Luke 7:36-50

The Anointing of Jesus. Lk. only; perhaps based on the incident (though not to be identified with it) recorded in Mark 14:3 *, Matthew 26:6 *, and introduced here in illustration of Jesus-' friend ship with sinners (Luke 7:34). Simon the leper is here Simon the Pharisee; the abandoned woman enters uninvited and no one is astonished. Her tears forestall her intention, she even makes the sacrifice of letting down her hair in public. Note mg. in Luke 7:37. There is affection here, dignified reverence in Mark 14; toucheth (Luke 7:39) is really clingeth to (cf. John 20:17).

The parable (Luke 7:41) hardly fits the scene (cf. Luke 10:29 *). Its point is that great forgiveness produces great love. The truth demanded (Luke 7:47 a) is that great love produces great forgiveness. Luke 7:47 b is thus irrelevant; it belongs to the parable side (so Montefiore). To make the whole of Luke 7:47 consistent with the parable we must assume that the woman had previously (through Jesus-' preaching) repented, and received the assurance of forgiveness, hence her love and gratitude. Jesus now confirms her assurance and publicly pronounces her forgiveness. Read For which reason, because she has shown much love, I say unto thee that her sins have been forgiven. The woman's affection is the gratitude shown for the conviction of forgiveness (so Plummer, Adeney, J. Weiss, Loisy). In Luke 7:50 Jesus puts the emphasis on the woman's faith. She had heard that He was the friend of sinners (and of His new way of dealing with them), she believed that He could and would help her, and the miracle of her conversion was largely effected before she entered the house. It was completed by the power of His personality.

Luke 7:38. The verb wet used here and Luke 7:44 is frequent in the papyri for the irrigation of Egypt by the Nile inundation. Elsewhere in NT it means rain.