Results for “Widow”
Encyclopedia article
Widow
A woman whose husband has died. The Old Testament law designated widows, along with the fatherless and the stranger, as people to be protected. In the New Testament, widows appear both as recipients of the early church's relief and care and as examples of faith.
Articles 53, showing 20
- Widow of ZarephathPeople
The widow of Zarephath is a woman from Zarephath in the region of Sidon who appears in 1 Kings 17. During a drought she fed the prophet Elijah, and her son was restored to life after he died. Scripture does not record her name.
- The Widow's Two MitesBible
The widow's two mites refers to the incident in which Jesus, watching at the treasury of the Temple in Jerusalem, saw a poor widow put in two mites, all that she had, and declared that she had put in more than anyone else. It is recorded in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
- The Widow's Jar of OilBible
The widow's jar of oil is a miracle recorded in 2 Kings 4:1-7, in which the prophet Elisha helped a widow who was about to lose her two sons to slavery because of a debt. The single jar of oil left in her house filled every empty vessel she had borrowed.
- Raising of the Widow's Son at NainBible
A miracle in which Jesus met a funeral procession near the gate of the town of Nain in Galilee, raised a widow's only son from the dead, and restored him to his mother. It is recorded only in Luke 7:11-17.
- Orphans and WidowsBible
"Orphans and widows" is a biblical word pair for people whose livelihood and legal protection were weakened by the loss of a husband or father. Often grouped with the sojourner, they represent the socially vulnerable for whom God shows special care.
- Parable of the Unjust JudgeBible
A parable of Jesus recorded in Luke 18:1–8. Even an unjust judge grants the plea of a persistent widow, and God will all the more avenge his elect. The parable teaches that believers ought always to pray and not lose heart.
- LeptonBible
The lepton was the smallest denomination of coin used in Judea in the New Testament period. In the Bible it is best known from the "two mites" that a poor widow put into the Temple treasury.
- Lamentations 1Bible
Lamentations 1 is a lament that portrays fallen Jerusalem as a widow left alone and mourns her devastation. Its 22 verses follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet, and the chapter confesses that the suffering came because of the people's sin.
- 2 Kings 4Bible
2 Kings 4 records five miracles performed by Elisha in succession: the widow's oil, the birth of the Shunammite woman's son and his restoration to life, the neutralizing of a poisoned stew, and the feeding of a hundred men with twenty loaves of barley.
- Book of JudithBible
The Book of Judith is a sixteen-chapter book that tells how the widow Judith saved Israel by killing the enemy general Holofernes. The Catholic and Orthodox churches include it in the Old Testament, while Protestants classify it among the Apocrypha, outside the canon.
- Levirate MarriageBible
Levirate marriage was an ancient Israelite institution in which, when a husband died without a son, his brother married the widow so that the firstborn son would carry on the line of the deceased. It is prescribed in Deuteronomy 25.
- Luke 21Bible
Luke 21 is the chapter of the Gospel of Luke that contains the account of the poor widow's offering of two mites and Jesus' eschatological discourse (an extended teaching on the end times), which opens with a prediction of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
- ZarephathBible
Zarephath was a Phoenician town on the Mediterranean coast between Tyre and Sidon. The prophet Elijah stayed there during a drought and was provided for by a widow. In the New Testament the name appears as "Sarepta."
- NainBible
Nain was a small village in southern Galilee. It is mentioned only once in the Bible, in Luke 7:11, as the setting of the account in which Jesus raised a widow's only son.
- OrphanBible
In the Bible, an orphan is a child who has lost his or her father and has no one to provide protection. Together with the widow and the stranger, the orphan is repeatedly named as one of the vulnerable whom God cares for in a special way and whom the community is obligated to protect.
- OnanPeople
Onan was the second son of Judah, the son of Jacob. He refused the duty of raising up offspring for his deceased elder brother Er through his brother's widow, Tamar, and was slain by the LORD (Genesis 38).
- Shelah (Son of Judah)People
Shelah was the third son of Judah, the son of Jacob, by the daughter of Shua the Canaanite. After the deaths of his brothers Er and Onan, he was next in line to marry their widow, Tamar. Judah's failure to give him to Tamar sets in motion the narrative of Genesis 38.
- 1 Timothy 5:9Bible Verses
First Timothy 5:9 sets out the conditions for enrolling a widow on the list of those the church would care for: she must be at least sixty years old and must have been "the wife of one man." Interpreters differ over what kind of institution the early church's care for widows was and over the meaning of "the wife of one man."
- Luke 18:1Bible Verses
Luke 18:1 is the verse in which Luke states the purpose of the parable of the unjust judge and the widow before Jesus tells it. Because of its exhortation that "men ought always to pray, and not to faint," it is frequently cited in teaching on persistent prayer.