Scribes and a Widow

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, and other apostles wrote the Scriptures without any verse division or word divisions and in capital letters. It was common for them to write,

INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORDANDTHEWORDWASWITHGODAND

The people understood: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and.” Word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter divisions were introduced much later. Stephen Langton, a lecturer at the University of Paris, first introduced the chapter divisions in the Latin Bible of the New Testament in the thirteenth century. Chapter and verse divisions came another three centuries later, in 1551, when a Parisian printer, Robert Stephanus, published a Greek and Latin edition of the NT with verse and chapter divisions, which we still use today after it appeared in the 1560 Geneva Version of the English translation.  

Stephanus’s son commented that his father introduced these divisions while “on horseback” on a journey from Paris to Lyons. He might have taken the printed rough copy and worked on putting the chapter and verse divisions while he rested at inns. But because some of the verse or sentence divisions occur in unexpected places (even wrongly), some wry observers take the son’s words—“on horseback”— literally and assume some of these punctuations happened when Stephanus’s steed hit a pothole and his pen inadvertently slipped and made a marking!

Whatever the case, an unfortunate chapter division occurs in Luke 20 and 21. In 20:45–47, the Lord Jesus gives a cautionary note about the scribes. It parallels an event that happened and was recorded in 21:1–4. The linking word is “widow”:

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Pay attention to the scribes who wish to walk around in long robes (stolé) and love to be greeted in the markets, get preferential seats in the synagogues and feats, and pray lengthy prayers for a show, while they devour widows’ houses. They will receive a just judgment.’”

“Looking up, he saw many giving wealthy gifts to the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow giving two small silver coins to the treasury. He said, ‘Truly I say: this poor widow has given more than every one of them because they all gave gifts from their abundance, but she gave from her poverty—whatever she had for her sustenance, she gave that to the temple treasury’” (Luke 20:45—21:4).

The scribes’ religiosity was for a show. They were clothed in long robes called stolé. They loved being greeted in the marketplaces for their holiness and unique place in society. They wanted the best seats and preferential treatment when they went to the temple or feasts. But their hearts were full of insecurities. They devoured the widows’ houses to fill their pockets. In those days, wealthy people like the scribes loaned money to people to buy houses. Their houses were their collaterals. When they couldn’t repay the loans, they took the houses instead. These scribes, instead of showing mercy to widows as the law required, took their houses and made them homeless.

In contrast, the widow, with no recognition or appreciation and no religiosity to show forth, was willing to give away the two last copper coins she had for survival to the temple treasury, trusting God to provide for her or take her life. Either way, she had more faith than the scribes.

The Lord wanted the disciples to learn from the widow, not the scribes. The poor were and are more generous than the rich. We ought to be rich in our generosity and poor in hoarding wealth.