Job 34:19

34:19 who shows no partiality to princes,

and does not take note of ¹  the rich more than the poor,

because all of them are the work of his hands?

Luke 21:1-4

The Widow’s Offering

21:1 Jesus ²  looked up ³  and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. ⁴  21:2 He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ⁵  21:3 He ⁶  said, “I tell you the truth, ⁷  this poor widow has put in more than all of them. ⁸  21:4 For they all offered their gifts out of their wealth. ⁹  But she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on.” ¹⁰ 

Luke 21:2

21:2 He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ¹¹ 

Colossians 1:12

1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ¹²  in the saints’ ¹³  inheritance in the light.

[34:19]  ¹ tn The verb means “to give recognition; to take note of” and in this passage with לִפְנֵי (lifne, “before”) it means to show preferential treatment to the rich before the poor. The word for “rich” here is an unusual word, found parallel to “noble” (Isa 32:2). P. Joüon thinks it is a term of social distinction (Bib 18 [1937]: 207-8).

[21:1]  ² tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[21:1]  ³ tn Grk “looking up, he saw.” The participle ἀναβλέψας (anableya") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:1]  ⁴ tn On the term γαζοφυλάκιον (gazofulakion), often translated “treasury,” see BDAG 186 s.v., which states, “For Mk 12:41, 43; Lk 21:1 the mng. contribution box or receptacle is attractive. Acc. to Mishnah, Shekalim 6, 5 there were in the temple 13 such receptacles in the form of trumpets. But even in these passages the general sense of ‘treasury’ is prob., for the contributions would go [into] the treasury via the receptacles.” Based upon the extra-biblical evidence (see sn following), however, the translation opts to refer to the actual receptacles and not the treasury itself.

[21:2]  ⁵ sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.

[21:3]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[21:3]  ⁷ tn Grk “Truly, I say to you.”

[21:3]  ⁸ sn Has put in more than all of them. With God, giving is weighed evaluatively, not counted. The widow was praised because she gave sincerely and at some considerable cost to herself.

[21:4]  ⁹ tn Grk “out of what abounded to them.”

[21:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “put in her entire livelihood.”

[21:2]  ¹¹ sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.

[1:12]  ¹² tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

[1:12]  ¹³ tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”