MARK 12:42 Parallel Verse View

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Text critical issues=small word differences Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=normal (All still tentative.)

Key: khaki:verbs, light-green:nominative/subject, orange:accusative/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).

UST Then a woman whose husband had died and who did not have much money arrived. She dropped into one of the offering boxes two small copper coins. Those two coins together were worth only the least valuable Roman coin.

BSB Then one poor widow came [and] put [in] two small copper coins, which amounted to a small fraction of a denarius.[fn]

12:42 Greek put in two lepta, which is a kodrantēs; a lepton was a Jewish coin of bronze or copper worth about 1/128 of a denarius.

AICNT And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which is a quadrans.[fn]

12:42, quadrans: Or “two lepta, which is a kodrantes.”

OEB but one poor widow came and put in two small coins, worth very little.

WEBBE A poor widow came and she cast in two small brass coins,[fn] which equal a quadrans coin.[fn]

12:42 literally, lepta (or widow’s mites). Lepta are very small brass coins worth half a quadrans each, which is a quarter of the copper assarion. Lepta are worth less than 1% of an agricultural worker’s daily wages.

12:42 A quadrans is a coin worth about 1/64 of a denarius. A denarius is about one day’s wages for an agricultural labourer.

WMBB (Same as above including footnotes)

NET And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, worth less than a penny.

LSV and having come, a poor widow put in two mites, which are a penny.

FBV Then a poor widow came along and put in just two small coins.[fn]

12:42 Literally, two lepta,, of little value.

TCNT Then a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.

T4T Then a poor widow came along and put in two small copper coins, which had a very small value.

LEB And one poor widow came and[fn] put in two small copper coins[fn] (that is, a penny).[fn]

12:42 *Here “and” is supplied because the previous participle (“came”) has been translated as a finite verb

12:42 This coin was the lepton, worth 1/128 of a denarius

12:42 This coin was the quadrans, the smallest Roman coin, worth 2 lepta

BBE And there came a poor widow, and she put in two little bits of money, which make a farthing.

Moff but a poor widow came up and put in two little coins amounting to a halfpenny.

Wymth But there came one poor widow and dropped in two farthings, equal in value to a halfpenny.

ASV And there came a poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing.

DRA And there came a certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing.

YLT and having come, a poor widow did put in two mites, which are a farthing.

Drby And a poor widow came and cast in two mites, which is a farthing.

RV And there came a poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing.

SLT And one poor widow, having come, cast in two small coins, which is a farthing.

Wbstr And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

KJB-1769 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

KJB-1611 And there came a certaine poore widow, and she threw in two [fn]mites, which make a farthing.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above apart from footnotes)

12:42 It is the seuenth part of one piece of that brasse money.

Bshps And there came a certayne poore widdowe, & she threwe in two mites, which make a farthyng.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above)

Gnva And there came a certaine poore widowe, and she threw in two mites, which make a quadrin.
(And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a quadrin. )

Cvdl And there came a poore wyddowe, and put in two mytes, which make a farthinge.
(And there came a poor widow, and put in two mites, which make a farthing.)

TNT And ther cam a certayne povre widowe and she threwe in two mytes which make a farthynge.
(And there came a certain poor widow and she threw in two mites which make a farthing. )

Wycl But whanne a pore widewe was comun, sche keste two mynutis, that is, a ferthing.
(But when a poor widow was come, she cast/threw two mynutis, that is, a farthing.)

Luth Und es kam eine arme Witwe und legte zwei Scherflein ein; die machen einen Heller.
(And it came a/one poor widow and laid two Scherflein one/in; the make a Heller.)

ClVg Cum venisset autem vidua una pauper, misit duo minuta, quod est quadrans,[fn]
(Since had_come however a_widow together poor, he_sent two minuta, that it_is quadrans, )

12.42 Vidua pauper. HIER. Hæc paupercula me et similes signat, qui mitto quod possum et desidero quod non possum vobis explanare. Non quantum, sed ex quanto desiderat Deus. Unusquisque quadrantem potest offerre. Hæc est torta panis in Levitico, quæ est voluntas prompta. Quadrans, quia ex tribus consistit, cogitatu, verbo et facto. Quadrans. Quadrantem vocant calculatores quartam partem cujusque rei, scilicet, loci, temporis, pecuniæ. Forsitan ergo hic quartam partem sicli, id est, quinque obolos significat.

12.42 Widow poor. HIER. This poor_thing me and similar signs, who/which I_send that I_can and desidero that not/no I_can to_you(pl) explanare. Not/No quantum, but from how_much desires God. Everyone a_quarter can to_offer. This it_is torta bread/food in/into/on Levitico, which it_is will/desire(n) prompta. Quadrans, because from tribe consists, thinksu, word and done. Quadrans. Quadrantem they_call calculatores fourth part each_one rei, namely, loci, time, money. Forsitan therefore this/here fourth part shekels, that it_is, five obolos means.

UGNT καὶ ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχὴ ἔβαλεν λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης.
(kai elthousa mia ⱪaʸra ptōⱪaʸ ebalen lepta duo, ho estin kodrantaʸs.)

SBL-GNT καὶ ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχὴ ἔβαλεν λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης.
(kai elthousa mia ⱪaʸra ptōⱪaʸ ebalen lepta duo, ho estin kodrantaʸs.)

RP-GNT Καὶ ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχὴ ἔβαλεν λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης.
(Kai elthousa mia ⱪaʸra ptōⱪaʸ ebalen lepta duo, ho estin kodrantaʸs.)

TC-GNT Καὶ ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχὴ ἔβαλε λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστι κοδράντης.
(Kai elthousa mia ⱪaʸra ptōⱪaʸ ebale lepta duo, ho esti kodrantaʸs. )

Key for above GNTs: yellow:punctuation differs, red:words differ (from our SR-GNT base).

SOTN SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 12:41–44: Jesus praised a poor widow who gave all that she had to God

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.

12:42a

Then one poor widow came

Then a poor widow arrived at that place.
Then a woman who was poor and whose husband had died came into that area,

Then: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as Then is often translated in English versions as “And,” as in the RSV. The BSB uses Then because the widow gave her two coins after the rich people in 12:41c gave large amounts of money. Some English versions begin 12:42 with “but,” and some versions have no conjunction here. Connect 12:41 and 12:42 in a natural way in your language.

poor widow: A widow is a woman whose husband has died. Widows were often very poor.

12:42b

and put in two small copper coins,

She put in two tiny copper coins,
and she dropped two very little coins into a money box as her offering to God.

put in: The context implies that the widow put the coins into one of the same collection boxes where the rich people had put their gifts. The BSB has not made this explicit. In some languages you may need to make explicit the place where the widow put the coins. See the second meaning line in the Display for 12:42b for a way to do this.

two small copper coins: The Greek word that the BSB translates as small copper coins refers to the smallest type of coin that people used at that time.The name of this copper coin was leptos. It would take 128 of these coins to pay a laborer to work for one day. It is not clear whether this was a Roman coin or a Jewish coin. You may have a word for a very small coin that you could use here, such as “penny” in English.

12:42c

which amounted to a small fraction of a denarius.

each of which were worth only part of a penny.
The coins were not valuable at all.

which amounted to a small fraction of a denarius: The value of one of the coins that the widow gave was so small that together two of these coins were only worth a small fraction of a denarius.

Here is another way to translate this:

each worth not even a small fraction of a denarius

a small fraction of a denarius: The Greek word that the BSB translates as a small fraction of a denarius is more literally “a quadrans,” as in the NASB. A “quadrans” was a Roman coin that was worth about one-eighth of a denarius. It would take 64 of these “quadrans” coins to equal one day’s wage for a laborer. Two of the small copper coins that the widow gave were worth one “quadrans.” Use a term in your language that refers to a small amount of money. For example:

a fraction of a penny (NIV)

only a few pennies (NIRV)

UTN uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: writing-participants

ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχὴ ἔβαλεν

˓having˒_come one widow (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχή ἔβαλεν λεπτά δύο ὅ ἐστίν κοδράντης)

Here Mark introduces one poor widow as a new participant in the story. If your language has its own way of introducing new participants, you could use it here in your translation. Alternate translation: [a woman arrived. She was a widow, and she was poor. She put in]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / go

ἐλθοῦσα

˓having˒_come

In a context such as this, your language might say “gone” instead of come. Alternate translation: [having gone]

Note 3 topic: translate-bmoney

λεπτὰ δύο

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχή ἔβαλεν λεπτά δύο ὅ ἐστίν κοδράντης)

The word lepta is the plural of “lepton.” A lepton was a small bronze or copper coin equivalent to a few minutes’ wages. It was the least valuable coin that people used in this culture. You could try to express this amount in terms of current monetary values, but that might cause your Bible translation to become outdated and inaccurate, since those values can change over time. So instead you might use the name of the least valuable coin in your culture, or a general expression. Alternate translation: [two pennies] or [two small coins of little value]

Note 4 topic: translate-bmoney

ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης

which (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχή ἔβαλεν λεπτά δύο ὅ ἐστίν κοδράντης)

A quadrans was one of the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in this place and time. It was equivalent to about an eighth of an hour’s wage. You could try to express this amount in terms of current monetary values, but that might cause your Bible translation to become outdated and inaccurate, since those values can change over time. So instead you might use the name of one of the least valuable coins in your culture, or a general expression. Alternate translation: [which is a nickel] or [which is not even an hour’s wage]

Parallel MARK 12:42

Section 12:41–44: Jesus praised a poor widow who gave all that she had to God

12:42a

12:42b

12:42c