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Bible chapter guide
Mark 12
In the temple courts Jesus tells the parable of the tenants, answers questions about taxes to Caesar, the resurrection and the greatest commandment, warns against the scribes, and praises a poor widow who puts two small coins into the treasury.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
What happens in this chapter
Jesus tells the parable of the tenants who kill the owner's son, and the leaders know it is aimed at them. Pharisees and Herodians ask about tax to Caesar, Sadducees about the resurrection, and a scribe about the first commandment; Mark alone has this scribe agree warmly, and Jesus tell him he is 'not far from God's Kingdom'. Jesus then asks how the Christ can be David's son when David calls him Lord, and warns against scribes who like long robes and the best seats but devour widows' houses. Sitting opposite the treasury, he watches the rich give large sums and a poor widow put in two small coins, and says she has given more than all of them.
What the lab shows, and where to look
In the Holy Week lab this chapter is Tuesday. 'In the temple courts' opens in the Court of Women by the offering chests, where a poor widow gives her two coins; the placing of the chests follows the Mishnah and later reconstructions, and the lab marks it as plausible. The Treasury spot in the Temple Mount scene shows the same court close up, with notes on the thirteen trumpet-shaped chests. The debates have no scene of their own; the stop's text names them. In the evening the lab moves to 'On the Mount of Olives' for Mark 13.
- In the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The Treasury · The Temple Mount
- In the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives: On the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in Jerusalem
Questions people ask
How much were the widow's two coins worth?
Mark's Greek says two lepta, the smallest coins in use, and he explains for his readers that together they made a quadrans (12:42), a Roman coin worth a quarter of an as. That is one sixty-fourth of a denarius, and a denarius was a day's wage for a labourer (Matthew 20:2). Jesus' point is that it was 'all that she had, even all her living' (12:44).
Where was the temple treasury?
Mark says Jesus sat opposite the treasury and watched people put money in (12:41). The Mishnah, written down about AD 200, tells of thirteen trumpet-shaped offering chests in the temple (Shekalim 6:5), but does not say which court they stood in. Josephus mentions treasury chambers by the inner courts, and placing the chests in the Court of Women, where both men and women could come, follows modern reconstructions; the Gospels do not say which court.
Who were the Sadducees?
A party strong among the priestly families who ran the temple. Mark says they deny the resurrection (12:18), and Acts 23:8 and Josephus agree; Josephus adds that they held to the written law and rejected the traditions the Pharisees kept. Their question about a woman married in turn to seven brothers was meant to make the resurrection look absurd.
See it in the Labs
- Holy Week in JerusalemIn the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemIn the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives: On the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- The Temple MountThe Treasury · The Temple MountOpen
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Plausible
The Mishnah tells of thirteen trumpet-shaped offering chests in the temple. Placing them in the Court of Women follows later tradition and modern reconstructions.