Discovery BoxMark 12:15-44
Context12:15 But he saw through their hypocrisy and said 1 to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius 2 and let me look at it.” 12:16 So 3 they brought one, and he said to them, “Whose image 4 is this, and whose inscription?” They replied, 5 “Caesar’s.” 12:17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 6 And they were utterly amazed at him.
12:18 Sadducees 7 (who say there is no resurrection) 8 also came to him and asked him, 9 12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man 10 must marry 11 the widow and father children 12 for his brother.’ 13 12:20 There were seven brothers. The first one married, 14 and when he died he had no children. 12:21 The second married her and died without any children, and likewise the third. 12:22 None of the seven had children. Finally, the woman died too. 12:23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, 15 whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” 16 12:24 Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you deceived 17 for this reason, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God? 12:25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels 18 in heaven. 12:26 Now as for the dead being raised, 19 have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, 20 how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the 21 God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 22 12:27 He is not the God of the dead but of the living. 23 You are badly mistaken!”
12:28 Now 24 one of the experts in the law 25 came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus 26 answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 12:29 Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 12:30 Love 27 the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 28 12:31 The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 29 There is no other commandment greater than these.” 12:32 The expert in the law said to him, “That is true, Teacher; you are right to say that he is one, and there is no one else besides him. 30 12:33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength 31 and to love your neighbor as yourself 32 is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 12:34 When Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Then no one dared any longer to question him.
12:35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he said, “How is it that the experts in the law 33 say that the Christ 34 is David’s son? 35 12:36 David himself, by the Holy Spirit, said,
‘The Lord said to my lord, 36
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ 37
12:37 If David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 38 And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
12:38 In his teaching Jesus 39 also said, “Watch out for the experts in the law. 40 They like walking 41 around in long robes and elaborate greetings 42 in the marketplaces, 12:39 and the best seats in the synagogues 43 and the places of honor at banquets. 12:40 They 44 devour widows’ property, 45 and as a show make long prayers. These men will receive a more severe punishment.”
12:41 Then 46 he 47 sat down opposite the offering box, 48 and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts. 12:42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, 49 worth less than a penny. 12:43 He called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you the truth, 50 this poor widow has put more into the offering box 51 than all the others. 52 12:44 For they all gave out of their wealth. 53 But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.” 54
[12:15] 1 tn Grk “Aware of their hypocrisy he said.”
[12:15] 2 tn Here the specific name of the coin was retained in the translation, because not all coins in circulation in Palestine at the time carried the image of Caesar. In other places δηνάριον (dhnarion) has been translated simply as “silver coin” with an explanatory note.
[12:16] 3 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate their response to Jesus’ request for a coin.
[12:16] 4 tn Or “whose likeness.”
[12:16] 5 tn Grk “they said to him.”
[12:17] 6 sn Jesus’ answer to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s was a both/and, not the questioners’ either/or. So he slipped out of their trap.
[12:18] 7 sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). They also did not believe in resurrection or in angels, an important detail in v. 25. See also Matt 3:7, 16:1-12, 22:23-34; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 4:1, 5:17, 23:6-8.
[12:18] 8 sn This remark is best regarded as a parenthetical note by the author.
[12:18] 9 tn Grk “and asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
[12:19] 10 tn Grk “his brother”; but this would be redundant in English with the same phrase “his brother” at the end of the verse, so most modern translations render this phrase “the man” (so NIV, NRSV).
[12:19] 11 tn The use of ἵνα (Jina) with imperatival force is unusual (BDF §470.1).
[12:19] 12 tn Grk “raise up seed” (an idiom for fathering children).
[12:19] 13 sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.
[12:20] 14 tn Grk “took a wife” (an idiom for marrying a woman).
[12:23] 15 tc The words “when they rise again” are missing from several important witnesses (א B C D L W Δ Ψ 33 579 892 2427 pc c r1 k syp co). They are included in A Θ Ë1,(13) Ï lat sys,h. The strong external pedigree of the shorter reading gives one pause. Nevertheless, the Alexandrian and other
[12:23] 16 tn Grk “For the seven had her as wife.”
[12:24] 17 tn Or “mistaken” (cf. BDAG 822 s.v. πλανάω 2.c.γ).
[12:25] 18 sn Angels do not die, nor do they eat according to Jewish tradition (1 En. 15:6; 51:4; Wis 5:5; 2 Bar. 51:10; 1QH 3.21-23).
[12:26] 19 tn Grk “Now as for the dead that they are raised.”
[12:26] 20 sn See Exod 3:6. Jesus used a common form of rabbinic citation here to refer to the passage in question.
[12:26] 21 tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.
[12:26] 22 sn A quotation from Exod 3:6.
[12:27] 23 sn He is not God of the dead but of the living. Jesus’ point was that if God could identify himself as God of the three old patriarchs, then they must still be alive when God spoke to Moses; and so they must be raised.
[12:28] 24 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
[12:28] 25 tn Or “One of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.
[12:28] 26 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[12:30] 27 tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).
[12:30] 28 sn A quotation from Deut 6:4-5 and Josh 22:5 (LXX). The fourfold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.
[12:31] 29 sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
[12:32] 30 sn A quotation from Deut 4:35.
[12:33] 31 sn A quotation from Deut 6:5.
[12:33] 32 sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
[12:35] 33 tn Or “that the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.
[12:35] 34 tn Or “the Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
[12:35] 35 sn It was a common belief in Judaism that Messiah would be David’s son in that he would come from the lineage of David. On this point the Pharisees agreed and were correct. But their understanding was nonetheless incomplete, for Messiah is also David’s Lord. With this statement Jesus was affirming that, as the Messiah, he is both God and man.
[12:36] 36 sn The Lord said to my Lord. With David being the speaker, this indicates his respect for his descendant (referred to as my Lord). Jesus was arguing, as the ancient exposition assumed, that the passage is about the Lord’s anointed. The passage looks at an enthronement of this figure and a declaration of honor for him as he takes his place at the side of God. In Jerusalem, the king’s palace was located to the right of the temple to indicate this kind of relationship. Jesus was pressing the language here to get his opponents to reflect on how great Messiah is.
[12:36] 37 sn A quotation from Ps 110:1.
[12:37] 38 tn Grk “David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ So how is he his son?” The conditional nuance, implicit in Greek, has been made explicit in the translation (cf. Matt 22:45).
[12:38] 39 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[12:38] 40 tn Or “for the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.
[12:38] 41 tn In Greek this is the only infinitive in vv. 38-39. It would be awkward in English to join an infinitive to the following noun clauses, so this has been translated as a gerund.
[12:38] 42 sn There is later Jewish material in the Talmud that spells out such greetings in detail. See H. Windisch, TDNT 1:498.
[12:39] 43 sn See the note on synagogue in 1:21.
[12:40] 44 tn Grk “who,” continuing the sentence begun in v. 38.
[12:40] 45 tn Grk “houses,” “households”; however, the term can have the force of “property” or “possessions” as well (O. Michel, TDNT 5:131; BDAG 695 s.v. οἶκια 1.a).
[12:41] 46 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
[12:41] 47 tc Most
[12:41] 48 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.
[12:42] 49 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.
[12:43] 50 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
[12:43] 51 tn See the note on the term “offering box” in v. 41.
[12:43] 52 sn Has put more into the offering box than all the others. With God, giving is weighed evaluatively, not counted. The widow was praised because she gave sincerely and at some considerable cost to herself.
[12:44] 53 tn Grk “out of what abounded to them.”
[12:44] 54 sn The contrast between this passage, 12:41-44, and what has come before in 11:27-12:40 is remarkable. The woman is set in stark contrast to the religious leaders. She was a poor widow, they were rich. She was uneducated in the law, they were well educated in the law. She was a woman, they were men. But whereas they evidenced no faith and actually stole money from God and men (cf. 11:17), she evidenced great faith and gave out of her extreme poverty everything she had.
