Mark 4:19

4:19 but worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it produces nothing.

Mark 12:44

12:44 For they all gave out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.”


tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

tn Grk “the deceitfulness of riches.” Cf. BDAG 99 s.v. ἀπάτη 1, “the seduction which comes from wealth.”

sn That is, their concern for spiritual things is crowded out by material things.

tn Grk “out of what abounded to them.”

sn The contrast between this passage, 12:41-44, and what has come before in 11:27-12:40 is remarkable. The woman is set in stark contrast to the religious leaders. She was a poor widow, they were rich. She was uneducated in the law, they were well educated in the law. She was a woman, they were men. But whereas they evidenced no faith and actually stole money from God and men (cf. 11:17), she evidenced great faith and gave out of her extreme poverty everything she had.