared the gifts given to God by the rich to the gift given by a poor widow
The widow’s gift/offering
There is a parallel passage for this section in Mark 12:41–44.
“Truly I tell you,” He said,
He said, “I solemnly/truly assure you(plur) that
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Listen(plur) and understand!
He said, “Listen(plur) and I will tell you what is true!
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. It indicates that the statement was important and totally reliable. It also indicates that people should listen carefully to it.
The word you is plural here. Jesus was about to tell people what he wanted them to learn from the widow’s offering. His statement in 21:3–4 was surprising to most people. He taught them that God valued the small gift of the poor widow more than the large gifts of the rich people.
Some other ways to translate Truly I tell you are:
Truly I tell you
I can guarantee this truth (GW)
I solemnly assure you
You may think that this woman has given less than the others. But the truth is that…
He said: Jesus probably spoke to his disciples here. In some languages it may be necessary to make that explicit. For example:
he said to his disciples
The BSB places the words He said after “Truly I tell you.” In Greek, these words occur at the beginning of 21:3. Place the words He said where it is natural in your language.
“this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
this poor widow has given more than all the others have given.
This poor widow actually put/dropped in more than all the rich people together put/dropped in.
The money that this poor widow gave has more value to God than all the money that the others gave,
this poor widow has put in more than all the others: Here Jesus used a figurative way to praise the widow and the gift that she had given. She did not literally give more money than the others, but what she gave had more value to God than all the other gifts. Jesus explained the reason for this in 21:4.
In some languages people may not understand this figurative use correctly. If that is true in your language, you may translate the meaning directly. For example:
What this poor widow gave has more value to God than all the money that the others gave.
more than all the others: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as more than all the others is literally “more than all.” This phrase has two possible meanings:
She gave more than the combined gifts of all the others. (Her gift had more value to God than all of those other gifts combined.)
She gave more than any other individual person gave. (Her gift had more value to God than any of the other gifts.)
Since this comparison is figurative, either meaning is acceptable. However, option (a) is more emphatic. Some ways to translate it are:
this poor widow has put in more than all of the others together
this poor widow has put in very much, the others have only put in a little
the gift that the poor widow has put in surpasses/exceeds what the others put in
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
εἶπεν
˱he˲_said
Jesus is still speaking to his disciples, as in [20:45](../20/45.md). If it would be helpful to your readers, you could state that explicitly. Alternate translation: [he said to his disciples]
ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί εἶπεν Ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχή πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν)
Jesus says this to emphasize the importance of what he is about to say. Alternate translation: [I can assure you]
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 εἶπεν Ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχή πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν)
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 interpret them as if they were figurative. For example, it would be a figurative interpretation to say, “God considers what this poor widow has given to be more valuable than the gifts of all the others”
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
πάντων
all
In context, all means specifically all of the rich people who were putting large monetary gifts in the collection boxes. Alternate translation: [all of those rich people]