Luke 15:7

I say unto you Iwho know (John 1:51).

in heaven See Luke 15:10; Matthew 18:13.

just persons, which need no repentance See Luke 5:32. The -Pharisees and scribes" in an external sense were -just persons," for as a classtheir 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 wantit (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).