In the final episode of Jesus’s public teaching, Mark contrasts scribes, in their “flowing robes” and seats of honor (12:38–39), and a “poor widow” of no honor (12:42). The ostentation of scribes and their temptation to use their prestige for self-advancement (“they devour widows’ houses” [12:40]) fall under Jesus’s judgment, just as false prophets have fallen under the prophets’ judgment (Isa. 10:2; Amos 2:1–16; Mic. 3:1–12). A widow, by contrast, de…