How Many Leptons Are You Holding?
In the story of the widow's "mite," Jesus watches a widow drop her last two lepta into the donation box at the temple. He exclaims, "This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box!... She out of her poverty has put in everything... she had to live on" (Mark 13:43-44, ESV).
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| A Lepton from the First Century |
So how much is a lepton actually worth? We will deal with that later, and start by looking at the situation of the poor widow. Hearing this story, I have often wondered what happened to this widow, who gave everything she had. It brought to mind the widow who was asked by Elijah to bring him a morsel of bread: she said,
As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die" (1 Kings 17:12).
I wondered, where is the prophet that will keep this widow Jesus saw supplied with food until her period of famine is over?
Why do I bring this all up? Because it hit me in church this Sunday, when they passed the basket. It had been a rough month, and I had spent all that I had, including pocket money, and had only a single dollar bill in my wallet to keep me from feeling impoverished. So I felt shamed, comparing myself to the widow, and dropped my last dollar into the basket.
That said, my situation was nowhere near the situation of the above two poor widows. I had a refrigerator full of food, a tank full of gasoline, a mortgage paid up-to-date, and enough dogfood in the bag to last until I received the monthly distribution from my pension. In fact, I recalled, this was a non-business day for the banks, so my pension fund had no doubt sent the monthly distribution a day early. That dollar in my wallet said less about my poverty and more about my lack of trust in my God.
So now, if you're still with me, we can talk about what a lepton is worth. Our evangelist Mark thought it was important to his readers, so he tried to make it clear to his first-century readers in the Greek language of his Gospel. He wrote that the widow "put in two lepta, which make a kodrantes." So how much are those coins worth? Archaeologists have some input on this. In their searches for coins of the First Century, they have never found a lepton in Rome or in greater Italy. Likewise, they have not found a kodrantes in the near east. This settles who Mark is writing to: he addresses Romans or Italians who know instantly how much a kodrantes is worth.
As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die" (1 Kings 17:12).
I wondered, where is the prophet that will keep this widow Jesus saw supplied with food until her period of famine is over?
But during Jesus' corporate period in
history, there was a certified "widow's list" in Jerusalem, supported
mostly by Pharisees, which provided her a charitable donation (food or money)
each month. This giving was firmly rooted in Pharisaic principles, and they all
felt the pressure to give. (Jesus decried the motives of many of them, who were
boasting of their own charitable giving to enhance their social standing.) So
in this case, it is likely that the widow's food ran out before the monthly
food distribution was due.
Why do I bring this all up? Because it hit me in church this Sunday, when they passed the basket. It had been a rough month, and I had spent all that I had, including pocket money, and had only a single dollar bill in my wallet to keep me from feeling impoverished. So I felt shamed, comparing myself to the widow, and dropped my last dollar into the basket.
That said, my situation was nowhere near the situation of the above two poor widows. I had a refrigerator full of food, a tank full of gasoline, a mortgage paid up-to-date, and enough dogfood in the bag to last until I received the monthly distribution from my pension. In fact, I recalled, this was a non-business day for the banks, so my pension fund had no doubt sent the monthly distribution a day early. That dollar in my wallet said less about my poverty and more about my lack of trust in my God.
So now, if you're still with me, we can talk about what a lepton is worth. Our evangelist Mark thought it was important to his readers, so he tried to make it clear to his first-century readers in the Greek language of his Gospel. He wrote that the widow "put in two lepta, which make a kodrantes." So how much are those coins worth? Archaeologists have some input on this. In their searches for coins of the First Century, they have never found a lepton in Rome or in greater Italy. Likewise, they have not found a kodrantes in the near east. This settles who Mark is writing to: he addresses Romans or Italians who know instantly how much a kodrantes is worth.
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| A Kodrantes Coin of the First Century |
The kodrantes was valued at 1/64th of a denarius, and a denarius was the standard for a single day's wage for a laborer--or for a Roman soldier. By my calculations, you should have been able to buy a loaf of bread with a kodrantes, or with two lepta.
Fast forward to Benjamin Franklin as a young man. He got off the boat in Philadelphia and was hungry, so he looked for a bakery. He had three pennies in his pocket, so he asked for three penny's worth of bread, and received three large puffy rolls; more than he could eat in a single setting.
Franklin may have paid for his three bread rolls with coins like these, minted two years before the Constitution. If I were to buy a loaf of bread, the pennies of today would be next to worthless. But we have a new penny in the United States; It's called a dollar.
It's tough to find a currently minted Dollar Coin. These Sacajawea Native American dollars are current legal currency in the United States, but it will cost you THREE dollars to acquire one.
Postscript: If you have two U.S. dollars in your pocket, you're in the same financial situation as the widow with the two lepta.
The Dollar today is our new Penny.
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