Mite

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Λεπτός (Strong'S #3016 — Adjective — lepton — lep-ton' )

the neuter of the adjective leptos, signifying, firstly, "peeled," then, "fine, thin, small, light," became used as a noun, denoting a small copper coin, often mentioned in the Mishna as proverbially the smallest Jewish coin. It was valued at 1/8th of the Roman as, and the 1/128th part of the denarius: its legal value was about one third of an English farthing; Mark 12:42 lit. reads "two lepta, which make a kodrantes (a quadrans);" in Luke 12:59 "the last lepton" corresponds in effect to Matthew 5:26 , "the uttermost kodrantes," "farthing;" elsewhere Luke 21:2; see Farthing.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) A minute arachnid, of the order Acarina, of which there are many species; as, the cheese mite, sugar mite, harvest mite, etc. See Acarina.

(2): (n.) A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.

(3): (n.) A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing. The name is also applied to a small coin used in Palestine in the time of Christ.

(4): (n.) Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

lepton . The seventh of an obolus , which was the sixth of a drachma or denarius , "penny" (Mark 12:42; Luke 12:59; Luke 21:2). Half of a quadrans or farthing. The smallest coin. The widow sowed her all; she might have kept back one of the two mites for herself (2 Corinthians 9:6). God accepted the widow's mites, but rejects the miser's "mite."

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Mite. A coin, current in Palestine, in the time of our Lord. Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4. It seems, in Palestine, to have been the smallest piece of money, (worth about one-fifth of a cent), being the half of the farthing, which was a coin of very low value. From St. Mark's explanation, "two mites, which make a farthing," Mark 12:42, it may, perhaps, be inferred that the farthing was the commoner coin.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

A small Roman coin, so small, and of so little value, that we are told two of them made a farthing: (Luke 21:2) —and yet the Lord Jesus declared, that this was a costly offering when thrown in by the poor widow into the treasury. Sweet thought to the truly charitable in Christ, teaching that it is not the largeness of the gift, but the largeness of the heart with which alms are given, that constitutes the value in the sight of God, and when given for his glory!

King James Dictionary

MITE, n. Heb. small.

1. A very small insect of the genus Acarus. 2. In Scripture, a small piece of money, the quarter of a denarius, or about seven English farthings. 3. Any thing proverbially very small a very little particle or quantity. 4. The twentieth part of a grain.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A small piece of money, two of which made a kodrantes, or the fourth part of the Roman as. The as was equal to three and one-tenth farthings sterling, or about one and one-half cents. The mite, therefore, would be equal to about two mills, Luke 12:59; 21:2 .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Mite. A coin of Palestine in the time of our Lord. Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4. It was the smallest piece of money and worth about one-fifth of a cent—two mites making a farthing. See Farthing.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Luke 12:5921:2Farthing

Holman Bible Dictionary

Coins

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

MITE. See Money, § 7.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

See MONEY .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

MITE. —See Money.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

is the rendering in the Auth. Vers. (Luke 12:59; Luke 21:2; Mark 12:42) of the Greek term λεπτόν (thin, like a scale), a minute coin (Alciphr. 1:9; Pollux, On. 9:92), of bronze or copper (see Smith's Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. AEs), two of which made a quadrans (Mark 12:42), and which was, therefore, the eighth part of the Roman as, i.e., equal originally to a little over one mill, but in the time of Christ about half a mill. At Athens it was reckoned as one seventh of the χαλκοῦς (Suidas, s.v.). From Mark's explanation, "two mites, which make a farthing" (λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστι κοδράντης, Mark 12:42), it may perhaps be inferred that the κοδράντης or " farthing" was the commoner coin, for it can scarcely be supposed to be there spoken of as a money of account, though this might be the case in another passage (Matthew 5:26). (See Farthing).

Cavedoni (Bibl. Num. 1:76) has supposed that Mark meant to say "one lepton was of the value of one quadrans," for had he intended to express that two of the small pieces of money were equal to a quadrans, then he must have writtenἄ ἐστι instead of ὅ ἐστι κοδράντης ; and the Vulg. has also translated quod est, but not quce sunt. This argument, however, is too minute to be of much force. Another argument adduced is that the words of our Lord in the parallel passages of Matthew (5:26) and Luke (Luke 12:59) prove that the quadrans is the same as the lepton. In the former passage the words are ἔσχατον κοδράντην , and in the latterἔσχατον λεπτόν. This argument, again, hardly merits an observation, for we might as well assume that because we say such a thing is not worth a penny, or not worth a farthing, therefore the penny and the farthing are the same coin. A third argument, deemed by Cavedoni to be conclusive, assumes that the quadrans only weighed 30 grains, and that if the quadrans equalled two lepta, there would be coins existing at the time of our Savior of the weight of 15.44 grains. This argument is sufficiently answered by the fact that there are coins of the ethnarch Archelaus and of the emperor Augustus struck by the procurators weighing so low as 18 to 15 grains, and by comparing them with others of the same period a result can be obtained proving the existence in Judaea of three denominations of coinage — the semis, the quadrans, and the lepton. There is no doubt that the lepton was rarely struck at the time of the evangelists. yet it must have been a common coin from the time of Alexander II to the accession of Antigontis (B.C. 69-B.C. 40), and its circulation must have continued long in use. The extreme vicissitudes of the period may only have allowed these small copper coins to be struck. They were formerly attributed to Alexander Jannseus, but are now given to Alexander II. They average in weight from 20 to 15 grains. (See Money).

It may be as well to notice that Schleusner (Lex. N.T. s.v. κοδράντης ), after Fischer, considers the quadrans of the N.T., of which the lepton was the half, not to have equalled the Roman quadrans, but to have been the fourth of the Jewish as. The Jewish as is made to correspond with the half of the half-ounce Roman as, and as, according to Jewish writers, the פרקטה or פרוטה was the eighth part of the assar, or Jewish as (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. s.v. אסיר ), and as the evangelists have understood this word פרוטה to be the lepton, it follows that the quadrans equalledδύο λεπτά . This theory, however, is quite out of the question, and a comparison of the coins of Judaea with those struck at Rome clearly proves that the quadrans in Judesa was the same as the quadrans in Rome. Moreover, as the Romans ordered that only Roman coins, weights, and measures should be used in all the provinces of the Roman empire (Dion. Cass. 52:20), it is certain that there can have been no Jewish as or Jewish quadrans, and that all the coins issued by the Jewish princes, and under the procurators, were struck upon a Roman standard (F.W. Madden, Hist. of Jewish Coinage and of Money in O.T. and N.T. pages 296-302),

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mı̄t ( λεπρόν , leptón ): The smallest copper or bronze coin current among the Jews. They were first struck by the Maccabean princes with Hebrew legends, and afterward by the Herods and the Roman procurators with Greek legends. The "widow's mite" mentioned in Mark 12:42 and Luke 21:2 was probably of the first kind, since those with Greek legends were regarded as unlawful in the temple service. According to Mark, the lepton was only half a kodrántēs (Latin quadrans ), which would indicate a value of about one-fourth of a cent or half an English farthing. See Money .