Luke 7:41

Luke 7:41. A certain money lender had two debtors . The former represents our Lord, the two debtors the woman and Simon respectively. But in the parable the lender is in the background, the emphasis rests upon the comparison between the respective amounts: The one owed five hundred pence (denaries) , and the other fifty. For the value, see Matthew 18:28. The debt is sin, or strictly speaking, here the sense of sin. Probably, but not certainly, the actual relative sinfulness of the woman and Simon might have been thus represented. That the sense of sin is meant appears from the application, since gratitude for forgiveness of sin must be based upon that, not upon actual guilt which we cannot measure. Hence the truth that many great sinners do not feel their guilt is here left out of view. Some suppose that the respective debts represent, in the one case the casting out of seven demons, in the other a healing from leprosy, thus identifying the persons with Mary Magdalene and Simon the leper. Others substitute the honor of a visit from our Lord for the healing from leprosy. Both crow out of the assumption that the woman was Mary Magdalene, and neither affords a satisfactory interpretation. The ratio here is very different from that in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35), since the things compared are very different.