Luke 15:7

λέγω ὑμῖν. I—who know (John 1:51).

χαρὰ … ἔσται … ἤ. ‘There shall be greater joy … than.’ ἢ sometimes follows a positive and not a comparative form, as in θέλω ἤ, 1 Corinthians 14:19, λυσιτελεῖ … ἤ, Luke 17:2, ἰσχύει οὗτος ἢ ἡμεῖς, Numbers 22:6, LXX[289], καλόν ἐστιν … ἤ, Matthew 18:8. This construction is frequent in the LXX[290], being an imitation of the Hebrew מִן after an adjective. See Luke 15:10; Matthew 18:13. St Luke’s report is the more tender and enthusiastic.

[289] LXX. Septuagint.
[290] LXX. Septuagint.

δικαίοις οἵτινες οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν μετανοίας. There is a shade of irony both in the words “just” and “repentance.” Neither word can be understood in its full and true sense; but only in the inadequate sense which the Pharisees attached to them. See Luke 5:32. The ‘Pharisees and scribes’ in an external sense were ‘just persons,’ for as a class their lives were regular, though we learn from Josephus and the Talmud that many individuals among them were guilty of flagrant sins. But that our Lord uses the description with a holy irony is clear from the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (see Luke 18:9). They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. They did need repentance (carebant), but did not want it (non egebant). It was a fixed notion of the Jews that God had “not appointed repentance to the just, and to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee” (Prayer of Manasses).