Comments on: Does Mite Make Right?

By: Leo Hartshorn

Leo Hartshorn — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:18:20 +0000

wjwarner, thanks so much for your response. I hope it will give readers an alternative, and I believe more contextual, reading of this biblical text. Leo

By: jrwarner

jrwarner — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:39:30 +0000

This is easily one of the more insightful things I've read in awhile. Thanks a lot for posting.

By: Leo Hartshorn

Leo Hartshorn — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:18:20 +0000

wjwarner, thanks so much for your response. I hope it will give readers an alternative, and I believe more contextual, reading of this biblical text. Leo

By: jrwarner

jrwarner — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:39:30 +0000

This is easily one of the more insightful things I've read in awhile. Thanks a lot for posting.

By: Leo Hartshorn

Leo Hartshorn — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:26:58 +0000

Richard Horsley, NT scholar and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion at the University of Masachusetts, says: “The poor widow who gives 'everything she had' to the Temple treasury has been domesticated into a paradigm of Christian piety and support of the church—she gave all that she had. Indeed in the dominant interpretation of Mark's Gospel, she has been a 'model of discipleship,' having given 'her whole living,' even as Jesus was about to give his life. The assumption of such interpretation of the episode, taken out of its narrative context, is that Jesus is commending the widows gift.” Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark's Gospel, p. 216.

By: paul munn

paul munn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:25:58 +0000

I'll just conclude by clarifying that I neither argued for a lesson on the generosity of the poor nor argued that we should give all to such a system. Those arguments may be “elitist” (whatever that means), but why use those straw men as an excuse to bury Jesus' challenge about giving all?

Again, the real challenge of this story is to those who give “out of their abundance.” I would think that would apply especially to the First World and most of the people who read this article. Your reading excuses us from that challenge, so I think it greatly diminishes Jesus message to us, the reason he put this widow before us.

By: Leo Hartshorn

Leo Hartshorn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:00:15 +0000

I could further argue that an interpretation that sees a lesson on generosity of the poor is an elitist or First World perspective (e.g., liberationist reading) and that a challenge to give all, particularly when it is to a system Jesus harshly critiqued, is weak, but we could probably go on presenting our cases ad infinitum, with neither one of us convinced by the other's arguments. So, I will let my arguments for this interpretation stand. Thanks for the conversation, Paul.

By: paul munn

paul munn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:59:46 +0000

Certainly Jesus' words can be (and have been) used to further take advantage of the poor financially. And this is wrong. But that does not make the generosity of the poor wrong, nor does it lessen the value of their act in God's eyes.

I think it's worth noting that Jesus does not say these words to the poor widow. He says them to his disciples, commending her as an example for them and us. Again, the point (as Jesus makes clear in the words I quoted above) is not that we must give to religious institutions, but that we are challenged to give all. I think most would agree that this fits well and is repeatedly reinforced in Jesus' other teachings and his own example.

The teaching and challenge is not to the widow or the poor, but to "the middle class and wealthy in the world." The challenge to give all, not just from our excess. And it seems to me that your interpretation strips the story of that powerful challenge of Jesus.

By: Leo Hartshorn

Leo Hartshorn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:40:01 +0000

Suggested readings for my interpretation of Mark's Story of the widow's offer: My friend Ched Myer's Binding the Strong Man: a political reading of Mark's story of Jesus (Orbis Press); Addison G. Wright, “The Widow's Mite: Praise or Lament? A Matter of Context” Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 1982 (44), pp.256ff.

By: Leo Hartshorn

Leo Hartshorn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:20:35 +0000

I guess the way the passage is interpreted depends upon the weight one gives to context, background, other teaching and actions of Jesus in how you might read the words comparing the scribes and pharisees to the widow. In the light of the weight of the context I choose to interpret those words different from the traditional perspective. If we take the traditional route today we should be commending poor widows who give up all their earnings and say they give more that wealthy religious leaders. But that seems a bad lesson in the least. For the poor to give all they have away may seem commendable to the middle-class and wealthy in the world, but I question whether it is a lesson the living Christ wants to perpetuate in our world of economic inequity.