What Does Mark 12:42 Mean?
And a certain emptied widow came and threw two thin coins, which make a farthing.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.THE KEY
The Greek calls her coins λεπτά (lepta, “thin, small pieces”) before it gathers their value into one farthing.
THE MEANING
You see a poor widow arrive and cast two small coins into the treasury; together they amount to a farthing. The verse holds both measures in view: two separate pieces and their combined value.
THE ROOT
λεπτά
lepta
GROWS FROM
λεπτός
leptos
Thin, fine, small.
“two thin coins” in this verse is lepta. The Greek λεπτά (lepta, “thin or small pieces”) belongs to the word family of λεπτός (leptos, “thin, fine”). English names the coins by denomination; Greek also lets their smallness show through their name, before the verse totals them as a farthing.
ALSO GROWS
lepton: A small coin, one lepton.
λεπτόν
This is the singular form behind the two lepta, keeping each small piece distinct.
leptotēs: Thinness, fineness, or minuteness.
λεπτότης
This related form carries the same sense of something fine or slight, echoing the coins’ small scale.
ἔβαλεν
ebalen
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or cast.
“threw” in this verse is ebalen. The verb describes a concrete motion: she casts the coins in. The same root can describe casting something in or casting it out, so the action’s direction comes from its setting, not from a different kind of verb.
ALSO GROWS
emballō: To put or cast in.
ἐμβάλλω
This compound makes explicit the inward direction of the casting described here.
ekballō: To cast out or drive out.
ἐκβάλλω
The same casting root turns outward with this prefix, showing how the root retains the action while its direction changes.
THE PATTERN
What is given is measured against what the giver has, so a small amount can represent the whole available measure.
Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.For they all threw in out of their overflow, but she, out of her lack, threw in all that she had, even all her living.For if the leaning heart is there first, it is well received according to what one has, and not according to what one does not have.THE THREAD
And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.Luke uses βάλλω (ballō, “throw or cast”) for the rich men casting their gifts, the same Greek verb used for the widow’s action here. The shared verb links the two scenes; the difference comes into view through what each person casts in.
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